Ieoh Ming Pei is one of the most important modern architects. He has created many major buildings throughout the world. And his style and ideas have strongly influenced the work of many other architects. He has specialized in building multistory structures in cities.

I.M. Pei was born in Canton, China, in 1917. He went to America to study but couldn’t return to China when World War II started. So most of his work has been in North America and Europe. In the 1940s Pei began working as a Professional architect. He worked on such important projects as the Mile High Center in Denver, Colorado. In 1955 Pei formed his own architectural company, I.M. Pei & Associates. The company’s early work included a museum in Syracuse, New York, that was actually four buildings joined by bridges. He also created a design for a new type of airport control tower that was widely used.

Pei’s buildings are often tall, with lots of glass and steel. The designs combine simple geometric shapes, especially rectangles and triangles. But his buildings are not dull or simple. In many of them, you can see the building’s supports or building materials, and these are its only decoration. The way that concrete, glass, and steel look together creates interesting designs on the sides of Pei’s buildings. Special reflective glass also adds to the designs. He often combines different shapes and emphasizes the picture these shapes make in the skyline.

Some of Pei’s most famous work includes the John Hancock Tower in Boston, the East Building of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the glass pyramid at the Louvre Museum in Paris.