Born in Guangzhou, China, in 1917, I.M. Pei moved to the United States at age 18 to pursue a career in architecture. The rest, of course, is history, with prominent commissions worldwide—including the celebrated Louvre pyramid, which won the AIA 25 Year Award in 2017—and a host of top honors, from the Pritzker Prize (1983) to the first Praemium Imperiale for architecture from the Japan Art Association (1989), the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1993), and the Cooper Hewitt Design Award for Lifetime Achievement (2003).
The bespectacled blueprint master hasn't always enjoyed universal acclaim—his early attempts at city planning flopped and cost overruns were a near constant concern—but his many masterpieces are true icons of modern architecture. Here’s a look at 17 major works from Pei and his firm, Pei Cobb Freed & Partners.
—additional research by Alexandra Danna and Jenny Xie
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