I.M. Pei receives Royal Gold Medal

High honour for Louvre pyramid architect

I.M. Pei is to receive the Royal Gold Medal from the Royal Institute of British Architecture President Ruth Reed at a ceremony in London later today. The award will recognise the 92 year old architect for his lifetime's work of influence 'either directly or indirectly on the advancement of architecture'.

Pei is best known for his glass pyramid at the Louvre in Paris which became one of the great landmarks of the city after its construction completed in 1989, and in thanks for the recognition he will generously donate a drawing of the Louvre pyramid to the RIBA collections.

His other buildings include the National Center for Atmospheric Research Boulder, Colorado, the East Wing of the National Gallery Washington DC, the John F Kennedy Library, Boston, the Bank of China, Hong Kong, and the Miho Museum in Shiga, Japan (1991-97). In recent years Pei has completed major museum projects in Luxembourg, China and Qatar. His only building in the UK is a private commission: a tiny pavilion in Wiltshire.

I. M. Pei has been honoured by America, France, Germany, Japan and the UK where he is an Honorary Academician of the Royal Academy of Arts (1993). He has been awarded the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Medal for Architecture (1976); the American Institute of Architects - the Gold Medal (1979); the American Academy of Arts & Letters - Gold Medal for Architecture (1979); La Grande Médaille d’Or of l’Académie d’Architecture, France (1981), the Pritzker Architecture Prize (1983); the Praemium Imperiale for lifetime achievement in architecture, Japan (1989); Officier de La Légion d’Honneur, France (1993) and the Thomas Jefferson Medal for distinguished achievement in the arts, humanities, or social sciences (2001).