Unique buildings by Ieoh Ming Pei are spread across the world

Washington/Prague - The American architect of Chinese descent Ieoh Ming Pei, who passed away on Thursday, May 16, at the age of 102, is among the most significant figures in his field. The author of the glass pyramid at the Louvre in Paris, he received the Pritzker Prize in 1983, the architectural equivalent of the Nobel Prize. His buildings scattered around the world are characterized by stark lines, the use of stone, concrete, glass, and steel, and above all, play with light and shadow. He gained fame for, among other things, the Bank of China building in Hong Kong and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, USA.

"Geometry remains the fundamental idea of my architecture," Pei said about his work. Throughout his career, he designed a large number of buildings - from industrial skyscrapers, university buildings, banks, hotels to low-budget homes, hospitals, churches, and an air terminal. Among the most famous are his museums - the East Wing of the National Gallery in Washington, the Miho Museum near Kyoto, the museum in Boston, the new wing of the German Historical Museum in Berlin, the Mudam Museum in Luxembourg, and the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar.

His notable buildings also include the Four Seasons Hotel on 57th Street in New York, the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston, and the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado. Among his last works is the Science Center in Macau and the Centurion Condominium residential building in Manhattan, New York.

Pei was born on April 26, 1917, in Canton to a family of a well-known banker. He grew up in Shanghai, moved to the USA at the age of 18, where he studied architecture at the University of Pennsylvania. He obtained his Bachelor of Architecture degree in 1940 from the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He then became an assistant at Harvard University. From 1954, he was a U.S. citizen, and a year later he founded his first architectural firm in New York.

Pei probably gained the most famous commission in 1983, which was the expansion and modernization of the museum at the Louvre. The project was also initiated by then-French President François Mitterrand. Pei's design for a large glass and steel entrance pyramid next to the old buildings was shocking. However, Mitterrand liked it and pushed for it, even though about 70 percent of the French opposed it. Now the pyramid is one of the city's landmarks.

Another well-known and controversial Pei project was the construction of the 368-meter tall Bank of China skyscraper in Hong Kong from 1982 to 1989. The Chinese, who yearned for clear visibility after the territory was returned to their administration, approached their famous compatriot. The irony of fate is that Pei's father was a former manager of this bank and a fighter against the communist regime. Pei accepted the commission in agreement with his father with the justification that it was "to fulfill the aspirations of the Chinese people."

Pei was married since 1942 to Chinese Eileen Lo, who also studied in the USA and passed away in 2014. They had three sons and a daughter together.