Peek inside the archives of a titan of 20th century architecture

The archives of one of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s most masterful architecture graduates, I.M. Pei, are heading back to the university. MIT has just acquired the full archive of Pei, who graduated from MIT’s Bachelor of Architecture program in 1940 and went on to design such notable buildings as Dallas City Hall, the glass pyramid at the Louvre, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, and several buildings on MIT’s campus. Pei, who died in 2019 at age 102, was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize and is regarded as one of the most significant architects of the 20th century. I. M. Pei and Araldo Cossuta with a model of the MIT campus, 1960. [Photo: Courtesy of MIT Museum] The archives heading to MIT include 1,500 rolls of architectural drawings, 50 architectural models, and 1,000 linear feet (305 meters) of manuscripts and other archives spanning 60 projects from Pei’s six-decade professional career at the firm he founded, known since 1989 as Pei Cobb Freed & Partners. The firm selected MIT and its museum from a handful of applicants to steward and activate Pei’s extensive archives, creating opportunities to integrate his work into the school’s teaching, research, and exhibitions. [Photo: © Pei Cobb Freed & Partners] “You can really tell the story of a career,” says Jonathan Duval, assistant curator of architecture and design at the MIT Museum. “You get the whole arc from start to finish.” [Photo: © Pei Cobb Freed & Partners] The collection will be the largest single repository of works by Pei. It includes the delicate hand sketches he made for projects like the Kennedy Library and the Louvre, as well as the detailed construction drawings from MIT’s own Green Building, a 21-story Pei tower from 1962. Duval says the archive will offer MIT students and professors the opportunity to more deeply understand one of the university’s most sign