I M Pei Architect award, Royal Gold Medal, US design office, NYC architectural studio
I M Pei Architect Studio Information
Pei Cobb Freed & Partners – Contemporary New York City Architects Practice, NY, USA
26 June 2024
I. M. Pei: Life Is Architecture, M+ Exhibition, Hong Kong, China
photo courtesy of M+ / architects office
I. M. Pei: Life Is Architecture
May 17, 2019
Architect Ieoh Ming Pei Dies
I.M. Pei Dies aged 102
Ieoh Ming Pei, FAIA, RIBA was born in China in 1917.
The Chinese American architect was born in Guangzhou and raised in Hong Kong and Shanghai, China.
He was best known as architect of The Louvre’s crystal pyramid in Paris, the Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong, the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha and the East Building of Washington’s National Gallery of Art.
The New York Times reports his son Chien Chung Pei said on Thursday that his father had died overnight.
I M Pei won the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1983.
Louvre Pyramid Paris building design by I M Pei Architect:
photo © Steven Powell, 2010
He came to the U.S. to study architecture at age 17 to study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, MA, USA
At Harvard, he studied with Walter Gropius, a master of modern architecture, and lead architect at esteemed US architectural practice TAC.
Apr 26, 2017
I.M. Pei News
I. M. Pei turns 100
The renowned Chinese-American architect celebrates turning 100 years old on April 26.
Various critics have reviewed his life and work.
Born a banker’s son in Shanghai, I. M. Pei Architect arrived at MIT in 1935 as an engineering student and later attended the Harvard Graduate School of Design in Massachusetts, USA.
Instead of joining an architecture firm after graduation from Harvard, he worked for William Zeckendorf, a tough New York real estate developer.
picture from architects office
Ieoh Ming Pei established I M Pei & Associates in 1958.
Some of his best buildings include the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar, the East Wing of the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., the bold Louvre Pyramid and the skyscraper for the Bank of China in Hong Kong.
US architecture critic Paul Goldberger notes that some of the best architects have lived a long life, with the major Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer living to 104.
Website: Architect I. M. Pei is 100
5 Jan 2016
Aide Charged in Assault on I. M. Pei
A home health aide to I. M. Pei, the renowned 98-year-old architect, has been charged with assaulting him inside his home in New York, the authorities said, reports the New York Times.
I. M. Pei told the police that the aide, Eter Nikolaishvili, 28, grabbed his right forearm and forcefully twisted it on December 13th 2015. His arm was bruised and bleeding after the attack.
The police investigated for two weeks before arresting Ms. Nikolaishvili on December 29th 2015. She was arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court on a charge of felony assault and was released without bail.
I M Pei Architect Award News
Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies (FAPE) To Honor Architect I.M. Pei with Fourth Annual Leonore and Walter Annenberg Award for Diplomacy through the Arts, Doha, Qatar – 14 May 2012
Award Presentation on May 15, 2012 in Washington, D.C.
Remarks by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
Award Presentation by FAPE Chairman Jo Carole Lauder
picture © Laurie Lambrecht
Washington, D.C. – The Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies (FAPE) is pleased to announce that it will honor architect I M Pei Architect with the fourth annual Leonore and Walter Annenberg Award for Diplomacy through the Arts, which will be presented at a dinner at the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Reception Rooms on May 15, 2012. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will host FAPE’s members at the event, and FAPE Chairman Jo Carole Lauder, will present the award to Mr. Pei.
The Leonore and Walter Annenberg Award for Diplomacy through the Arts was established in 2008 to honor FAPE’s founder, Leonore Annenberg, and her husband, Walter. It recognizes American individuals who have demonstrated a commitment to the arts and who exhibit long-term excellence and innovation in the exchange of creativity and ideas that represent the rich and diverse culture of the United States.
“We are thrilled to present the 2012 Leonore and Walter Annenberg Award for Diplomacy through the Arts to I.M. Pei, one of the greatest living architects,” said Jo Carole Lauder, FAPE’s Chairman. “His innovation and boldness in the field of architecture for the past fifty years is a profound inspiration and an example of how design can make an impact on a global scale.”
I.M. Pei has been a leading figure in architecture since his emigration from China to the United States in 1935. Known for his progressive use of natural elements, open spaces and simple geometric patterns, Pei has designed some of the world’s most recognizable architecture, including the glass-and-steel pyramid for the Louvre in Paris (1993) and the East Building of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. (1978).
Past recipients of the Annenberg Award include Agnes Gund, President Emerita of The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and Chairman of MoMA’s International Council, Mayor of New York City Michael R. Bloomberg, and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Stephen G. Breyer.
Related Public Panel Discussion Presented by the National Gallery of Art in coordination with FAPE
Architecture and Art: Creating Community
David Adjaye, Principal Architect, Adjaye Associates; Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio, Principal Architects, Diller Scofidio + Renfro; Tom Finkelpearl, Executive Director, Queens Museum of Art; Sarah Lewis, Art historian, author and curator, and moderator, Robert Storr, Dean, Yale School of Art
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., May 15, 2012, 1:00pm
In the spirit of the Annenberg Award’s mission, FAPE will present Architecture and Art: Creating Community, a panel discussion at the National Gallery of Art on Tuesday, May 15 at 1:00pm. The theme of this year’s panel is how architecture and art bring people together in public spaces.
The discussion will be with David Adjaye, Principal Architect, Adjaye Associates; Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio, Principal Architects, Diller Scofidio + Renfro; Tom Finkelpearl, Executive Director, Queens Museum of Art; Sarah Lewis, Art historian, author and curator and moderator, Robert Storr, Dean, Yale School of Art.
I.M. Pei Award News information from FAPE
10 Feb 2010
Royal Gold Medal for architecture 2010
I. M. Pei receives the Royal Gold Medal for architecture 2010
The 92 year old Chinese-born American architect I. M. Pei will tomorrow (11 February) receive one of the world’s most prestigious prizes for architecture, the Royal Gold Medal, at a glittering ceremony at the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) in London. I. M. Pei will be presented with the medal by RIBA President, Ruth Reed, in the presence of his family and 200 guests. I. M. Pei is best known for buildings including the pyramids at the Louvre in Paris and the East Wing of the National Gallery Washington DC., USA.
Given in recognition of a lifetime’s work, the Royal Gold Medal is approved personally by Her Majesty the Queen and is given to a person or group of people who have had a significant influence ‘either directly or indirectly on the advancement of architecture’. Previous winners include Sir Edwin Lutyens, Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Oscar Neiemeyer, Norman Foster and Richard Rogers.
At the ceremony the RIBA will also present I. M. Pei with a specially commissioned digital film of his ‘building that wasn’t built’ – the Hyperboloid – a tower he designed in 1954 for Manhattan, the plans for which inspired organic structures around the world. The film is produced by Crystal CG International.
I. M. Pei said of the honour,
‘It is a great honour to receive the Royal Gold Medal from the Royal Institute of British Architects. I am humbled indeed to read the names of those who have preceded me as recipients.’
photo : Courtesy of the Museum of Islamic Art
RIBA President Ruth Reed said,
‘The Royal Gold Medal has been called, often erroneously, a lifetime achievement award. Seldom has it been so true as it is in the case of I. M. Pei. At 92 he is that rarity, an officially retired architect, though there is still work in the pipeline to be delivered, work that will crown the extraordinary achievements of six decades in which he has reinvented the housing, gallery and commercial building types. He is truly an inspiration for all architects.’
Ieoh Ming Pei (always known as I. M.) was born in China in 1917. He travelled to the United States in 1935 to study architecture, and never returned to live in his home country. He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and received a Masters degree from Harvard Graduate School of Design, where he studied under Gropius and Breuer, coming under the influence of the International Style which was to inspire his work for almost 70 years. His first commission was for the noted planner-developer William Zeckendorf: the Miesian Mile High Center in Denver. He set up his own practice in 1955.
His best known buildings are probably the National Center for Atmospheric Research Boulder, Colorado (1961-67), the East Wing of the National Gallery Washington DC (1968-78), the John F Kennedy Library, Boston (1965-79), the Bank of China, Hong Kong (1982-89), the Grand Louvre expansion and renovation (1983-93) and the Miho Museum in Shiga, Japan (1991-97). In the UK he has built a private garden pavilion in Wiltshire. In recent years he has completed major museum projects in Luxembourg, China and Qatar.
I. M. Pei was nominated for the 2010 Royal Gold Medal by UK-based architect David Adjaye. His citation concludes with a personal tribute: ‘When I began my studies in architecture, I. M. Pei was already a giant in the canon of greats. His work seemed effortlessly capable of creating extraordinary clarity out of complex and conflicting demands. His is an agile ability, working with Heads of State, Kings and Queens, “hard nosed” developers and non profit institutions, in each case creating revealing, extraordinary works of precision with quality and detail.
‘I remember as a young student first visiting the Louvre in Paris and marvelling at its extraordinary ability to unify and modernize what was a much-loved but disparate institution and behold its magnificent, gravity defying, glass pyramid. He became a role model for me as a young architect.’
Pyramide du Louvre, Paris, France
Design: Pei Cobb Freed & Partners
The Louvre Pyramid
I. M. Pei has been honoured by America, France, Germany, Japan and the UK where he is an Honorary Academician of the Royal Academy of Arts (1993). He has been awarded the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Medal for Architecture (1976); the American Institute of Architects – the Gold Medal (1979); the American Academy of Arts & Letters – Gold Medal for Architecture (1979); La Grande Médaille d’Or of l’Académie d’Architecture, France (1981), the Pritzker Architecture Prize (1983); the Praemium Imperiale for lifetime achievement in architecture, Japan (1989); Officier de La Légion d’Honneur, France (1993) and the Thomas Jefferson Medal for distinguished achievement in the arts, humanities, or social sciences (2001).
At the Royal Gold Medal ceremony the RIBA will also award 10 International Fellowships to non-UK architects who have made an outstanding contribution to architecture and 12 RIBA Honorary Fellowships to reward the particular contributions people have made to architecture in its broadest sense.
As winner of the Royal Gold Medal, I. M Pei will generously donate a drawing of the Louvre pyramid to the RIBA collections.
RIBA Gold Medal
Architect I M Pei was the RIBA Gold Medal 2010 Winner.
I. M. Pei film
Exclusive short film on I. M. Pei Architect, shown in his presence
10 Feb 2010, Jarvis Hall, RIBA, 66 Portland Place, London W1, UK
photograph from RIBA
To celebrate I. M. Pei receiving the Royal Gold Medal this year there will be a celebratory film screening in his presence on Wednesday 10 February at the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).
Architect David Adjaye will present an exclusive short film on I.M. Pei which reveals his friendships with the modernist greats Mies, Breuer and Aalto. It details his projects from the National Gallery in Washington, The Louvre Pyramids in Paris and his latest work in Doha including his definiteively final building, a chapel in Japan.
Location: Manhattan, New York City, NY, USA
I.M. Pei Practice Information
Pei Cobb Freed & Partners studio based in Manhattan, New York City, USA
Ieoh Ming Pei : Pritzker Prize architects Winner 1983
Key Building by I.M. Pei : Museum of Islamic Art Doha
Website: www.pcfandp.com
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