I.M. Pei

I.M. Pei’s glass pyramid at the Louvre (1989) overcame massive public controversy to become one of Paris’s most iconic structures, drawing over 10 million visitors yearly. His East Building of the National Gallery (1978) in Washington, D.C., uses a trapezoidal site to create a triangular atrium flooded with natural light, housing a 30-foot mobile by Calder. The Bank of China Tower (1990) in Hong Kong rises 367 meters on a structural exoskeleton, a feat of geometry that mirrors the bamboo plant’s strength.