CAMBRIDGE, MASS.- The MIT Museum announces the promised transfer of the project archive of I. M. Pei, a significant collection representing his work for his New York architecture firm Pei Cobb Freed & Partners. The landmark donation will make Pei’s alma mater, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Bachelor of Architecture, 1940) the home of the single largest collection of his work and the new leading hub for research and study of the prolific Pritzker Prize-winning architect.
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The I. M. Pei archive includes approximately 1,500 rolls of architectural drawings, 50 architectural models, and 1,000 linear feet of manuscripts and other archives spanning more than sixty projects across Pei’s decades-long career. With this gift, the MIT Museum will become the leading steward and resource for the student and professional work of I. M. Pei, further bolstering the museum’s extensive architecture collections. After the drawings and archives are processed and catalogued, projected for Fall 2028, MIT and the MIT Museum plan to present a robust program of collaborative teaching, research, exhibition, and public engagement efforts to bring unprecedented access to the architect’s legacy.
The archive will include never-before-seen drawings and documents from Pei’s career, including the Louvre Museum Modernization in Paris, France, four significant buildings on the MIT Campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts (Green Building, Dreyfus Building, Landau Building, and Wiesner Building), the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston, Massachusetts, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, and many more.
The Mark R. Epstein (Class of 1963) Director, MIT Museum Michael John Gorman, said: “This landmark donation marks the homecoming of I. M. Pei to MIT. From his early designs of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum and the Louvre Pyramid, to architectural drawings for four of our campus's most important buildings, this archive showcases and celebrates Pei's lifetime of achievements and impact on the built environment. The MIT Museum is thrilled to steward his legacy and, together with MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning, establish a global hub for the study of I. M. Pei. We are deeply grateful to Pei Cobb Freed & Partners for entrusting the Pei archive to MIT, bringing Pei’s archive ‘home’ to MIT.”
In addition to his legacy as a celebrated architect, Pei was a valued member of the MIT community. His Institute professors, recognizing Pei’s talent and potential, preserved an unusually large number of his student drawings as examples of outstanding student work; these works are now held in the Museum’s Architecture Collection and include drawings from classroom architecture assignments, figure drawing classes, and his final thesis project. Pei remained involved and committed to the Institute, serving on the Corporation and as an honorary member of the Council for the Arts at MIT. I. M. Pei left a visible mark on the MIT campus, designing the Cecil and Ida Green Building for Earth Sciences (Building 54), the Camille Edouard Dreyfus Chemistry Building (Building 18), the Ralph Landau Building for Chemical Engineering (Building 66), and the Wiesner Building (Building E15, the original home of the MIT Media Lab).
The MIT Museum’s Architecture Collection documents the evolution of architectural education and practice in the United States. Originating with MIT’s pioneering architecture program, founded in 1867, the collection was built from teaching materials assembled by educator William Robert Ware, including professional drawings and student work. Today the collection spans works from the sixteenth century to the present, with particular strengths in nineteenth- and twentieth-century architectural education and the professional work of MIT alumni and faculty. With the announced promised transfer from Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, the MIT Museum will become the single largest repository of work by Pei in the world.
Jonathan Duval, Assistant Curator of Architecture at the MIT Museum and project lead on the Pei archive transfer, said: “From its founding in the 1860s, teaching architecture at MIT has been rooted in learning through drawings, objects, photographs, and other exemplars, many of which are in the collection of the MIT Museum. With the addition of I. M. Pei’s project archive, the MIT Museum will continue this tradition while activating historic materials in expanded ways. Pei’s architecture features innovations in structure and materials and makes use of striking modernist geometries while balancing contemporary cultural needs with a deep understanding of historical precedent—this is an approach to design that is still relevant and instructive today. Pei’s prominence as one of the most important, recognizable architects of the twentieth century presents exciting opportunities for public engagement through programs and exhibitions that activate the archive, celebrate Pei’s legacy, and make his architectural sensibilities meaningful and engaging to a wide range of audiences.”
