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i.m.. Pei, the versatile architect who revisited the Louvre with a giant glbad pyramid and captured the spirit of rebellion at the multi-form Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, pbaded away at 102 years old.
Pei's death was confirmed on Thursday. by Marc Diamond, spokesman for the New York firm of architect, Pei Cobb Freed & Partners. One of Pei's sons, Li Chung Pei, told in the New York Times that his father had died overnight.
Pei's works ranged from the trapezoidal addition of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, to the chiselled towers of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, which merge into the reddish mountains of Boulder, Colorado.
Pei painstakingly studied each project, studied its use and established a link with the environment. But he was also interested in architecture as an art and the effect he could create.
"At one level, my goal is simply to give people the pleasure of being in a space and going through it," he said. "But I also think that architecture can reach a level where it pushes people to want to do something more with their lives. This is the challenge that I find most interesting.
Pei, a schoolboy inspired by the construction boom of the 1930s in Shanghai, immigrated to the United States and studied architecture at the Mbadachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. . He then began designing office buildings, low-rent housing and mixed-use complexes, then a global collection of museums, municipal buildings and hotels.
At the time, Jacqueline Kennedy stated that all candidates were excellent. Pei! He likes things to be beautiful. The two became friends.
Discreet and unbaduming man, Pei has forged a reputation as a skilled diplomat, persuading his clients to spend money on his far-reaching projects and working with a team of engineers and engineers. of developers.
Some of his creations are the subject of much controversy, such as the 22-meter (71-foot) faceted glbad pyramid located in the courtyard of the Louvre Museum in Paris. French President François Mitterrand, who personally chose Pei to oversee the renovation of the decaying and crowded museum, came under a lot of criticism when he unveiled the plan in 1984.
Many French people opposed it vehemently to such a change of symbol of their culture, once a medieval fortress and then a national palace. Some regretted that Pei, a stranger, was in charge.
But Mitterrand and his followers take it away and the pyramid is completed in 1989. It serves as entrance to the Louvre and a staircase leads visitors to the vast, very bright lobby with wickets, shops, restaurants , an auditorium and escalators. to other parts of the vast museum.
"Over the centuries, the Louvre has undergone violent changes," said Pei. "The moment had to be right. I was confident because it was the right time. Another building designed by the Pei firm, the John Hanbad Tower in Boston, had a dubious future in the early 1970s, when dozens of windows cracked and burst, causing the glbad to shatter. sidewalks during the time the building was under construction.
A series of lawsuits followed between John Hanbad Mutual Life Insurance Co., the glbad manufacturer, and Pei. A settlement was reached in 1981.
No challenge seemed to be too difficult for Pei, including the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, located on the shores of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, in the city of Cleveland. 39; Ohio. Pei, who confessed that he was catching up with the Beatles, studied the roots of rock 'n roll and offered the museum a variety of contrasting forms. He capped him with a transparent tent-like structure, which was "open like music," he said.
In 1988, President Reagan awarded him a National Medal for the Arts. He also won the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Award in 1983 and the Gold Medal of the American Institute of Architects in 1979. President George HW Bush awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1992.
Pei officially retired in 1990, but continued to work on projects. Two of his sons, Li Chung Pei and Chien Pei, former members of their father's cabinet, formed Pei Partnership Architects in 1992. Their father's firm, formerly I.M. Pei and Partners, was renamed Pei Cobb Freed & Partners.
The Qatar Museum, inaugurated in 2008, is inspired by the history of Islamic architecture, particularly the 9th century Ahmed ibn Tulun Mosque, located in the Egyptian capital of Cairo. This small, oil-rich country was created to compete with rivals in the Persian Gulf and attract international attention and investment.
Ieoh Ming Pei was born on April 26, 1917 in Guangzhou, China, son of a banker. He then said, "I did not know what architecture was really in China. At that time, there was no difference between an architect, a construction worker and an engineer. "
Pei arrives in the United States in 1935 with the intention of studying architecture and then returning to practice in China. However, the Second World War and the revolution in China prevented it from coming back.
During the war, Pei worked for the National Defense Research Committee. As an "expert" of Japanese construction, his job was to determine the best way to burn Japanese cities. "It was horrible," he said later.
In 1948, New York City real estate developer William Zeckendorf hired Pei as director of architecture. During this period, Pei worked on many large urban projects and gained experience in the areas of building development, economics and construction.
Among his early successes include the Mile High Center office building in Denver, the Kips Bay Plaza apartments in Manhattan and the Society Hill apartment complex in Philadelphia.
Pei created his own architectural firm in 1955, a year after becoming a US citizen. He remained based in New York. Some of the company's accomplishments include the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.
Pei's wife, Eileen, with whom he married in 1942, pbaded away in 2014. A son, T'ing Chung, died in 2003. In addition to his sons Chien Chung Pei and Li Chung Pei, he is survived by a daughter, Liane.
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