The architectural firm of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners is donating the project archive of founding partner I.M. Pei to the MIT Museum. Pei (1917-2019), one of the most celebrated architects of the last century, graduated from MIT in 1940.
“This landmark donation marks the homecoming of I. M. Pei to MIT,” the museum’s director, Michael John Gorman, said in a statement. “The MIT Museum is thrilled to steward his legacy and, together with MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning, establish a global hub for the study of I. M. Pei.”
Pei won the Pritzker Prize, architecture’s most prestigious honor, in 1983.
I.M. Pei, pencil sketch of John F. Kennedy Library.© Pei Cobb Freed & Partners
Among items in the archive are some 1,500 rolls of architectural drawings, 50 architectural models, and 1,000 linear feet of manuscripts and other materials relating to 60 Pei projects.
They include documents and drawings relating to some of Pei’s most famous buildings: the John F. Kennedy Library, the Louvre Pyramid, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the East Building of the National Gallery of Art, and Dallas City Hall.
The archive also includes materials concerning four Pei-designed buildings on the MIT campus: the Green, Dreyfus, Landau, and Weisner buildings.
The museum hopes to have the archive processed and catalogued by fall 2028.
Mark Feeney can be reached at mark.feeney@globe.com.