projecting ielement

this doesn't work:

IElement e = (IElement)element;
e.Geometry.Project(spatialReference);

this works, but it doesn't reproject just assigns projection, but i need to reproject.

IGraphicElement e = (IGraphicElement)element;
e.SpatialReference = spatialReference;

any ideas beside writing a ton of code to findout what type of element i have and creating a new element with new reprojected geometry?