I.M. Pei, the preeminent US architect who forged a distinct brand of modern building design with his sharp lines and stark structures, has died in New York, his sons’ architecture firm said Thursday. He was 102 years old. The Chinese-born Pei was the mastermind behind the bold Louvre pyramid in Paris, the landmark 72-story Bank of China tower in Hong Kong and Athens’ Museum of Modern Art, works seen as embracing modernity tempered by a grounding in history. Pei Partnership Architects confirmed Pei’s death to AFP. The New York Times, citing Pei’s son Li Chung, said the architect had died overnight Wednesday into Thursday. In his adopted home country the United States, Pei became perhaps best known for his landmark East Building at Washington’s National Gallery of Art, deftly melding sharp modern angles with the monumental grandeur the US capital is known for. “Contemporary architects tend to impose modernity on something. There is a certain concern for history but it is not very deep<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I.M. Pei, the preeminent US architect who forged a distinct brand of modern building design with his sharp lines and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-publications"],"yoast_head":"\n