Word: pei
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...library, a magnificent stone and glass structure designed by I.M. Pei, was slated to be built next to where the Kennedy School of Government now stands. But community fears about possible increased congestion in the Square forced the library corporation to change those plans and pick the Dorchester site...
...city, not the country, and that the library should be near the sea, which he loved. Finally, Ted Kennedy announced to a meeting of the library's board: "If Jackie wants her husband's presidential library in Dorchester, it will be in Dorchester." Architect I.M. Pei prepared new designs (he eventually made a total of five before the Kennedys-chiefly Jackie-approved). The new plans featured more flamboyant geometry and a glass pavilion with a view of the ocean...
...plans for the library were finally beginning to shape up. The Kennedy Library Corporation--a private body headed by Robert F. Kennedy '44--had raisedabout $18 million from 30 million contributors worldwide. The corporation, moreover, had selected a rising young New York architect by the name of I. M. Pei to design the building. The Cambridge City Council and Harvard had both welcomed Pei's plans; officials went happily about their business, waiting for construction to begin. But when the MBTA was forced to find an alternate location for its carbarn, nobody was selling. Almost a dozen neighborhoods rejected...
...other hand was a more diffuse group of people who felt Harvard Square was the only proper site for the library complex--and that opponents harbored elitist feelings. Councilor Sullivan says opponents "didn't want the library. Period." Crane agrees, saying that even though Pei revised his plans twice to accommodate residents' fears--and appeared at public meetings on the proposal--"a very small handful of well-organized people put the harpoon into the library...
...vote was more influenced by perceptions of citizens' attitudes. At any rate, the old MBTA site reverted to the Commonwealth and the state donated 12 acres on Columbia Point for the library, despite some feeling that, in terms of economic development, a better site could have been found. Pei returned to his New York studio and drew up a fifth set of plans--the glass and pre-formed concrete structure which officials will dedicate on October...