New York-based Lee Chung (Sandy) Pei, 75, credits her master-architect father’s design of the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse in the early ’60s as likely influencing her own decision to become an architect. For two decades, he assisted his father, the illustrious IM Pei (1917–2019), on award-winning projects such as the Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong (1989) and the Suzhou Museum (2006). In 1992, he founded Pei Partnership Architects with his brother, the late Didi Pei.
Sandy helped put on the first retrospective on her father, IM Pei: Life is ArchitectureThe exhibition began in Hong Kong, is now in Qatar, and will travel internationally over the next two years,
In this exclusive email interview, Sandy talks about the ongoing retrospective in Doha – the second is IM Pei and the Building of the Museum of Islamic Art: From the Square to the Octagon and from the Octagon to the Circle – and his father’s transcultural heritage. Edited excerpts:
Q: If you had to describe your father and his architectural style in one word, what would it be?
Answer: Many people call him a ‘modernist’, but I think that’s too narrow. It focuses on the form of his buildings rather than their context and sense of place. Yes, his work featured strong geometry, clean lines, and technical innovation – but it also reflected cultural sensitivity and a pursuit of harmony.
Therefore, I would describe him not as a modernist, but as a humanist. He cared about human scale and experience, respecting history and local traditions, and integrating art and science.
‘I don’t want to be the first’, he would say, ‘I want to be the best!’
Sandy with father IM Pei in his New York office. , Photo Credit: Courtesy Pei Architects
Q: Why was your father against retrospective review of his actions?
A: He opposed exhibitions that brought him into the limelight. He believed that buildings should be judged not by their designer but by how they serve their communities. He would deflect the point by saying that he was still active, so any assessment of his career would have to wait until retirement – ​​a retirement which he mischievously never concluded.
He received praise when a new building opened, but he was suspicious of the media’s tendency to focus on the essayist rather than the essay. When asked he preferred to talk about client or site challenges. This was not false modesty – it reflected his belief that architects come and go, but that their creations live on, for better or worse, as part of a longer historical continuum.
Why: What do you think of this retrospective?
A: Honestly, I think it’s fantastic. Of course, I’m not impartial – I supported the exhibition and provided a lot of the source material – but what I find most fascinating is its central idea: that my father’s transcultural background, particularly his Chinese heritage, shaped everything about his life and career. If there was ever any testament to the richness of the immigrant experience, this is it.
The show also highlights different chapters of his career – from post-war real-estate development, to pioneering new materials and technologies, to reintroducing art and artists into the architectural conversation. His conviction that architecture is a dialogue between past and present, tradition and innovation is consistently highlighted.
Museum of Islamic Arts, Doha. , Photo Credit: Copyright Museum of Islamic Art, Doha
Q: What is your personal favorite of the two shows?
A: Every project is great in its own way, Responds to various challenges. I deeply admire his pioneering work in low-cost housing and his lifelong passion for advancing concrete technology. The house he designed for our family is one of his most outstanding projects – it embodies every principle and philosophy he applied in his later work.
But if I had to choose his most important project, it would be the Grand Louvre, completed in 1989. That commission encompassed every aspect of his skill set: architect, strategist, historian, diplomat.
Model for the Louvre Pyramid IM Pei: life in architecture show. , Photo Credit: Image courtesy of Qatar Museums
Sandy Pei was the project architect on the Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong, completed in 1989 Photo credit: Copyright South Ho Siu Nam / Courtesy M+ Museum, Hong Kong
Photographs and documents of IM Pei’s works are on display at Al Riwaq Gallery, Doha. , Photo Credit: Image courtesy of Qatar Museums
Q: Since the retrospective has traveled from Hong Kong to Qatar, what has the reception been like?
A: In Hong Kong and Shanghai, the exhibition was greeted with great anticipation and celebration. My father’s legacy has earned him a place among the nation’s historical figures.
In Doha, the response has been equally positive. He designed the Museum of Islamic Art there, which has become a national landmark. The exhibition introduced his career to a new audience – many young Arabs who seemed influenced, perhaps even inspired, by his example.
Why: As an architect, your father had an eclectic sense of taste and brought Western and Eastern design styles into his discipline. Specifically, about the current show, what’s unique to you?
A: My father was truly a global citizen. They had an amazing ability to thrive in different contexts and communities at the same time. He was charming and sophisticated as well as friendly and practical. A real person – charming, curious and warm.
As an architect, he was fascinated by the cultures he encountered and the traditions that shaped his architecture – form, materials, space, all of it. However, I would not call his work ‘eclectic’. I would say it was contextual, always rooted in a sense of place. His buildings were harmonious with the past, yet refined in craft, rigorous in detail, and technologically advanced.
I think what people appreciate most is how seamlessly their buildings fit into their environments and how much respect they show for the communities they serve. This is beautifully represented in the exhibition – tracing his career from early low-cost housing to the civic buildings and museums for which he is most famous. Overall, you see their single-minded focus on quality, sophistication and convenience. He lived by Vitruvius’s values ​​of ‘solidity, substance and happiness’, leaving behind buildings of lasting value and civic pride.
Architect I.M. Pei sits near the pyramidal entrance of the Louvre, which he designed. , Photo Credit: Getty Images
Question: Your father was involved in controversies, how did he react to criticism?
A: With patience and friendliness. He would calmly defend himself against criticism that he considered misguided. I never knew him to put a line on a sketch without thinking, and he was confident that in time his buildings would silence dissent.
And really, what could be a better measure of success? Of the approximately 100 projects built during his career, only a few have been demolished. The majority have become cherished, protected icons.
Q: Any design or architectural lessons from your father that have stuck with you?
A: There are lots of lessons. There are some direct quotes, like ‘Choose your client, not your project’ or ‘Good architecture lets nature in’. Others, I learned only through observation.
He remained inquisitive and inquisitive to the end, always eager to learn and understand the world around him. He was comfortable with presidents, ministers, royals – people who admired his sophistication, intelligence and foresight. But he was equally connected with the common people, the masses, who were his true users. He loved the cultures, places, and people, and epitomized the richness of immigrants’ productivity and diversity. Living so close to that example, it was impossible not to be influenced.
tanushree.ghsh@thehindu.co.in