Designer of the Month: I.M. Pei

Week 2: National Gallery of Art, East Building & Bank of China Tower

After forming I.M. Pei & Associates in 1950 and ending his relationship with Zeckendorf at Webb & Knapp in 1960, Pei had the opportunity to prove that he could not only design a project, but follow it through to completion as well when he was chosen to design the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado in 1961.[1] This process of designing a building dedicated to science would prove to be an important step for Pei. As he explained in a newspaper interview in 1978 about this:

It was not really until the early 1960s that I began to design again. Oh, I had always looked over the shoulders of the architects working with me, and i would participate in the concept and occasionally draw a line to test out an idea or to help someone consolidate his own direction in a design. But it really wasn't until I was asked in the early 1960s to do the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, that I was thrown fully into the process once again...I realized, all over again, how intensely personal the process of design is - not personal in the sense that you insistently look for a way to assert your own identity, but in the sense that you have to find a way for circumstances to assert themselves.[2]

Pei would often refer to NCAR as his "breakout building," the one that allowed him to follow through on the details of a design, with the success of this structure leading to the commission of many others.[3] The first of these that I want to talk about today is the National Gallery of Art, East Building, in Washington, DC.

Ariel view of the Mall and Gallery. Robert/Andrea Lautman Photography. Courtesy of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners.

The East Building for the National Gallery of Art was not only a turning point in Pei's career, but many people argue that it is what secured his reputation as an innovative architect. It certainly brought Pei attention, with architecture critics all but unanimous in their praise and the public overwhelming with their support - the building received more than a million visitors during its first two months of being open to the public.[4]

Interior with balcony, bridge and Calder mobile. Courtesy of GreatBuildings.com.

The National Gallery of Art's East Building was constructed to fulfill two purposes: to serve as a museum to house large traveling exhibitions as well as provide the space for a separate study-center and office facility.[5] Additionally, not only was the land for the building an unusual shape, but it had to blend in with the other buildings already located on the Mall.[6] Pei's solution for how to best utilize the space was to essentially create two triangles on the trapezoid-spaced site - one for each function - with a triangular atrium unifying the whole: "In plan, section and elevation, the interlocking volumes merge inseparably in a spatial dialogue of rigorous geometry, technical innovation and exacting craftsmanship.'[7]

East Building, 4th Street Facade. Photograph by Dennis Black/Black Star. Courtesy of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.

And what about the challenge of fitting into the new building in with the old? Not only did Pei use marble from the same quarry in Tennessee as was used in the construction of the original National Gallery building, but he connected the two structures physically as well.[8] A two-story space containing a temporary exhibition space, pedestrian concourse, restaurant, gift shop, auditorium, lecture hall, loading docks, storage, workshops, and parking (200,000 square feet - roughly 1/3 of the entire new building), was created to connect the buildings.[9] While such a space could have easily turned oppressive and tunnel-like, Pei instead designed one wall made of glass, against which light from the courtyard above could filter down through a cluster of pyramids, in addition to creating a constant flow of water that splashed across the window from the courtyard fountain.[10] Begun in 1968 and completed in 1978, the East Building of the National Gallery of Art was dubbed the "Masterpiece on the Mall" by Time magazine, and would remain Pei's most well-known building for about 10 years after its completion.[11] The following year, in 1979, Pei would be awarded The AIA Gold Medal - the highest architectural honor in the United States.[12]

Bank of China Tower. Photograph by John Nve. Courtesy of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners.

Skip ahead ten years. It's now 1989 and Pei is 72. This would be the year in which Pei would produce some of the most important buildings of his career, including the Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong. Built on a small, difficult patch of land - a setback familiar to Pei - a skyscraper was essentially the only option for the building, a form that at the time, Pei had little love for or experience with.[13]

Bank of China Tower. Photograph by John Nve. Courtesy of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners.

The challenge with the Bank of China Tower was not only to create an interesting, innovative skyscraper on a small plot of land, but to do so with a very strict budget, and with the completed building able to withstand typhoon-force winds.[14] As Pei Cobb Freed & Partners explain of resulting design:

The solution, integrating architecture and engineering inseparably, involves an asymmetrical tower that addresses both skyline and street. Comprised of four vertical shafts, the incremental tower emerges from a 52-meter cube and diminishes its mass, quadrant by quadrant, until a single triangular prism remains. The faceted prism is clad in reflective glass that mirrors the changing sky, anchoring the expanding business district and providing a distinctive vertical axis to Hong Kong's towering skyline. The whole is supported by an innovative composite structural system that not only resists high-velocity winds, but does so with significant savings of construction time and materials.[15]

The Bank of China Tower represented Pei's increasing interest in architecture as movement.[16] Although he had initially been reluctant to take a job designing a skyscraper, Pei's design managed to break the mold of the traditional tall office building with its use of unpredictability. As Carter Wiseman explains in his book I.M. Pei: A Profile in American Architecture, "Most of the great tall buildings rely for their effect on their height and their surfaces, but their forms tend to be tediously repetitive...Seen from different angles, the building presents a series of equally different profiles. This constantly changing composition is further animated by the distortion of the surface pattern created by moving around the building."[17] Pei had managed to design one of the most iconic structures in Hong Kong.

[1] Mary Englar, I.M. Pei (Chicago, IL: Raintree, 2006), 32.

[2] Carter Wiseman, "The National Center for Atmospheric Research (1961-67): The Journey From Planning to Form," I.M. Pei: A Profile in American Architecture (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1990), 73-4.

[3] Ibid., 91.

[4] Carter Wiseman, "The East Building of the National Gallery (1968078): The Power of Art, Taste, and Money," I.M. Pei: A Profile in American Architecture (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1990), 155.

[5] Pei Cobb Freed & Partners online, "Projects: National Gallery of Art, East Building," http://www.pcf-p.com/a/p/6810/s.html, (accessed August 11, 2010).

[6] Mary Englar, I.M. Pei (Chicago, IL: Raintree, 2006), 35-6.

[7] Pei Cobb Freed & Partners online, "Projects: National Gallery of Art, East Building," http://www.pcf-p.com/a/p/6810/s.html, (accessed August 11, 2010).

[8] Mary Englar, I.M. Pei (Chicago, IL: Raintree, 2006), 36.

[9] Carter Wiseman, "The East Building of the National Gallery (1968-78): The Power of Art, Taste, and Money," I.M. Pei: A Profile in American Architecture (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1990), 167.

[10] Ibid., 168.

[11] Ibid., 181.

[12] Pei Cobb Freed & Partners online, "I.M. Pei: Biography," http://www.pcf-p.com/a/f/fme/imp/b/b.html, (accessed August 11, 2010).

[13] Carter Wiseman, "1989: 'The Year of Pei'" I.M. Pei: A Profile in American Architecture (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1990), 288.

[14] Pei Cobb Freed & Partners online, "Bank of China Tower" http://www.pcf-p.com/a/p/8220/s.html, (accessed August 11, 2010).

[15] Ibid.

[16] Carter Wiseman, "1989: 'The Year of Pei'" I.M. Pei: A Profile in American Architecture (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1990), 292.

[17] Ibid., 292.