John F. Kennedy Presidential

 Library and Museum

Architect: I.M. Pei

   

I.M. Pei is a Chinese born, American architect who was born in 1917 in Guangzhou, but raised in Hong Kong. Pei was not sure what he really wanted to do with his life but decided to give architecture a try. Pei initially enrolled at the university of Pennsylvania but was not happy with the Beaux-Arts style of architecture taught at that time, so he dropped out and enrolled at MIT studying the scientific and engineering side of architecture. Pei, I.M. (2020). Britannica Online Academic Edition, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

After John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, Pei was selected to design a memorial library for the late president. Pei worked closely with John’s wife Jacquelin who would make the final decision on the library’s design. The astonishing building contained two elliptically shaped 230-seat theaters and an 18,000-square-square foot exhibition area. On the upper floors of the tower contain office, research, and document storage facilities. Rigg, F. (1995). The John F. Kennedy library. Government Information Quarterly, 12(1), 71-81.