Robert Campbell - Conversation with I.M. Pei

Ieoh Ming Pei, architect Robert Campbell, critic, Boston Globe, 1996 Pulitzer Prize The John F. Kennedy Library building consists of a triangular 10-story tower for archives and administrative offices and a two-story base. containing exhibition space and two 300-seat theaters, and a 110-foot high memorial pavilion, which gives coherence and focus to the whole. After viewing a film about Kennedy's life, visitors descend into linked exhibition areas highlighting the president's family and administration. From this darkened setting, visitors emerge into the sun-filled, silent void of the space-framed glass pavilion. Except for an enormous American flag suspended above, the space is empty to allow viewers to contemplate what they have seen and experienced against a great panorama of sky, land and open sea. Ieoh Ming Pei, the building's architect, discusses the evolution and implementation of his vision for the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum with the Boston Globe's Pulitzer Prize winning architecture critic, Robert Campbell.