Dell, Pamela

Margot Doremus On I. M. Pei EDP 380: Creative Frames of Mind Fall, 1998

Ieoh Ming Pei

Ieoh Ming Pei is a brilliant, Chinese-American architect. He combines learned skill with his gift of knowing what works both functionally and aesthetically.

Early Life

He was born in Canton, China, on April 26, 1917. Art and commerce were both ingrained in Pei's upbringing. His family had lived for more than 600 years in Suzhou (formerly Soochow), a city in the Yangtze basin northwest of Shanghai. The history of Suzhou goes back some 2,500 years,, but it became prominent during the Sui Dynasty (A.D. 581-618) with the completion of the Grand Canal, which linked several major trading cities.

Suzhou was an important city in the rice and silk trades. It was also known for its many craftsmen, scholars, and artists. People considered the city so wonderful that there was a saying about it and its neighboring city: "In

heaven there is paradise; on earth, Suzhou."

Around the time of his birth, fighting among local warlords made life dangerous in Canton. The political turbulence that Pei witnessed seems parallel to Einstein’s experience with political turbulence in Germany, and Ghandi’s experience with India under British rule and the loss of Hindu identity that came with the ruling of a different culture.

In 1918, the bank told Tsuyee (I. M.’s father) to move with his family to the safety of Hong Kong, which was then governed by Great Britain. Sometimes on that long journey Ieoh Ming’s nurse, or "amah," carried him on her back.

The Pei family lived in Hong Kong for nine years. During that time, three more children were born: I.M.'s sister, Wei, and his two brothers, Kwun and Chung.

In 1927, I.M.'s father was made manager of the bank's main office in Shanghai, and the family returned to China.

I. M. Pei respected his father, but he was much closer to his mother, who was more openly affectionate. Lien Kwun was a gifted flute player (intelligence ran in the family) and a devout Buddhist. As the eldest son, I. M. had a special place in her heart. He felt free to seek her advice with his problems. On two occasions, I. M.'s mother took him on religious retreats. These journeys were a privilege that none of I. M.'s brothers or sisters were ever asked to share. I. M. Pei’s relationship with his mother seems to parallel that of Ghandi with his father.

Sadly, when I. M. was only thirteen years old, his mother died. But her love for him and their visits to the Buddhist temples left a lasting impression on I. M. The deep silence of the mountain retreat where they had stayed remained vivid in his mind.

In the summers, the Pei family journeyed to Suzhou, where many of their relatives still lived. On these trips, everyone including I. M. dressed traditionally, in long silk robes.

The family retreat in Suzhou was known as the Garden of the Lion Forest. The beautiful Lion Forest gardens were skillfully designed.

Even as a young boy, I. M. noticed how buildings and nature were combined in the gardens. He was especially impressed by the way light and shadow played together in their design. More than fifty years later, Pei was to return to the Garden of the Lion Forest (in the late 1970s) to refresh his memory. This visit would inspire his design of the Fragrant Hill Hotel in Beijing, China.

Back in Shanghai, many new buildings were under construction. I. M. was awed by the first high-rise building he ever saw. It was twenty-three stories high! Wherever he went, he began to be acutely aware of the buildings and structures that surrounded him.

I. M. attended a very strict school. Students had only a half-day off every month. All the lessons were in Chinese, but I. M. also studied English. By the time he was seventeen, he spoke English well. He decided to study architecture in America.

In 1935, Pei set off on the long ocean voyage to the United States.

Formal Education

Pei was naturalized in 1948. His education included St. John's Middle School in Shanghai, a Bachelor of Architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge in 1940; and a Masters of Architecture in 1946 from Harvard Graduate School of Design, Cambridge, Massachusetts. He served on the National Defense Research Committee from 1943 to 1945. One of the best strategies in national defense is to employ an architect. The reason is simple: the ones who have studied and built many buildings will know the Achilles heels of each style.

In terms of personal life, as were Ghandi, Einstein, Picasso, and T.S. Elliot, Pei was married. He became the husband of Fileen Loo in 1942. Together, they created four children: Ting, Chien, Li, and Lianc.

Titles and Jobs

Pei was an instructor, then Assistant Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, from 1945 to 1948. From then, he moved on to Director of Architecture at the firm of Webb and Knapp Incorporated in New York until 1955. Since 1955, he has been a partner in I. M. Pei and Partners in New York.

From 1978 to 1980, he was the Chancellor for the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in Washington, D.C. From 1966 to 1970, he was a member of the National Council on the Humanities in Washington, D.C. He was a member of the Urban Design Council of the City of New York from 1967 to 1972. He was a member of the National Urban Policy Task Force, American Institute of Architects, 1970 to 1974; he was a member of the Corporation of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge from 1972 to 1977 and 1978 to 1983. He was a member of the Task Force on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol, American Institute of Architects, from 1978 to 1980.

Just as Einstein received awards, T.S. Elliot received laurels for his work, and so on, I. M. Pei received awards causing the public to recognize him as an accomplished architect. Awards he received include: Arnold Brunner Award, National Institute of Arts and Letters, 1961 ~ Medal of Honor, American Institute of Architects, New York Chapter, 1963; Golden Door Award, International Institute of Boston, 1970; "For New York" Award, City Club of New York, 1973; Thomas Jefferson Memorial Medal, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, 1976; Elsie de Wolfe Award. American Society of Interior Designers, New York Chapter, 1978; Gold Medal, Amcrican Institute of Architects, 1979; Gold Medal of Honor, National Arts Club, 1981; Gold Medal, Alpha Rho Chi National Fraternity, 1981; Mayor's Award for Art and Culture, City of New York, 1981; Gold Medal, Academie d'Architecture, France, 1981; Pritzker Architecture Prize, 1983. D.F.A.: University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1970, Rensselaer Polytechnic

Institute, Troy, New York, 1978; LL.D.: Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1970, Pace University, New York. 1972: President's Fellow, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, 1979. Fellow, American Institute of Architects; Honorary Fellow, American Society of Interior Designers; Member, American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National academy of Design, and American Philosophical Society. Honorary Fellow, Royal Institute of British architects; Foreign Associate, Institut de France.

Gardener’s model.

"Except for Graham, still a student at the time of the war, each of the seven masters was severely shaken in a personal sense. Even if their own lives were not physically dislocated, the lives of those around them were, and most lost family members or close friends" (Gardner, 396.) I. M. Pei fits this criteria exactly because he lost his mother when he was thirteen and because he lived in a time of political turmoil in China. Pei had issues with the government in his birthland, and he was severely emotionally shaken when his mother’s grave in Shanghai was bulldozed to make way for farmland.

I.M. Pei fits Gardner’s model in some respects and defies it in others. I.M. Pei was not the oldest child. He was the second oldest. And, Pei did not defy his family’s wishes to pursue his talents, as Martha Graham and T. S. Elliot did. Instead, he followed his parents’ advice for the sake of his well being, even when it meant that his family begged him not go back to China to be with them due to the state that the government was in.

Family relations, however, were strained in some points as with many of Gardner’s creating minds. Pei's relationship with his children was warm, but somewhat distant. His youngest son, Li Chung, known as Sandi, who along with an older brother, Chien Chung, is now an architect in the Pei firm, remembered that while he was growing tip, Li was more of "an observer than a participant" in his father's life. Even when tunes were bad, as they frequently were during the saga of the Kennedy Library and the crisis over the Hancock Tower, and Pei was c1early affected, Sandi said that Li "never saw it."

As for his environment, I. M. had been his mother’s favorite, as I have mentioned before, and he was provided with the strict discipline that architects need to work long hours on designing buildings. Pei’s interest in architecture began when he was young. This interest is a characteristic not only of Ghandi, Einstein, and Martha Graham, but of many highly intellectually gifted people.

Pei had heroes that he respected and revered. These "heroes" included his mother but also included other entities such as the first high rise he saw, the place to which he and his mother traveled for a religious retreat, and the relationship between environment and the buildings that reside in it. This last entity related directly to our class discussion about whether the city/environment was the dictator of what type of building could be placed where or whether the architect had the power or the right to change the environment with his or her buildings.

Pei’s Works

I. M. Pei thought that the building should be built to compliment the surroundings, not change them. An example of this is his extension of the Louvre.

(Pei’s model)

(the finished product)

Pei was both complimented and criticized for this work, because, as David Martinez, a Los Angeles architecture critic stated "the style is completely different from the rest of the building." However, going along with I. M.’s feelings towards the site affecting the building, the pyramid is lower than the rest, almost like a centerpiece. The fact that a lot of this part of the building is underground attests to the fact that he was not trying to undermine the beauty of the original section of the building but that he was attempting to compliment it, perhaps in doing so complement it.

Other works of his include: