I M Pei dies at 102

[stellarfun]

Pei considered the JFK library to be the most important commission of his life.

 

[Beton Brut]

NY Times obit.

102. I’d sign up for that tonight.

 

[stellarfun]

Starchitects reminisce about Pei, an excerpt.

“I met I.M. Pei in Paris when he was working on the Louvre with the engineer Peter Rice,” said Mr. Piano, the Genoa and Paris-based architect, speaking by phone from a taxi. Rice was among the most admired structural engineers of the time, helping Pei realize the extraordinarily delicate glass pyramid entrance to the museum. “They were sitting at a table with pizza, and they were talking about working with light,” Mr. Piano added. “The poetic for me is walking below the pyramid on the lacy shadows cast by the steel and crystal above.”
.....
The firm’s dedication to innovation and the expressive use of engineering led to the most traumatic events in its history. The nearly complete John Hancock building in Boston began shedding gigantic sheets of glass in 1973. The building did not open for years, at vast additional cost.

Disputes over the design almost put the firm out of business. “They hung together,” recalled Mr. Nordenson. Pei’s partner on the project, Henry N. Cobb, “was at the vanguard of vanquishing that crisis and he did it in a very sophisticated way,” Mr. Nordenson continued. “They addressed the issues head on and were able to keep the confidence of the client.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/18/arts/design/im-pei-architecture.html

 

[stick n move]

I was watching a Ted talks where James Kunstler was saying that as long as IM Pei is alive city hall wont be touched. Maybe now they can finally start fresh there. He made a legendary impact on the skyline with the Hancock and that will be celebrated forever, but hopefully now we can get serious about city hall. Rip to a great architect who pushed boundaries. Everybody makes mistakes, but his great works were... great.

 

[Justin7]

I was watching a Ted talks where James Kunstler was saying that as long as IM Pei is alive city hall wont be touched. Maybe now they can finally start fresh there. He made a legendary impact on the skyline with the Hancock and that will be celebrated forever, but hopefully now we can get serious about city hall. Rip to a great architect who pushed boundaries. Everybody makes mistakes, but his great works were... great.

Was he talking about Dallas?

Also...

 

[Hubman]

Rest in peace. The architect who got me into modernism.