He joined MIT for an engineering course. Pei was soon talked into
returning to architecture by an instructor who noticed Pei’s latent talents.
Pei enrolled at Harvard
Graduate School of Design and graduated in 1946. He was awarded the Wheelwright Traveling
Fellowship by Harvard in 1951. The fellowship allowed him to travel throughout Europe,
something he wanted to do for a long time.
Pei had plans of
returning to China after his graduation. World War II and the deteriorating condition,
made his father request Pei not to return. His father wrote, "The Communist
government here has taken control of everything. They have forced us to move out. Forced
us to close shop at the bank… Here life is not good". "The bonsai tree,
where you first learned to walk and that river, that clean cool river that ran through the
garden, where you first learned to swim… These images, these feelings and moments I
want you to remember of China, Ieoh. Happiness."
At first, Pei’s
father was against the idea of him learning architecture in America. The name Pei’s
parents gave him proved prophetic because his name meant 'to inscribe brightly.'
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As a student at Harvard, Pei was disenchanted to find the new buildings in one country similar as in most others. Away from Harvard, and out in the real business, he had to learn about serving the needs of his clients; he had to give the clients what they wanted.
From the outset, Pei was associated with large-scale multi-purpose developments, often connected with urban revitalization. Pei created such urban projects as the Mile High Center in Denver, Colo, the Hyde Park redevelopment in Chicago and the place Ville – Marie in Montreal.
Pei formed his own architectural firm I M Pei and Associates in 1955. It was later renamed I M Pei and Partners. |
Ieoh Ming Pei has given
this century some of its most beautiful interior spaces and exterior forms. Yet the
significance of his work goes far beyond that. His concern has always been the
surroundings in which his buildings rise. A remarkable guide, Pei walks viewers through
his buildings, explaining in loving detail the first steps in his design process.
Much is not known about
his family life. His two sons were not attached to him as he was with his mother. His
children were aloof and were only silent spectators even in times of trouble. The roots of
Pei’s success lay firmly in Shanghai. His family was established as the leading
bankers and merchants in East China as early as the mid–Qing Dynasty. The grandeur of
their ancestral home bears testimony to this. |
