Wikipedia:WikiProject Biography/Peer review/I. M. Pei

I. M. Pei
I'm planning to take this to FAC, but it should be trimmed a bit first. Thanks in advance to everyone for your time and attention to detail! Scartol •  Tok  16:14, 5 January 2010 (UTC)
 * UPDATE: has done a great job trimming the fat, so we're well within the appropriate article size. Now we need a review or two to make sure it's quality research and prose. Thanks in advance!  Scartol  •  Tok  18:28, 9 April 2010 (UTC)
 * Once again congratulations for this very well researched and coherent article. In the spirit of constructive criticism, I suggest three areas of possible improvement: (1) I am happy that it has been trimmed from ca.10,500 words to 9,000, and I wouldn't mind some more trimming. I know the stories around the buildings are very interesting, but not always are that relevant for his overall legacy or biography, and could be equally well placed in the individual articles about each of these buildings. (2) As it stands, the focus is very strong on Pei's biography, while his architecture (i.e. the art of building) is much less discussed. When the key buildings are presented, the chronologic description of the design and construction phases dominates, with often only few words about the design (i.e. artistic element). I think there could be a stronger emphasis on design, given that this is what makes him notable. (3) Size seems to be a distinct factor in his work. Unlike most architects, Pei seems to have been working in large companies, on large projects. Therefore I think it would be relevant to have some (but not too much) information about the size (i.e. nr. of architects) of Webb and Knapp, I. M. Pei & Associates, Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, and the size of some of the key buildings in the article. Elekhh (talk) 07:30, 23 April 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks for this, Elekhh. The first two points feel a bit contradictory to me, but perhaps I'm just not able to figure out what's being requested. (1) seems to say: "Cut out some of the info about the building process and focus more on his biography", while (2) seems to say: "Tone down the biography and include more info on the design process". I'm probably missing something.


 * I can say that I scoured the biographies of Pei as best I could, including as much as possible about design and his perspective on the creative process. As for the third point, I really didn't come across much info on these points. (Though I suppose we could find specifics on heights of buildings, if that's what you mean -- I didn't include those at first because they seemed very technical and better suited for the articles about the buildings themselves.) If anyone else can suggest where I might look, please share! Thanks again. Scartol  •  Tok  12:46, 13 May 2010 (UTC)
 * I made few corrections to my comment above to remove ambiguity. To further clarify, what I meant was that the article could say a bit more about Pei's architecture (i.e. art of building). Contemporary architecture critics like Kenneth Frampton would have written about it. Regarding the keyword "size": the process of designing very large buildings (and many of them) must involve a large number of architects, and while the credit is usally all Pei's, it should be mentioned the scale of the design process. For instance his website states that Pei Cobb Freed & Partners is run by 8 partners and has 90 employees, of which more than a third are registered architects . Elekhh (talk) 00:12, 14 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Alas, Frampton's 2006 book The Evolution of 20th-Century Architecture isn't available in my city, and his 1980 book Modern Architecture: A Critical History probably won't have much on Pei. If you can think of other sources for me to try, I'd be happy to take a look. Scartol  •  Tok  20:47, 14 June 2010 (UTC)
 * William J R Curtis: Modern Architecture Since 1900'. is another classic but I'm not sure how much is on Pei in it. -- Elekhh (talk) 21:34, 14 June 2010 (UTC)
 * And it won't be back into the library near me until December. I think we'll have to go with what we've got! If I find any of those sources, I'll add 'em later. Scartol  •  Tok  22:03, 15 June 2010 (UTC)