after graduation, fentress interviewed at the offices of i.m. pei in new york city and won the job. "i went to work the next morning, thursday, and put in 70 hours by monday morning" fentress remembers. it was at pei's office where fentress first became fascinated with large scale public projects; "many buildings at that time wound up being impersonal 50's modernist boxes. i took it upon myself to battle to make these buildings more humanistic."