1917-
Architect

Background.

A native of China, Ieoh Ming Pei emigrated to the United States in 1935. He earned a bachelor's degree in architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1940 and then attended Harvard University, where he earned a master's in architecture and a doctorate. Pei formed I. M. Pei & Associates in 1955 and has earned several prestigious architectural awards, including the American Institute of Architecture Gold Medal in 1979 and the Pritzker Prize in 1983.

Museum Visions.

Pei's work spread across the globe in the 1990s. French president Francois-Maurice Mitterrand called on Pei to redesign the Louvre. Pei completed the first phase in 1989, which included the construction of a glass pyramid as a new entrance. Although critics charged that the modern design sharply contrasted with the surrounding nineteenth-century architecture, the French public came to accept Pei's design as the newest Parisian attraction. Pei also redesigned the Richelieu...