The luxury midtown residence the Centurion is the only condo building that Pei ever created. The 17-story building tapers upward through a series of setbacks and curves that were required by zoning, but made unique by Pei. When the building was in planning back in 2007, Pei said, “The face will have more distinction with a cascade of stone, rather than steps. You don’t have to be big to be beautiful.” Eleven of the 48 homes are still on the market, including the three penthouses, which are available separately or as one $39 million mega-triplex.

The project description of Pei’s 54-story Four Seasons Hotel says the building “was designed to possess a classic elegance that transcends both time and fashion.” The hotel opened in 1993, but Pei was unsatisfied with the penthouse, as it wasn’t as magnificent as he wanted it to be because of budget constraints. But in 1999, new owner Ty Warner commissioned Pei to redo the penthouse. It took seven years and $50 million, but Pei did just that, creating a nine-room, 4,300-square-foot suite that goes for $30,000/night.

Back when NYU superblocks didn’t throw the neighborhood into unbridled rage (or did they?), Pei designed the Silver Towers of University Village. In 2008, the three-tower complex was designated a landmark, which effectively stopped NYU’s plans for building another tower on the block as part of its 2031 expansion plan.

100-110 Bleecker St
New York, NY 10012

The Kips Bay Towers were the first major NYC project of Pei’s career. The development consists of twin 20-story apartment buildings with a large plaza between them. They have a total of 1,118 units, and the design was inspired by Courbusier’s Unite de Habitation in Marsielle, France. From Pei’s website: “The twin slabs are aligned with the city streets and oriented to maximize skyline and river views. Each is defined by a concrete grid whose curved intersections express the fluid character of the structural pour. Because the façades are load-bearing units, fewer internal supports are required so that the apartments offer more usable space inside.”

In the late 1960s, Columbia University hired Pei to create a masterplan for school’s Morningside campus. There were lot of factors that led to this (which you can read about on the Columbia wiki), but many believe he was hired to rethink the McKim, Mead, and White plan that had helped spur the school’s 1968 protests. Pei proposed “intensive use” of the land and called for a lot of new buildings and development. He proposed such wildly unpopular ideas as building residential towers around South Field and hollowing out the field to build an underground facility with a gym and library. None of Pei’s ideas became reality.

402 Low Library
116th St & Broadway, New York, NY 10027

When completed in 1992, Pei’s Guggenheim Pavilion at Mt. Sinai Medical Center was extremely well-received. The Times called the atriums, “lofty,” “radiant,” and “luminous,” writing: “It resembles, rather, a health spa, a tranquil oasis where trees grow and space soars amid urban bustle and big-city hospital commotion. The Guggenheim Pavilion [… ]is a building of uncommon clarity in more than one sense: lucid in organization, lustrous in space.”

Pei designed this 11-story building with several references to traditional Korean design. A key feature is the central atrium that brings light to the interior and extends over a central staircase. The facade design was not very well-received. One architecture book reads, “Despite the meticulous detailing and the syncopated window pattern, the overall effect was flat and lifeless.”

335 East 45th Street
New York, NY 10017

8 Bed-Stuy Superblock

9 Former TWA Terminal 6