Today marks the 100th birthday of the internationally-acclaimed architect Ieoh Ming Pei, more commonly known as IM Pei.

The Chinese-American designer was born in Guangzhou in 1917 and later went to study architecture in the United States where he rose to fame and successfully built a career in the field of architectural design. The masterful structures he designed are spread throughout many countries and serve a variety of purposes. From the Louvre Museum in Paris to the Bank of China Building in Hong Kong, his masterpieces are everywhere.

One feature of his designs is that his artworks are believed to embody a sense of sculptural beauty. Deriving inspiration from sculptures is one of the techniques he employed for designs in public space. Notable examples include the glass-and-steel pyramid he designed for the Louvre Museum in Paris and the East Building of the National Gallery of Art in Washington D C.Back when he did the design for the Louvre, he courted controversy. His gigantic glass-and-steel pyramid creation was deemed as ruinous to the landscape and met very hostile critics both from the French public and social elites including the then director of the Louvre Museum.

But Pei had logic to back up his design. After carefully studying the history of the Louvre, Pei proposed a central entrance to create a subterranean space under the Napoleon courtyard. His glass pyramid design also served as a link between the three wings of the Louvre museum with vast underground galleries always bathed in reflected light. It was opened to the public in 1988, and after an initial wave of harsh reaction, Pei's design won support from celebrities like Prince Charles of Britain and the tide of public opinion turned around. It was even regarded as "the modern symbol of the museum".

Ieoh Ming Pei’s design style is categorized as belonging to the genre of "modernist". He won the Pritzker Prize in 1983, which is sometimes called the Nobel Prize of architecture.