IM Pei: Building the Future of China

Turning to Europe, Pei found his next major work in the renovation of the Louvre in Paris, a controversial building that would define his career. “I think Pei was drawn to the project because of the parallels between French and Chinese culture. They share the same attitudes,” says Carter Wiseman, author of IM Pei: A Profile in American Architecture. “They think of themselves as a culture rather than a nation. Pei was able to create buildings for both that transcended the political discord and reached to the essence rather than the moment.”

From the beginning, Pei’s commission was contentious; the first foreign architect to work on the Louvre, he was at the mercy of a public who passionately voiced their disapproval of the Chinese-American selected to redesign their prized building. The director of the museum resigned in protest, but Pei stayed focused on finding a design worthy of the Louvre that wouldn’t detract from the celebrated building.

When the construction was complete, the unwavering Pei received the praise of a nation as the shocked public found the glass structure of 'Pharoah Pei’s Pyramid' to be a tribute to France’s rich history and a complement to the Louvre’s structure. “The much feared pyramid has become adorable,” a commentator for Le Quotidien de Paris raved.

Pei’s steadfast approach to the Louvre public relations nightmare cemented his reputation for having a “titanium spine” and an uncanny political savvy. Instead of taking a break after the stressful project, Pei dived right into work, this time his interest piqued by an unusual invitation to work on the Bank of China headquarters in Hong Kong, an institution his father had helped found in the early 20th century.

“The Chinese government first called Pei’s father and asked him for permission to approach Pei about designing the Bank of China Tower,” says Wiseman. “The irony of the situation is that Pei’s father had been run out of the country by the Communists, effectively sending the family into exile. Now the Chinese government wanted his son to return to build the headquarters of the bank he founded.”

Despite residual reluctance left over from the Fragrant Hills project, the Pritzker Prize-winning architect accepted the commission and started brainstorming ways to make the structure mirror “the aspirations of the Chinese people.”The cramped area allotted to the project forced Pei to venture into new territory with a sky-scraping design that he worried would be devoid of character, until he finally settled on a unique cascading sequence to set the building apart from the maze of Hong Kong’s busy skyline.

Controversy again plagued the architect as critics noted the Xs that laced up the building were bad feng shui. “Pei, rather skillfully I think, removed one of the horizontal lines to turn the Xs into diamonds, which were good feng shui,” says Wiseman.

During construction of the Bank of China Tower in 1989, China was thrown into turmoil and Pei was shocked to the point of activism, co-writing an op-ed condemning the army’s actions for The New York Times. Wiseman recalls asking Pei how he felt about working on a building for China after this. “He was quiet for a long time. Then he looked at me and said, ‘Regimes come and go, but China goes on forever.’”