Pritzker Prize-winning architect I.M. Pei, who designed the Louvre’s iconic crystal pyramid and Washington’s National Gallery of Art, has died at the age of 102.
Some of Pei’s other projects included the Musee d’Art Moderne in Luxembourg (2006), the 72-story Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong (1989), the John. F. Kennedy Library in Boston (1979) and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland (1995).
Among the numerous honours he received included the American Institute of Architects’ Gold Medal in 1979; the Grande Medaille d’Or from the Academie d’Architecture de France in 1982 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honour in the U.S., from President George H.W. Bush in 1992.
Ieoh Ming Pei was born in the city of Guangzhou, China on April 26, 1917, and came to the U.S. to study architecture at the age of 17, receiving a bachelor’s degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1940 and a master’s from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design in 1946.
Although Pei retired in 1990, he continued to work on a few select commissions well into his later years.
Pei was married to Eileen Loo, the granddaughter of a former Chinese ambassador to the U.S, with the couple having three sons -- T’ing Chung, Chien Chung and Li Chung, and one daughter, Liane.
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