I.M. Pei named as 2014 recipient of the UIA Gold Medal

Ieoh Ming Pei, the now 97-year-old renowned Chinese-born American architect, was recently named the 2014 recipient of the prestigious International Union of Architects Gold Medal. The UIA Gold Medal honors an architect's life and work achievements in the course of more than 60 years and five continents in modern architecture history.

Best known as I.M. Pei, some of his most famous structures include the glass pyramid at the Louvre Museum in Paris and the National Museum of Art in Washington, to name a few. He is also the 1983 Pritzker Prize laureate.

Pei will formally accept the Gold Medal on August 6 at an awards ceremony organized by the UIA World Congress of Architecture in Durban, South Africa.

Learn more about I.M. Pei's legacy below.

"Ieoh Ming Pei was born in Canton, China in 1917. He arrived in the United States in 1935 and studied architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, from which he received a Bachelor of Architecture in 1940. After studying under Walter Gropius at Harvard University, he received a Master of Architecture in 1946. In 1954, he acquired American citizenship and founded, in 1955, his own agency with two associates, Eason Leonard and Henry Cobb.    

The John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library in Boston, the East Building of the National Gallery of Art in Washington and the Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong marked the beginning of a long career punctuated by prestigious edifices in the United States and in the great capitals of the world. Dozens of preeminent structures bear his signature, among which the extension of the Louvre Museum in Paris, with its famous glass pyramid nestled at the heart of the illustrious historic ensemble (1989), the National Museum of Art in Washington, the Johnson Museum of Art in New York (1973) and the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar (2008).    

Ieoh Ming Pei has received the most prestigious accolades that can be bestowed on an architect, notably the Gold Medal of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). The UIA Gold Medal is the most prestigious distinction attributed to an architect by architects, selected from among nominations submitted by professional organizations from around the world.

The 2014 jury -- which composed of UIA Bureau Members -- met in Melbourne, Australia on May 5, 2014. It included: Albert Dubler, President; Louise Cox, Past President; Michel Barmaki, Secretary General; Patricia Emmett, Treasurer; and Vice-Presidents Antonio Raffaele Riverso, Deniz Incedayi, Thomas Vonier, Mohamed Esa and Ali Hayder."