RIBA President Ruth Reed, who headed the jury of the award, noted that very rarely a laureate is awarded so deservedly and at the same time with such a delay, as in the case of J. M. Pei. She ranked him among the outstanding architects of the 20th and 21st centuries and noted his unparalleled influence on the younger representatives of the profession, to whom he passed on the ideas of his teachers - Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer.
She was echoed by David Adjaye, who nominated J. M. Singing to receive the Gold Medal: according to him, when he just started studying to be an architect, Pei was already part of the cohort of the "greats" and became for him an undeniable role model. Ajaye is fascinated by his talent for creating strikingly clear works based on complex and contradictory tasks and his ability to work equally fruitfully with a variety of customers: crowned heads, heads of state, intractable developers, charitable organizations.
The laureate himself noted that it is a great honor for him to stand in a row with the previous winners of the RIBA Gold Medal, among whom were Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Alvar Aalto.
The awards ceremony will take place in London on 11 February 2010.
