Ieoh Ming Pei was born in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China on April 26, 1917 to a prominent banker.
His first education was in Shanghai and then at St. Paul's College, Hong Kong before moving to the United States to study architecture at the age of 18. He started at the University of Pennsylvania before going on to receive his Bachelor of Architecture degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1940. That same year, he was awarded the Alpha Rho Chi Medal, the MIT Travelling Fellowship, and the AIA Gold Medal. He enrolled at the Harvard Graduate School of Design two years later; shortly thereafter, he served at the National Defense Research Committee in Princeton, New Jersey.
In 1944 he returned to Harvard, received his master degree in Architecture in 1946 and stayed at Harvard as an assistant professor. He received the Wheelwright Traveling Fellowship in 1951 and became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1954.
Pei operated his own architectural firm, founded in 1955, which was known as I. M. Pei & Partners until 1989 when it became known as Pei Cobb Freed & Partners recognizing James Ingo Freed and Henry N. Cobb.
I.M. Pei has two sons: Chien Chung (Didi) Pei, and Li Chung (Sandi) Pei. Both have followed their father to the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Chien Chung Pei helped his father design the Louvre addition from 1989 to 1993. Li Chung Pei helped his father design the Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong in 1989. Both became architects practicing under their own firm, Pei Partnerships. I.M. Pei has helped out at the firm since his retirement from his own firm in 1990.
