César Pelli (October 12, 1926) was born in Argentina where he

earned a Diploma in Architecture from the University of Tucuman.

He first worked in the offices of Eero Saarinen serving as Project
Designer for several buildings including the TWA Terminal at JFK
Airport in New York. In 1977, Pelli became Dean of the Yale
University School of Architecture and also founded Cesar Pelli &
Associates (now known as Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects).
His designs have avoided formalistic preconceptions.

In 1995, the American Institute of Architects awarded Pelli the Gold

Medal, in recognition of a lifetime of distinguished achievement in
architecture. And in 2004, he was awarded the Aga Khan Award for
Architecture for the design of the Petronas Towers, Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia.

Though Pelli trained as a modern architect in the 1950s and was influenced by Eero

Saarinen, he remains unclassifiable. His structures have been praised by Douglas
Davis in a 1986 Newsweek article as "lyrical, technically sophisticated buildings that
are neither 'modern' nor 'postmodern.

Critics described Pelli’s work as “poetic” and “fresh” and noted

his diversity, sensitivity to site, and innovative solutions to
architectural problems.