I M Pei, master architect who designed Louvre Pyramid, dies at 102

Pei's more than 50 projects included the Musee d'Art Moderne in Luxembourg, Beverly Hills' Creative Artists Agency building and the 72-story Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong

I M Pei, a dominant figure in American architecture for more than three decades who designed the Louvre’s crystal pyramid and the angular East Building of Washington’s National Gallery of Art, has died. He was 102.

His son Li Chung Pei said on Thursday that his father had died overnight, the New York Times reported.

Pei gave “this century some of its most beautiful interior spaces and exterior forms,” said the jury of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, which Pei won in 1983.

Though reserved and supremely diplomatic, Pei’s face, always crowned by round thick-rimmed glasses, could break unexpectedly into a wide, dazzling smile.