Modernist architect I.M. Pei, known for iconic structures from the Louvre Pyramid to Cleveland's Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, has died in New York. He was 102.

Pei was born in China in 1917. He went on to study at University of Pennsylvania, MIT, and Harvard's Graudate School of Design. Pioneering modernists Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright were early influences, along with Bauhaus masters Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer.

A knowledge of history and affinity for nature informed his work. Pei also had a gift with people skills that led to important worldwide projects, such as the East Building of the National Gallery of Art in D.C., the Kennedy Library in Boston and the Museum of Islamic Art, Qatar.