Partner Li Chung (Sandi) Pei attended the symposium held at the graduate school of design at Harvard University on Oct. 12th. 2017. The event focused on exploring the legacy of the I.M.Pei, with participants including Barry Bergdoll, Nelson Chen, Nasrine Seraji, etc.
I.M. Pei (1917 – 2019 ) remains one of the most celebrated yet under-theorized architects of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Though Pei’s six-decade career is mostly identified with his unwavering interest in cultural synthesis and the power of pure geometrical form, his work and methods of practice offer additional opportunities for investigating their dynamic intertwinement within multiple, consequential moments in the history of mid- to late twentieth century architecture, and their relationships with broader social, cultural, and geopolitical phenomena.
Rethinking Pei: A Centenary Symposium seeks to reexamine Pei in the context of the architect’s 100th birthday year as two linked conferences organised by M+, the new museum for visual culture being built in Hong Kong, with, respectively, the Graduate School of Design (GSD) at Harvard University and the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Hong Kong (HKU). Together, the events aim to resituate the architect from the intersecting vantage points of the two regional poles with which he’s most closely linked—Hong Kong/China and Boston/the United States—by bringing together architectural historians and practitioners, among others, to discuss new strands of inquiry concerning Pei and his work.
