Word: pei
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However, says Charles Daly, director of the Kennedy Library Foundation in Boston, "she was not at all above giving very direct criticism when warranted." He recalls the day she visited the library building designed by her friend the architect I.M. Pei as it was under construction. She saw an asphalt driveway where lawn and trees should have been. "She called one of I.M. Pei's guys out and pointed to the asphalt," says Daly. "She nearly ate the guy for lunch. She could be very tough...
Architecture: I.M. Pei brings light and logic to the Louvre...
Disputes between architects and curators arose frequently during construction. One of the worst involved the wall colors in the exhibition space for Northern European 17th century paintings. Pei wanted beige or off- white, he says, because "neutral-colored walls go with any colors in the paintings." But the curators insisted on stronger tones. The dispute grew so acrimonious that one curator is reported by several observers to have referred repeatedly to Pei, behind his back, as "that slant-eyed little Chinaman...
...walls of the Flemish section are a gray-mauve that curators describe as plum but less charitable observers call degueulis d'ivrogne (loosely translated as regurgitated wine). Here the magnificent Flemish collection, featuring works of Van Eyck, Van Dyck and Bruegel, ultimately prevails. And so does the ingenuity of Pei's layouts, which is evident throughout the painting galleries. For Poussin, Pei designed a special octagonal room to show off the famous Seasons series. And for the 24 oversize Rubenses commissioned by Marie de Medicis in the 1620s, Pei designed what is the stunning centerpiece of the Flemish section...
Paris' Louvre Museum celebrated its 200th birthday with the inauguration of the Richelieu wing. This second phase of the museum's spectacular $1 billion renovation -- the dream of President Francois Mitterrand and the work of Chinese-American architect I.M. Pei -- nearly doubles the museum's exhibition space...