Flagpole in the Square

When plans were first drawn for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1912, the architect envisioned a grey, classic complex along the Charles River, with no building higher than five stories and a softly rounded dome providing the grace note. But in recent years, expanding M.I.T. has felt cramped on its 115-acre Cambridge campus. Something had to give, and what gave was M.I.T.'s low-lying skyline. The next addition to the campus, to be ready by 1962, will be the 20-story, $5,000,000 Earth Sciences* Center, designed by Alumnus Ieoh Ming Pei.

The original idea was only for a nine-story building. But Pei convinced M.I.T. that a high-rise building--M.I.T. frowns at the word skyscraper--would not only help solve M.I.T.'s space problems but would also provide a focus for the other low roofs. The new structure would act like a flagpole in a public square, drawing the surrounding laboratories and dormitories into an organized composition. Since scientists tend to believe that change is the only tradition to operate in, Pei made his case.

Like an Airplane. Pei's laboratory is even more daring than it looks. It has no interior columns but is supported by reinforced concrete piers on either side of the building. The piers also hold all the elevators and mechanical equipment. Each floor is hung like a bridge span between the piers. By doing away with interior columns, Pei gives the building open space which can later be converted into either a library or an auditorium. The windows are ovals. Explains Pei: "Since the outer walls are trusses, I had to obey the stress lines developed in the truss. Oval windows were designed because they most closely follow the stress lines, like windows in an airplane."

Son of a Shanghai banker, Pei was born in Canton in 1917, emigrated to the U.S. in 1935 to study architecture at M.I.T. "I did not know what architecture really was in China," he says. "At that time, there was no difference between an architect, a construction man, or an engineer." Graduated in 1939, Pei volunteered to work for the National Defense Research

Committee. "I was supposed to be an expert in Japanese construction," he says. "I would be brought photographs of Japanese towns, and I was supposed to figure out the best way to burn them down. It was awful; I don't even like to think about it."

City Planning. Once out of the service, he found it "hard for a foreigner to get architectural commissions." Teaching at Harvard in 1948, he was recommended to Builder William Zeckendorf as the kind of architect who could help Zeckendorf in his grandly conceived city projects. Zeckendorf hired him. "In city planning, you need a man like Zeckendorf," says Pei. "Only through men like him can an architect get into urban redevelopment. He can't do it himself, because he has no understanding of land values, movements and trends."

In 1955 Pei set up his own office, now has a staff of 77. His biggest client, accounting for half of his work, is still Zeckendorf's firm of Webb & Knapp. Pei designed Denver's Mile-High Center for Zeckendorf, has also worked with Zeckendorf in Pittsburgh, Washington, Chicago and New York. More and more, though, Pei is setting out on his own. Says he: "The area of speculative real estate building does not alone interest me any more. It's too hard to make good architecture out of real estate building."

* Geology, geophysics, geochemistry, oceanography and meteorology.

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