Pei, creator of Louvre pyramid, reaches his century
(Artdaily.org)

The modernist architect I. M. Pei, who was once pilloried for plonking a glass pyramid into the courtyard of the Louvre, turns 100 Wednesday with his controversial creation now an icon of the French capital. The Chinese-American designer endured a roasting from critics before the giant glass structure opened in 1989, with up to 90 percent of Parisians said to be against the project at one point. `I received many angry glances in the streets of Paris,` Pei later said, confessing that `after the Louvre I thought no project would be too difficult.` Yet in the end even that stern critic of modernist `carbuncles`, Britain`s Prince Charles, pronounced it `marvellous`. And the French daily Le Figaro, which had led the campaign against the `atrocious` design, celebrated its genius with a supplement on the 10th anniversary of its opening.