free rein to his innovative creativity. Within this at-
mosphere of big business and big spending, Pei led
American architecture out of the rectangular box of
the International style, which had been in place
since the 1940’s.
In the early 1980’s, Pei revolutionized the mu-
seum experience with his design for the west wing of
the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (1981 and 1986).
He connected the existing Beaux Arts building to a
new geometric gallery space with a two-hundred-
foot-long, barrel-vaulted glass galleria that included
restaurants, an auditorium, and a museum store. In
the same spirit of social innovation, Pei transformed
the aging urban center of Denver, Colorado, with his
plan for the Sixteenth Street Mall (1982). The mall
was intended to transform downtown Denver from a
nine-to-five business area into a multipurpose, all-
hours professional and social gathering place. Re-
kindling the energy and excitement of the urban
centers of America, Pei designed the Jacob K. Javits
Convention Center in New York City (1986) and the
Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas,
Texas (1989). Both structures were exercises in the
potential of glass to create seamless sculptural transi-
tions between interior and exterior space.
Pei applied his social transformations to office ar-
chitecture as well. For decades, office buildings were
rectangular structures filled with square offices. Pei
broke that mold by introducing new shapes and new
materials that invigorated the urban environment.
Buildings such as his one-thousand-foot-tall J. P.
Morgan Chase Tower in Houston, Texas (1982) and
the Energy Plaza in Dallas (1983) broke out of the
rectangular box, introducing new shapes and new
ways of working within the business environment.
Perhaps Pei’s boldest design was that of Fountain
Place in Dallas (1986), a 720-foot-high, ten-sided,
faceted prism of green reflective glass and steel that
appeared to slice through the air. Each of these
structures was a superb example of the profound
power of geometric form; the sensual potential of
glass, metal, concrete, and stone; and the intellec-
tual appeal of purely rational design.
Impact I. M. Pei’s striking designs and use of inno-
vative materials redefined the urban skylines of the
United States’ great cities and served as the model of
the new American modernism, stimulating new ways
of thinking and reenergizing America’s great cities.
As the workplace and urban environment were al-
tered by Pei’s revolutionary designs, so were the ways
in which people worked and related within the ur-
ban environment.
Further Reading
Cannell, Michael.I. M. Pei: Mandarin of Modernism.
New York: Clarkson Potter, 1995.
Wiseman, Carter.The Architecture of I. M. Pei: With an
Illustrated Catalogue of Buildings and Projects. New
York: Thames & Hudson, 2001.
_______.I. M. Pei: A Profile in American Architecture.
New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2001.
Sonia SorrellSee also Architecture; Art movements; AsianJewish Americans.
The Eighties in America Pei, I. M. 751
Architect I. M. Pei poses in his New York office in 1981. (AP/
Wide World Photos)