Thursday, April 30, 1998
Famous architect Pei speaks at UCLA
ARCHITECTURE: International student center hosts talk on
restoration of Louvre
By Marisa Yamane and Christy Lin
Daily Bruin Contributors
If you’re going to "Pei" for an architect, you might as well
choose one of the world’s most famous.
Prominent architect Chien Chung "Didi" Pei presented his recent
work on one of the world’s most famous museums, the Louvre, on
Wednesday at the Tom Bradley International Center (TBIC).
Having worked in many countries, Pei opened his lecture by
speaking of the importance of the new Dashew International Student
Center (DISC), which sponsored his lecture.
Although the center’s purpose is to allow foreigners to learn
about American culture, "it’s even more important to get Americans
to learn about foreign countries," Pei said.
"For me, coming from New York and coming to work in Los Angeles;
maybe that’s considered another country," Pei joked.
Last year, the UCLA Medical Center announced its decision to
have I.M. Pei and Pei Partnership Architects design a new
million-square-foot hospital. Didi, which means "little brother"
and his younger brother, Li Chung "Sandi" Pei, have taken over
their father’s firm.
The new hospital will replace the current hospital facility,
which sustained considerable structural damage in the 1994
Northridge earthquake. The details of the project will be released
in the fall.
Graduating from Harvard with a bachelor’s degree in physics and
math, Didi Pei thinks back on his college days, saying, "I had a
great time. I love being a student. I would say that those of you
who are students should really take advantage of that freedom that
you have."
In college, Pei played sports, played the clarinet in the
orchestra, and loved photography. He liked bicycling and playing
squash, a popular game on the East Coast similar to racketball.
Pei reminds students that "studies are not the only thing in
life. There are so many things that you can do now very easily that
you will have a hard time doing later on in life."
After college, Pei followed in the architectural footsteps of
his father, joining his firm in 1971. Some of Didi Pei’s projects
include the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art in Washington,
D.C., and the Bank of China’s new headquarters in Beijing.
Pei worked on restructuring the Louvre, which houses the Mona
Lisa and is one of France’s cultural monuments.
Having an American firm work on an important part of French
heritage caused eyebrow-raising within French society.
"It’s an international project … it’s also a project where
being American and working on such a prestigious project in a
country like France posed a lot of interesting problems," Pei
explained.
The renovation – which increased exhibition space by nearly 50
percent – included a new main entrance, a public plaza, an
underground expansion, the Richelieu Wing conversion,
infrastructure and the famed pyramids outside of the museum.
The expansion, ending in 1990, took 10 years and added 1.2
million square feet to the museum.
Didi Pei travels to Los Angeles weekly from his home in New York
City to work on this hospital. He likes to spend his free time with
his wife, Beatrice, and three children, ages 8, 5 and 5.
Dashew International Student Center
Chien Chung Pei speaks about his career in architecture.