I M Pei, the architect behind Louvre Pyramid, dies

I M Pei, who began his long career designing buildings for a New York real estate developer and ended it as one of the most revered architects in the world, died early on Thursday at his home in Manhattan. He was 102.
His death was confirmed by his son Li Chung Pei, who is also an architect and known as Sandi.
Best known for designing the East Building of the National Gallery of Art in Washington and the glass pyramid at the entrance to the Louvre in Paris, Pei was one of the few architects who were equally attractive to real estate developers, corporate chieftains and art museum boards. And all his work — from his commercial skyscrapers to his art museums — represented a careful balance of the cutting edge and the conservative.
Pei, who was born in China and moved to the United States in the 1930s. He received his graduate degree in architecture from Harvard. His work ear ned the 1983 Pritzker Prize, considered architecture's Nobel. Of his nearly 50 designs in the United States and around the world, more than half won major awards.
French president Francois Mitterrand was so impressed by Pei‘s work that he hired him to build a glass pyramid into the courtyard of the Louvre, the world‘s most visited museum. Other well-known and characteristic Pei projects include the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio; the Miho Museum of Shigo in Japan; and The John F Kennedy Library in Boston.