"I.M. Pei, the preeminent Chinese-American architect who forged a distinct brand of modern building design with his sharp lines and stark structures, has died. He was 102 years old. Pei was the mastermind behind the bold Louvre glass pyramid in Paris, the landmark 72-story Bank of China tower in Hong Kong and Doha's Museum of Islamic Art, works seen as embracing modernity tempered by a grounding in history. In his adopted home country the United States, Pei became perhaps best known for his landmark East Building at Washington's National Gallery of Art, deftly melding sharp modern angles with the monumental grandeur the US capital is known for. Pei's death was confirmed Thursday by Marc Diamond, a spokesman for the architect's New York firm, Pei Cobb Freed & Partners. One of Pei's sons, Li Chung Pei, told The New York Times his father had died overnight. Ieoh Ming Pei was born in Guangzhou in 1917, and moved to the US at the age of 18 to study at Pennsylvania, MIT and Harvard. He worked as a research scientist for the US National Defense Research Committee during World War Two, and went on to work as an architect, starting his own firm in 1955." www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7039021/I-M-Pei-architect-designed-Louvre-Pyramid-dies-102.html
