View Full Version : I.M. Pei



Jersey Boss
05-16-2019, 08:53 PM
Died today at 102. He definitely made his mark and influenced the world of modernist architecture.

jedicurt
05-17-2019, 07:47 AM
Died today at 102. He definitely made his mark and influenced the world of modernist architecture.

yes, both positively and negatively... but my critique of his architecture aside... 102, that's a long full life. i hope i get that much time on this earth.

PaddyShack
05-21-2019, 01:21 PM
Should we have a statue dedicated to him to memorialize all of the great work he did in OKC?

TheTravellers
05-21-2019, 01:38 PM
Should we have a statue dedicated to him to memorialize all of the great work he did in OKC?

Nah, they'd just tear it down in a decade or so to put up a parking lot...

jedicurt
05-21-2019, 01:40 PM
Nah, they'd just tear it down in a decade or so to put up a parking lot...

they also would have to destroy our most historic building and put it there in the first place

hoya
05-21-2019, 01:41 PM
Should we have a statue dedicated to him to memorialize all of the great work he did in OKC?

While I think you’re joking, it’s not a bad idea. He played an important (though unfortunate) role in OKc’s history. A statue and even maybe a little scale model of his plan for the city might be cool in a park somewhere. A little “might have been” plan for the city.

jedicurt
05-21-2019, 01:45 PM
While I think you’re joking, it’s not a bad idea. He played an important (though unfortunate) role in OKc’s history. A statue and even maybe a little scale model of his plan for the city might be cool in a park somewhere. A little “might have been” plan for the city.

actually a statue with a miniature of the Pei plan, i would actually support

TheTravellers
05-21-2019, 02:14 PM
While I think you’re joking, it’s not a bad idea. He played an important (though unfortunate) role in OKc’s history. A statue and even maybe a little scale model of his plan for the city might be cool in a park somewhere. A little “might have been” plan for the city.

I was going to mention that I thought I had heard that his plan was actually decent and would've been a good thing, but we stopped halfway through, did the demo, but didn't build anything to his plan/specs afterwards. It would've blunted the impact of my joke, though. :p I need to bone up on what actually happened now that I've gotten more interested in how things develop around here since I've been back.

Dob Hooligan
05-21-2019, 02:24 PM
I recall an original model is in OKC somewhere. Maybe the Museum of Art located at State Fair Park?

Roger S
05-21-2019, 02:26 PM
I recall an original model is in OKC somewhere. Maybe the Museum of Art located at State Fair Park?

I think it is located in one of the buildings on Film Row.

bchris02
05-21-2019, 02:41 PM
Should we have a statue dedicated to him to memorialize all of the great work he did in OKC?

I say it should go on the Stage Center site.

Ross MacLochness
05-21-2019, 03:21 PM
Model is located in the Hart building, second floor. Well worth a visit!!

mugofbeer
05-22-2019, 10:37 AM
Here is a video of what was, in the mid 60s, and what would be, with the Pei Plan:

https://www.citylab.com/design/2019/05/revisiting-im-pei-plan-oklahoma-city-urban-renewal-architecture/589666/

A couple of pics of the model of the Pei Plan:

15299

mugofbeer
05-22-2019, 10:38 AM
Another pic:

15300

mugofbeer
05-22-2019, 10:40 AM
So much of downtown was emptying out and moving to the burbs, so the Urban Renewal Authority could buy the property and tear down the buildings. I think about the only significant things built back are the Myriad Convention Center (in a different configuration), the Myriad Gardens Tube and what was the Liberty Bank building.

Ross MacLochness
05-22-2019, 03:16 PM
^^galleria, two grotesque parking structures, E.K. Gaylord, Robinson widening are some more projects I can think of that happened and including the projects you listed are depicted in the Pei Plan

KayneMo
05-22-2019, 03:27 PM
Eerily, there's a fountain in the model where the Murrah Building would stand 13 years after this model was built.

Ross MacLochness
05-22-2019, 03:30 PM
^^^wow...

Dob Hooligan
05-22-2019, 04:23 PM
Galleria did not get built, IIRC. Kerr-McGee headquarters and CenturyCenter is all I remember right now.

I watched the full video and the script includes every concept being sold for a modern downtown right now. I honestly think that if we hadn't dozed so much then, we would never have been able to build to MAPS 1 and beyond. The desolation period was really "only" 15-20 years between Myriad, Myriad Gardens etc. and MAPS. That period was mostly filled with the failure of the Galleria developer/development, the "Oil Bust" and the "Savings & Loan Crisis".

Dob Hooligan
05-22-2019, 05:14 PM
Damn! I gotta admit I forgot the "New" Mummers Theater, which became Stage Center. My sainted father (whose job made him a tool of "The Man", yet he was a very libertarian thinker) always hated Stage Center for it's lack of functionality.

Ross MacLochness
05-23-2019, 07:47 AM
^^oops that's what I meant, Century Center, not the Galleria