Macao Science Center

This guide to the Macao Science Center in Macau follows I.M. Pei, the architect behind the Louvre's glass pyramid, who came out of retirement in two thousand four, at eighty-seven, to choose this waterfront site and sketch its tilted cone. It traces how that shape became the Exhibition Center, its interior built around a spiral ramp reminiscent of Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim, leading up through fourteen galleries to a harbor-view deck. You'll hear how Pei handed the project to his sons' firm while the founding vision stayed his own. Look up as you climb the ramp for how the cone frames the light overhead.