Opulent Offices by an Emerging Pei
The world-renowned architect I.M. Pei, whose 100th birthday will occur April 26, is not known primarily for his design of office interiors. Yet among his earliest notable works were the Midtown Manhattan offices he designed for William Zeckendorf, the colorful head of Webb & Knapp, then the world’s most adventurous and forward-looking developers. These offices were designed and completed in 1950-1951, when Pei was in his early 30s. This was not, however, a dream commission for him – in fact not a commission at all, since Pei didn’t yet have his own firm. He had started his stellar design career quite unconventionally by signing on in 1948 as Webb & Knapp’s in-house architect. And while these offices were being completed, he was already at work on some of the developer’s suburban office buildings and the Roosevelt Field Shopping Center on Long Island. Zeckendorf had initiated the in-house architect arrangement, his …
Log in to Continue Reading
