One of the world's most revered and distinguished architects, I.M. Pei, who designed some of the most iconic structures across the globe such as the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) in Qatar and the glass pyramid at the Lourve, has died at age 102.

_{Photo Credit: Daily Times} 

Marc Diamond, a spokesman for the architect’s New York firm, Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, confirmed Pei’s death on Thursday.

One of Pei's sons, Li Chung Pei, told The New York Times his father had died overnight on Wednesday into Thursday, according to Al Jazeera.

Pei’s buildings are found across the globe, and include the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, and the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston.

In Japan the Miho Museum bears his imprint, while he gave Singapore The Gateway - a skyscraper complex known for its striking angles, reported BBC.

Other creations comprise the trapezoidal addition to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, to the chiseled towers of the National Center of Atmospheric Research that blend in with the reddish mountains in Boulder, Colorado.

The awe-inspiring designs of Pei’s buildings have gained global recognition for their particular focus on precision geometry, plain surfaces and natural light.

Born in Guangzhou, China in 1917, Pei moved to the US aged 18 to study at Pennsylvania, MIT and Harvard.

After working as a research scientist for the US government for a while, Pei went on to work as an architect, founding his own firm in 1955.

His distinct style and unmatched creativity took him around the world to design a wide variety of buildings from municipal buildings to hotels, and from schools to other sturctures across North America, Asia and Europe.

_{Photo Credit:Wahyu Pratomo and Kris Provoost}

Even though Pei had officially retired much earlier, in 2008 he accepted a challenge to design MIA in Qatar. A longtime collector of Western Abstract Expressionist art, he admitted to knowing little about Islamic art, reported The New York Times.

Pei, however, saw the commission as an opportunity to learn about a culture he did not claim to understand.

He began his research by reading a biography of the Prophet Muhammad, and then commenced a tour of great Islamic architecture around the world.

The museum design came into being after Pei had traveled for months seeking inspiration.

"Islam was one religion I did not know," he told the Times newspaper. "So I studied the life of Muhammad. I went to Egypt and Tunisia."

The commendable efforts that he put into his projects reaffirmed his belief that designing public structures required an awareness of the past, but most importantly the courage to explore.

_{Photo Credit: Arch Daily} 

Pei was honored with several awards and prizes during his lifetime, including the AIA Gold Medal, the Praemium Imperiale for Architecture in addition to the Pritzker Prize, considered as the Nobel Prize of Architecture.

Pei's wife, Eileen passed away earlier in 2014.  A son, T'ing Chung, died in 2003. Besides sons Chien Chung Pei and Li Chung Pei, he leaves behind a daughter, Liane.
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Cover Image Credit: Fisher Marantz Stone