Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art

I. M. Pei chose to build upward to take advantage of the views. The distinctive look and neutral color of the board-formed concrete is complemented by the numerous windows Pei used to engage the landscape with the building itself. On almost every level, from the ground up, windows on one side are matched by corresponding windows opposite, enhancing the feeling of openness and transparency. “Seeing through” the building became an essential part of the architecture. In May 1975, the American Institute of Architects gave Pei their annual Honor Award. Citing the Johnson Museum, they noted “an appropriate use of unusual form . . . in that the building acts as a ‘window’: the solids are the frame of the view, the void acts as the transparency.”