News Reporter
World-renowned architect I. M. Pei recently designed a museum in Suzhou, China that opened this October. Pei has also planned two buildings at Choate: the Paul Mellon Art Center as well as the Carl C. Icahn Center for Science. The museum contains artifacts from the 2,500 year-old city of Suzhou, and was built in a style that blends tradition with modern architectural form.
Pei was born in China in 1917, meaning he is now eighty-nine and still designing. He moved to the United States in 1934 in order to receive architectural training at both the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. Originally, his intention was to return to China following his schooling, but after the Japanese invaded China in 1939, he remained in America. Pei worked in the architectural firm “Webb and Knapp” for seven years, before starting his own firm in 1955. Pei’s most famous buildings include the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston (completed in 1968), the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art (1968), as well as the controversial glass pyramid at the Louvre (1993). In fact, the East Wing was so popular that during the first fifty days after it opened, over a million people visited the museum. Pei received the prestigious architecture Pritzker Award, architecture’s prestigious award, in 1983, and used the $100,000 he was given to start a scholarship program for Chinese students of architecture.
Pei’s newest museum is the second building he has developed in China; the first was a luxury hotel in Beijing that was built in 1982. However, Pei was dissatisfied with the hotel. “I had roots here, and I felt I hadn’t done right,” he said in a previous interview, speaking of the hotel. “I wanted to make amends, or to do something that will have a greater impact on architecture.”
Pei is satisfied with the Suzhou Museum, though the process of designing it did not come without challenges. His biggest hurdle was combining the old with the new; “I’ve never done anything like this before,” said Mr. Pei, “I’ve used gray and white, which are Suzhou colors. But the form is modern.” The museum incorporates traditional “Pei themes”, like rectangles and pyramids, and large windows that make use of natural light. It also has a sizeable Chinese garden with an artificial pond and footbridge. Museum-goers were happy with Pei’s latest addition to the world of architecture: one woman was so intent upon seeing the design that when asked to leave by guards for being too unruly, she pushed past them and demanded to be allowed to view the garden.
Mr. Pei’s first contribution to Choate was the Paul Mellon Arts Center, which was built in 1972. The goal of the Arts Center was not only to provide a place for students to participate in the arts, but also to bring together the newly united Choate school and Rosemary Hall (the two joined in 1971). The building was commissioned by Paul Mellon ‘25, who, along with the Board of Trustees, decided that the building should be designed by the best architect in America in that time, and that Mr. Pei was precisely the man to do it. The finished building cost around six million dollars, and received an Honor Award from the American Institution of Architecture.
The Carl C. Icahn Center for Science was completed in 1989, and was also commissioned by Mellon. The building comprises a total of 55,500 sq ft. and includes an open courtyard with a magnolia tree, as well as large windows to maximize the sense of openness. As well as having numerous classrooms and labs, the center includes an excellent lecture hall, gift of George Getz ‘27, where faculty meetings and other gatherings are held. The dedication occurred over parents weekend in 1989, and I. M. Pei himself was present to offer remarks. Choate is certainly lucky to have two beautiful buildings designed by this innovative and still world-renown architect.
