American architect
Pietro Belluschi (August 18, 1899 – February 14, 1994) was an
Italian-American architect. A leading figure in
modern architecture , he was responsible for the design of over 1,000 buildings.
[1]
Born in
Ancona , Italy, Belluschi began his architectural career as a draftsman in a
Portland, Oregon firm. He achieved a national reputation within about 20 years, largely for his 1947 aluminum-clad
Equitable Building . In 1951, he was named the dean of the
MIT School of Architecture and Planning , where he served until 1965, also working as collaborator and design consultant for many high-profile commissions, most famously the 1963
Pan Am Building . He won the
American Institute of Architects' Gold Medal in 1972.
Early life
Pietro Belluschi was born in
Ancona, Italy , in 1899.
[2] He grew up in Italy and served in the Italian armed forces during
World War I when Italy was allied with
Great Britain ,
France , and later the United States.
[2] Serving in the army he fought against the Austrians at the battles of
Caporetto and
Vittorio Veneto .
[2] After the war, Belluschi studied at the
University of Rome , earning a degree in
civil engineering in 1922.
[1]
He moved to the United States in 1923, despite speaking no English, and finished his education—as an exchange student on a scholarship—at
Cornell University with a second degree in civil engineering.
[1]
[2]
[3] Instead of returning to Italy, he worked briefly as a mining engineer in
Idaho earning $5 per day, but he then joined the architectural office of
A. E. Doyle in Portland,
[2] living in
Goose Hollow .
[4] He remained in the U.S., as friends in Italy had cautioned him to not return home because of the rise to power of
Benito Mussolini and the
Fascist government.
[2]
Career
Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption in
San Francisco
At Doyle's office, Belluschi rose rapidly, soon becoming chief designer. After Doyle died in 1928, the firm took him into partnership in 1933. By 1943, Belluschi had assumed control of the firm by buying out all the other partners and was practicing under his own name.
In 1951, Belluschi became Dean of the architecture and planning school at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology , a position he held until 1965.
[1] When he accepted the position of dean and moved to Massachusetts, he transferred his office in Portland to the architecture firm
Skidmore, Owings and Merrill . The move reduced his annual income from $150,000 to a salary of $15,000, but was prompted by health concerns attributable to the long hours of managing his office while still designing buildings.
[2]
Belluschi emerged as a leader in the development of American
Modern architecture , with the design of several buildings reflecting the influence of the
International Style and his awareness of the technological opportunities of new materials. Most important was the
Equitable Building (1944–47) in Portland, Oregon: a concrete frame office block clad in
aluminum , and considered the first office building with a completely sealed
air-conditioned environment.
Belluschi's
churches and residences differed from his commercial works. Although of Modern design, they fit within the development of the
Pacific Northwest regional Modern idiom as they frequently used regional materials (particularly wood) and were often integrated with their suburban or rural sites.
Awards and honors
Belluschi was elected a Fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1952.
[5] In 1953, he was elected into the
National Academy of Design as an Associate member, and became a full member in 1957. He served as a presidential appointee on the
U.S. Commission of Fine Arts from 1950 to 1955.
[6] He was a
Fellow in the
American Institute of Architects (AIA), and was awarded the
AIA Gold Medal , the highest award given by the institute, in 1972.
[1] He was awarded the
National Medal of Arts by the National Endowment for the Arts in 1991 for his lifetime achievements.
[7] Belluschi was on the jury that selected the winning design for the
Vietnam Veterans Memorial in
Washington, D.C.
[8]
Later life
After leaving MIT in 1965, he continued to work. Belluschi would design and consult on both buildings and issues surrounding
urban planning . Pietro Belluschi was married first to Helen Hemmila on December 1, 1934, the mother of his two sons, Peter and Anthony. His son Anthony Belluschi is an architect.
[9]
[10] After his wife's death in 1962, he married in 1965 to Marjorie Bruckner (1920–2009). Pietro Belluschi died in Portland on February 14, 1994.
[2]
Selected works
Commonwealth Building in Portland.
Rohm and Haas
Belluschi's designs include:
Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company Building, southern addition, Portland,
[11] 1926
Pacific Building , Portland, 1926
Public Service Building , Portland, 1927
Belluschi Building,
Portland Art Museum (
NRHP ), 1932
Guardians' Lodge (1929), Kiwanis Lodge (1931), Uncle Toby's Story House (1932), and Blue Wing Lodge (1936),
Camp Namanu , Sandy, Oregon
Northrup Library (now T. J. Day Hall) at
Linfield University , McMinnville, 1936
[12]
Library Building (now Smullin Hall) at
Willamette University , Salem,
[13] 1938
St. Thomas More Catholic Church , Portland, 1940
Peter Kerr House,
Gearhart, Oregon ,
[14] 1941
Chapel,
River View Cemetery , Portland, 1942
Korten Music Store,
Longview, Washington , 1946
Sweeney, Straub and Dimm Printing Plant, Portland (NRHP), 1946
Emmanuel Lutheran Church, Longview, Washington, 1946
Burkes House, Portland, 1947
Oregonian Building, Portland,
[11]
[15] 1947
Baxter Hall and Collins Hall, Willamette University, Salem,
[13] 1947
Charles and Blanche Sprague Weekend House, also known as Thetford Lodge, Little North Santiam River, Oregon, 1947
Psychology Building,
Reed College , Portland, 1947–1948
Breitenbush Hall,
Oregon State Hospital , Salem (NRHP), 1948 (demolished 2017)
[11]
Equitable Building , Portland, 1948
First Presbyterian Church , Cottage Grove, Oregon (NRHP), 1948
Percy L. Menefee Ranch House,
Yamhill, Oregon , 1948
[8]
Sacred Heart Church,
Lake Oswego, Oregon , 1949
Zion Lutheran Church , Portland (NRHP), 1950
Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Portland Branch,
[11] 1950
Central Lutheran Church , Portland,
[16] 1951
St. Philip Neri Catholic Church , Portland, 1952
Tucker Maxon School,
[17] Portland, 1953
YWCA building, Salem,
[18] 1954
Marion County Courthouse and
World War II Memorial , Salem,
[19] 1954
Trinity Lutheran Church, Walnut Creek, California, 1954
[20]
Temple Israel, Swampcott, Massachusetts, 1953-1956
First Lutheran Church, Boston, 1954–1957
Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church , Bethesda, Maryland, 1955
Temple Adath Israel of the Main Line , with Charles Frederick Wise, Merion, Pennsylvania, 1956–1957
Church of the Redeemer (Baltimore), 1958
[21]
[22]
Bennington College Library,
Bennington, Vermont , 1957–1958
Central Lutheran Church ,
Eugene, Oregon ,
[23] 1959
Temple B'rith Kodesh , Rochester, New York, 1959–1963
Goucher College Center, Towson, Maryland, 1960
[22]
[24]
Trinity Episcopal Church, Concord, Massachusetts, dedicated October 6, 1963
First Methodist Church,
Duluth, Minnesota , 1962–1969
The
Alice Tully Hall at the
Juilliard School within the
Lincoln Center , New York City, 1963–1969
Pan Am Building , Belluschi and
Walter Gropius as design consultants to
Emery Roth & Sons , New York City, 1963
Rohm and Haas Corporate Headquarters , with George M. Ewing Co., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1964
Church of the Christian Union, Rockford, Illinois, 1964-1965
[25]
Hoffman Columbia Plaza, now
Unitus Plaza , Portland, 1966
Immanuel Lutheran Church,
Silverton, Oregon , 1966
Saint Joseph's Roman Catholic Church,
Roseburg, Oregon , 1968
[26]
555 California Street , as consultant to
Wurster, Benardi and Emmons and
Skidmore, Owings and Merrill , San Francisco, 1969
One Boston Place , with
Emery Roth & Sons , Boston, 1970
Tower Square , also known as BayState West, with
Eduardo Catalano ,
Springfield, Massachusetts , 1970
University of Virginia School of Architecture , 1970
Woodbrook Baptist Church, Towson, Maryland, 1970
[22]
[27]
Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption , San Francisco (collaborating with
Pier Luigi Nervi and others), 1971
Clark Art Institute , with
The Architects Collaborative ,
Williamstown, Massachusetts , 1973
100 East Pratt Street , with
Emery Roth & Sons , Baltimore, 1975
Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall , Baltimore, 1978–1982
Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall , with
Skidmore, Owings and Merrill , San Francisco, 1980
One Financial Center , Boston, 1983
US Bancorp Tower , as consultant to
Skidmore, Owings and Merrill , Portland, 1983
Chapel of Christ the Teacher ,
University of Portland ,
[28] 1986
United Hebrew Congregation , Chesterfield, Missouri, 1986–1989
Murray Hills Christian Church , Beaverton, Oregon (1987–89)
[29]
Centennial Tower and Wheeler Sports Center,
George Fox University ,
[30]
[31] Newberg, Oregon, 1991 and 1977
Portsmouth Abbey School campus, Portsmouth, Rhode Island; Belluschi designed 14 of the 27 buildings on campus between 1960 and 1991
References
^
a
b
c
d
e Belluschi, Pietro. (2007). In Encyclopædia Britannica . Retrieved September 22, 2007, from:
Encyclopædia Britannica Online
^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h Gragg, Randy. "Belluschi revered as creative, 'spiritual' architect".
The Oregonian , February 15, 1994.
^ Birkland, Dave (February 16, 1994).
"Pietro Belluschi, 94, Helped Design Seattle Convention Center" .
Seattle Times . Retrieved 2008-07-01 .
^ Prince, Tracy J. (2011).
Portland's Goose Hollow . Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing. p. 125.
ISBN
978-0-7385-7472-1 .
^
"Book of Members, 1780-2010: Chapter B" (PDF) . American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved May 30, 2011 .
^ Thomas E. Luebke, ed., Civic Art: A Centennial History of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, 2013): Appendix B, p. 540.
^
National Medal of Arts: Medalists.
Archived 2011-07-21 at the
Wayback Machine National Endowment for the Arts, accessed September 22, 2007.
^
a
b Clausen, Meredith L., Pietro Belluschi: Modern American Architect ,
MIT Press , Cambridge, Massachusetts and London 1994,
ISBN
0-262-03220-1
^ Libby, Brian (6 July 2021).
"Nearly 80 Years Later, An Architect Rescues a Japanese-Inspired Masterwork Designed by His Father" . Dwell . Retrieved 2021-08-17 .
^ Eastman, Janet (2018-09-27).
"Modernist architect Pietro Belluschi's modest farmhouse for sale (photos)" . The Oregonian, OregonLive . Retrieved 2021-08-17 .
^
a
b
c
d
"Architects Associated with Oregon State Hospital" . Archived from
the original on October 6, 2008. Retrieved Jan 10, 2020 .
^ Adams, Bree (2009-10-09).
"Northrup: History in the re-making" . thelinfieldreview.com . The Linfield Review. Retrieved 2021-11-10 .
^
a
b Gregg, Robert D. 1970. Chronicles of Willamette, volume II: Those eventful years of the President Smith era . Salem, Or: Willamette University.
^
"Peter Kerr House by Pietro Belluschi at GreatBuildings" . GreatBuildings . Retrieved Jan 10, 2020 .
^ MacColl, E. Kimbark (1979). The Growth of a City: Power and Politics in Portland, Oregon 1915-1950 .
Portland, Oregon : The Georgian Press.
ISBN
0-9603408-1-5 .
^
"Central Lutheran Church: Building History" . Archived from
the original on July 30, 2007. Retrieved Jan 10, 2020 .
^
"Tucker-Maxon School excels" . The Southeast Examiner of Portland Oregon . Apr 1, 2013. Retrieved Jan 10, 2020 .
^
"Salem (Oregon) Online History - YWCA" . www.salemhistory.net . Retrieved Jan 10, 2020 .
^
Marion County Circuit Court:The Marion County Courthouse: A Historical Perspective
Archived 2008-05-01 at the
Wayback Machine
^
"Archives West: Pietro Belluschi Collection, 1927-1983" . archiveswest.orbiscascade.org . Retrieved Jan 10, 2020 .
^ A Guide To Baltimore Architecture, Third Edition, Dorsey & Dilts, 1997
ISBN
0-87033-477-8 , pg. 333-334
^
a
b
c "Raising Baltimore's Skyline" Gunts, Edward. The Sun [Baltimore, Md] 27 Dec 1987: T11.
^
"University of Oregon News release: "UO Gallery Shows Drawings by Pietro Belluschi" . Archived from
the original on May 29, 2004. Retrieved Jan 10, 2020 .
^ A Guide To Baltimore Architecture, Third Edition, Dorsey & Dilts, 1997
ISBN
0-87033-477-8 , pg. 347
^
"The Unitarian Universalist Church" . Archived from
the original on April 10, 2011. Retrieved Jan 10, 2020 .
^
"Saint Joseph's Roman Catholic Church (Roseburg, Oregon)" . Building Oregon . Retrieved September 17, 2016 .
^ "Finally Looking Like A Church", Gunts, Edward. The Sun [Baltimore, Md] 02 Jan 1997: 2B.
^
"Welcome to Campus Ministry! | University of Portland" . www.up.edu . Retrieved Jan 10, 2020 .
^ Clausen, Meredith L. Spiritual Space: The Religious Architecture of Pietro Belluschi , University of Washington Press; First Edition, August 1992.
^
George Fox University: Centennial Clock Tower
Archived 2008-09-26 at the
Wayback Machine ,
^
"George Fox Athletics" . George Fox Athletics . Retrieved Jan 10, 2020 .
External links
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