And it looks like nine DDP teams won’t need pants for the victory dance after I.M. “Weasel” Pei has finally died aged 102. Pei followed in the footsteps of other long-living, bed-blocking architects like Oscar Niemeyer, who carked it at 104.
Born in Guangzhou, China, Pei decided to study in the United States after becoming enamoured with the films of Bing Crosby. His first building was built in 1949, and you could easily fill the rest of this entry up with his most famous works: the Louvre Pyramid, the Kennedy Library, the Museum of Islamic Art, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His work emphasises precision geometry, plain surfaces and natural light, and he was still designing buildings well into the 2000s (his last work, the Macau Science Center, opened in 2009).
I.M. Pei
26 April 1917 – 16 May 2019
Died aged 102 (9 picks)