Knowra I. M. Pei I. M. Pei I. M. Pei was a Chinese-American architect known for geometric modernist buildings that combine clear forms with careful responses to their sites and histories.
Louvre Pyramid : A glass-and-metal pyramid designed by I. M. Pei as the main entrance to the Louvre in Paris. Its transparent geometry brought a controversial modern entrance into the historic Louvre courtyard.
Modern architecture : Architecture that developed from the late nineteenth century onward, often rejecting historical imitation for new forms and technologies. Pei’s work belongs to modern architecture while giving its abstract forms distinctive geometric order.
Suzhou : A historic city in eastern China known for classical gardens, canals, and traditional architecture. Pei was born in Suzhou, whose gardens later informed his attention to spatial sequence and landscape.
Ieoh Ming Pei : The full personal name of I. M. Pei, the Chinese-American architect. This is Pei’s full name, rather than the abbreviated form used professionally.
Modernism : A broad cultural movement that embraced experimentation and rejected many inherited artistic conventions. Pei’s buildings extended modernist design into prominent civic and historic settings.
East Building, National Gallery of Art : A Washington, D.C., art museum building designed by I. M. Pei and opened in 1978. Its triangular plan and angular galleries translate Pei’s geometric approach into a museum.
Geometry : The branch of mathematics concerned with shapes, sizes, spatial relations, and the properties of space. Triangles, squares, and pyramids recur as organizing forms across Pei’s buildings.
Harvard Graduate School of Design : Harvard University’s graduate school for architecture, landscape architecture, and urban planning. Pei studied architecture there and encountered the modernist ideas that shaped his early work.
Henry N. Cobb : An American architect and longtime partner of I. M. Pei in their architecture practice. Cobb collaborated with Pei on major projects and continued the firm’s work after Pei’s retirement.
Historic preservation : The practice of protecting and adapting buildings, sites, and districts of historical significance. The Louvre Pyramid intensified discussion about how contemporary architecture can coexist with historic fabric.
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