The Mary Baker Eddy Library for the Betterment of Humanity is housed in an 11-story structure originally built for The Christian Science Publishing Society constructed between 1932 and 1934, and the present plaza was constructed in the late 1960s and early 1970s to include a 28 story administration building, a colonnade, and a reflecting pool with fountain, designed by Araldo Cossutta of I. M. Pei and Partners ( now Pei Cobb Freed ).

In the early 1980s, Pei was the focus of controversy when he designed a glass-and-steel pyramid for the Louvre museum in Paris.

Ieoh Ming Pei was born on April 26, 1917 to Tsuyee Pei and Lien Kwun, and the family moved to Hong Kong one year later.

As a boy, Pei was very close to his mother, a devout Buddhist who was recognized for her skills as a flautist.

Pei's ancestors ' success meant that the family lived in the upper echelons of society, but Pei said his father was " not cultivated in the ways of the arts ".

At the age of ten, Pei moved with his family to Shanghai after his father was promoted.

As a pain reliever, she was prescribed opium, and assigned the task of preparing her pipe to Pei.

Pei was fascinated by the representations of college life in the films of Bing Crosby, which differed tremendously from the academic atmosphere in China.

Pei was more intrigued by modern architecture, and also felt intimidated by the high level of drafting proficiency shown by other students.

MIT's architecture faculty was also focused on the Beaux-Arts school, and Pei found himself uninspired by the work.

Pei was inspired by the innovative designs of the new International style, characterized by simplified form and the use of glass and steel materials.

" Pei was also influenced by the work of US architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

She enrolled in the landscape architecture program at Harvard University, and Pei was thus introduced to members of the faculty at Harvard's Graduate School of Design ( GSD ).

The US realized that its bombs used against the stone buildings of Europe would be ineffective against Japanese cities, mostly constructed from wood and paper ; Pei was assigned to work on incendiary bombs.

In the spring of 1948 Pei was recruited by New York real estate magnate William Zeckendorf to join a staff of architects for his firm of Webb and Knapp to design buildings around the country.

Pei found Zeckendorf's personality the opposite of his own ; his new boss was known for his loud speech and gruff demeanor.

Zeckendorf was well connected politically, and Pei enjoyed learning about the social world of New York's city planners.

Soon Pei was so inundated with projects that he asked Zeckendorf for assistants, which he chose from his associates at the GSD, including Henry N. Cobb and Ulrich Franzen.

The pedestrian walkway at the ground floor, however, was prone to sudden gusts of wind, which embarrassed Pei.

Pei was able to return to hands-on design when he was approached in 1961 by Walter Orr Roberts to design the new Mesa Laboratory for the National Center for Atmospheric Research outside Boulder, Colorado.

At a point in the planning phase when a financing gap existed, a proposal was made for the Rock Hall to be located in the then-vacant May Company Building, but it was finally decided that architect I. M. Pei would be commissioned to design a new building.

In 307, Sima Yue, who had emerged victorious in the aftermaths of the War of the Eight Princes as the regent for Emperor Huai, under the advice of his wife Princess Pei, commissioned Sima Rui as the military commander of parts of Yang Province ( 揚州, modern Zhejiang and southern Jiangsu and Anhui ) south of the Yangtze River, with his post at Jianye.

Mihoko Koyama and her daughter, Hiroko Koyama, again commissioned Pei to design the Miho Museum.

He further commissioned the official Pei Zheng ( 裴政 ) to carry out a project of simplifying the penal code and decrease the penalty from the harsh laws — a reform that was later largely accepted by the succeeding dynasties.

Mellon commissioned I. M. Pei to build the East Wing and, with his sister Ailsa, provided funds for its construction in the late 1970s.

In 732, Emperor Xuanzong commissioned his second cousin Li Hui ( 李褘 ) the Prince of Xin ' an to command an army against Khitan and Xi tribes which would not submit to Tang suzerainty, with Pei as Li Hui's deputy.

Kelly has since executed many public commissions, including Wright Curve ( 1966 ), a steel sculpture designed for permanent installation in the Guggenheim ’ s Peter B. Lewis Theater ; a mural for the UNESCO headquarters in Paris in 1969 ; Curve XXII ( I Will ) at Lincoln Park in Chicago in 1981 ; a 1985 commission by I. M. Pei for the Raffles City building in Singapore ; the Houston Triptych, vertical bronze planes mounted on a tall concrete at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, in 1986 ; Totem ( 1987 ), a sculpture for the Parc de la Creueta del Coll, Barcelona ; the Dallas Panels ( Blue Green Black Red ) ( 1989 ) for the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, Dallas ; a 1989 sculpture for the headquarters of Nestlé in Vevey, Switzerland ; Gaul ( 1993 ), a monumental sculpture commissioned by the Institute d ' Art Contemporain, Nîmes, France ; a two-part memorial for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D. C., in 1993 ; and large-scale Berlin panels for the Deutscher Bundestag, Berlin, in 1998.

Pei spent ten years working with New York real estate magnate William Zeckendorf before establishing his own independent design firm that eventually became Pei Cobb Freed & Partners.

Once he arrived, however, the dean of the architecture school commented on his eye for design and convinced Pei to return to his original major.

Pei returned to Harvard in the autumn of 1945, and received a position as assistant professor of design.

Pei designed the Society Hill Towers, a three-building residential block injecting cubist design into the 18th-century milieu of the neighborhood.

Eventually, Kennedy chose Pei to design the library, based on two considerations.

By the mid-70s, Pei tried proposing a new design, but the library's opponents resisted every effort.

The years of conflict and compromise had changed the nature of the design, and Pei felt that the final result lacked its original passion.

It is the informal name for two related commissions by Pei – namely the Central Business District General Neighborhood Renewal Plan ( design completed 1964 ) and the Central Business District Project I-A Development Plan ( design completed 1966 ).

Pei wanted his design for Dallas City Hall to " convey an image of the people ".

Working with his associate Theodore Musho, Pei developed a design centered on a building with a top much wider than the bottom ; the facade leans at an angle of 34 degrees.

John Hancock Insurance chairman Robert Slater hired I. M. Pei & Partners to design a building that could overshadow the Prudential Tower, erected by their rival.

Pei was surprised by public resistance to his traditional design of the hotel at Fragrant Hills.

After visiting his ancestral home in Suzhou, Pei created a design based on the simple but nuanced techniques of traditional residential Chinese buildings.

Pei estimated that 90 percent of Parisians opposed his design.

One of the projects took Pei back to Dallas, Texas, to design the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center.

Pei felt that his design for the Bank of China Tower, Hong Kong | Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong needed to reflect " the aspirations of the Chinese people ".

The design that Pei developed for the Bank of China Tower was not only unique in appearance, but also sound enough to pass the city's rigorous standards for wind-resistance.

Some influential advocates of feng shui in Hong Kong and China criticized the design, and Pei and government officials responded with token adjustments.

In 1995 Pei was hired to design an extension to the Deutsches Historisches Museum, or German Historical Museum in Berlin.