I.M. Pei, World-Renowned Architect, Is Dead at 102
Source: NYT
I. M. Pei, the Chinese-born American architect who began his long career working for a New York real-estate developer and ended it as one of the most revered architects in the world, has died. He was 102.
His son Li Chung Pei said on Thursday that his father had died overnight.
Mr. Pei was probably best known for designing the East Building of the National Gallery of Art in Washington and the glass pyramid that serves as an entry for the Louvre in Paris.
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In its early years, I. M. Pei & Associates mainly executed projects for Zeckendorf, including Kips Bay Plaza in New York, finished in 1963; Society Hill Towers in Philadelphia (1964); and Silver Towers in New York (1967). All were notable for their gridded concrete facades.
The firm became fully independent from Webb & Knapp in 1960, by which time Mr. Pei, a cultivated man whose quiet, understated manner and easy charm masked an intense, competitive ambition, was winning commissions for major projects that had nothing to do with Zeckendorf. Among these were the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., completed in 1967, and the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse and the Des Moines Art Center, both finished in 1968.
They were the first in a series of museums he designed that would come to include the East Building (1978) and the Louvre pyramid (1989) as well as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, for which he designed what amounted to a huge glass tent in 1995. It was perhaps his most surprising commission.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/16/obituaries/im-pei-dead.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur
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I didn't realize he was that age!! He was huge here in Philly and designed the Society Hill Towers near Penn's Landing and the Delaware River in the early '60s - https://www.architectmagazine.com/project-gallery/society-hill-towers-6432
ETA - here they are (in the middle) as seen from the Jersey side of the river (Camden). None of those large skyscrapers seen in the skyline were there when the Society Hill Towers were built, including that "retro-style" Hilton Hotel that is sitting right on the river banks (to the right near the tug boat) -
Good recent article on him here - https://www.interiordesign.net/articles/14213-paul-goldberger-on-i-m-pei-at-100/
R.I.P. and thank you for putting your mark on my city!!!
on Dock Street right across from the towers and were going to make it a 7-story tower. But because the Society Hill Towers had been slowly sinking/shifting due to proximity to the river (and at one time, there was a creek that flowed out into the Delaware that actually came inland on the other side of where the towers are, where boats could traverse right into that area), then they lowered the height of the hotel from 7 stories to 4 (literally removed 3 floors that were under consruction). Much of that land in that area had already been filled in with landfill.
The now underground creek, was originally named "Dock Creek".
That's when all kinds of stories about Pei came out (also when they were building the Hilton, previously a Hyatt, on the waterfront) and recalling the whole riverfront development process. It's pretty fascinating - especially how historic that area is (also known for its prevalence of yellow fever during the late 1700s). 
It took me a bit to find other copies of it that would post correctly. There is some more info about that creek here - http://www.phillywatersheds.org/your_watershed/history and here - http://phillyh2o.org/canvas/canvas02.htm
There's a "modern" map of the area and you can see how the Dock Creek was filled in over time -
An amazing life of enormous talent, you'll be remembered always!
