Cesar Pelli was born in Argentina, where he earned a Diploma in Architecture from the University of Tucumán. He worked as Project Designer in the offices of Eero Saarinen, Director of Design at DMJM and Partner for Design at Gruen Associates. From 1977 to 1984, he served as Dean of the Yale School of Architecture. In 1977, he founded Cesar Pelli & Associates, now Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, whose projects include the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, the World Financial Center in New York, Canary Wharf in London, and the International Finance Center in Hong Kong. The American Institute of Architects (AIA) named him one of the 10 most influential living American architects in 1991 and awarded him its Gold Medal in 1995. In 2004, he was awarded the Aga Khan Award for Architecture for the Petronas Towers.
