“We never could design a building as beautiful as the trees.” — Architect Pietro Belluschi

Every day, people work, live and pray inside Pietro Belluschi’s light-filled, modern creations. The legendary architect shaped Portland’s skyline with revolutionary structures like the Commonwealth Building, which generated tinted glass-and-aluminum lookalikes across the globe.

Oregon’s most revered designer and one of its most highly awarded citizens also impacted the way churches and houses look and feel. His long, prolific career ended shortly before he died at age 94 in 1994 inside his beloved Portland home.

In August and September, educational and celebratory events spotlighting Belluschi’s impact will take place in Portland to honor the 120th anniversary of his birth.

The Architectural Heritage Center will have a special walking tour of Belluschi Buildings that forever changed the once architecturally conservative city. The tour, from 10 a.m.-noon on Saturday, Aug. 17 ($25, visitahc.org) will be led by Pietro’s son, architect Anthony Belluschi, and architect Pierluigi Serraino, author of “The Creative Architect: Inside the great midcentury personality study” along with architectural historian and Architectural Heritage Center docent Eric Wheeler.

The Oregon Historical Society, which recently hosted a landmark exhibit on the life and work of Pietro Belluschi, will have a free presentation by Serraino on Belluschi’s creative process, starting at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 18, which is Pietro Belluschi’s birthday. People can also hear about the almost 24,000 drawings, photographs and documents preserved here and the future Pietro Belluschi Architectural Resource Center, which is part of OHS’ research library renovation.

“As we honor Belluschi’s 120th, I encourage everyone to visit to learn about him and his significant impact on Oregon history and building design across the nation,” said OHS executive director Kerry Tymchuk.

A tour of the former 1947 Oregonian Building, which Belluschi designed with glass, marble and granite, on Monday, Aug. 19 ($10, eventbrite.com/e/oregonian-building-tour-tickets-67084903753) is being organized by Docomomo US, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the documentation and conservation of buildings.

And on Sunday, Sept. 15, supporters of the Architecture Foundation of Oregon’s Architects in Schools program for elementary students will gather at the peerless 1948 Burkes-Belluschi residence in Portland’s West Hills.

The sold-out fundraiser (afo.ticketleap.com) will include a conversation between the sons of architectural icons Pietro Belluschi and John Storrs: Anthony Belluschi and Chef Leather Storrs of Noble Rot restaurant, who followed his father interest in culinary arts. Storrs will use the Belluschi kitchen’s original rotisserie to create a dinner served under the stars.

Anthony describes his father as an architect, educator, consultant, design juror, advisor, mentor and philosopher.

What will people learn about world-renowned Pietro Belluschi at these events or by reading Serraino’s book?

That his imprint remains strong; his influences endure and that people who knew him or his work felt he improved their lives.

“Pietro’s special homes and landmarks inspire us Portlanders to create and appreciate spaces that enhance our community as well as our daily lives.” — Christy Eugenis and Stan Amy of New Villages Group

To spotlight the genius of one of the state’s most influential residents, the Oregonian/OregonLive asked readers as well as design experts to remark on Belluschi’s legacy.

“Pietro Belluschi was a visionary thinker and creator, much more than simply an architect. His ability to absorb, mix and renew personal influences made his expression of form, volume and shape about the human experience in context to culture and place.” — John C Jay, who lives in the Council Crest house Belluschi designed for his family in 1937

“Pietro Belluschi remains the embodiment of architectural integrity. He was always clear, firm and consistent in his commitment to values of simplicity, lack of pretense and attention to the humane in design decisions. His work continues to speak to these values and is as fresh as the day he conceived it. He inspires the kind of admiration Oregonians reserve for pioneers like Wayne Morse, Tom McCall or Mark Hatfiled.” — Architect Mike McCulloch, owner of the Belluschi-designed 1980 Papworth House

We weave their memories into this timeline of Belluschi’s life.

As Randy Gragg wrote in the obituary that appeared Feb. 15, 1994 in The Oregonian under the headline “Belluschi revered as creative, ‘spiritual’ architect,” Pietro Belluschi was born Aug. 18, 1899 in Ancona, Italy.

He served with the Italian army in World War I, taking part in the Battle of Caporetto, made famous in Ernest Hemingway’s "A Farewell to Arms.'' He also took part in the Battle of Vittorio Veneto, Italy’s victory over Austria that brought the Armistice of Villa Giusti on Nov. 3, 1918.

In 1922, he immigrated to the U.S. speaking no English but possessing determination and an engineering degree from the University of Rome.

As journalist and Portland Architecture blogger Brian Libby noted, Belluschi was part of an enormous diaspora of engineers, scientists and others who brought their talent to America during and after the two world wars.

“I often call Pietro Belluschi the patron saint of Portland architecture,” said Libby. “He’s not only our city’s most acclaimed and accomplished architect but also one of the great American modernists of the 20th century. It’s also worth noting that Belluschi was an immigrant, fleeing fascism in his native Italy.”

Belluschi attended Cornell University on a scholarship and earned his second degree in civil engineering. Rather than return to Italy, where Benito Mussolini was taking power, he said he was “determined to succeed at all costs as a student, as a person and as an architect” in the United States.

He worked as a $5-a-day laborer and electrician’s assistant in a lead mine in Kellogg, Idaho, then made his way to Portland in 1925 to become a draftsman at Albert E. Doyle’s prestigious architectural firm. Belluschi’s drawings were used to expand the Roman classical-style U.S. National Bank building in 1925 and plan the Italianate 1926 Public Service Building.

At Doyle’s urging, the 28-year-old Belluschi was put in charge of design after Doyle died in 1928, and the firm’s already illustrious reputation spread.

Modernizing a traditional city

Belluschi had champions in high places. Frank Lloyd Wright, the world’s most famous architect, came to Belluschi’s defense when Portland Art Museum trustees pushed back on the young architect’s groundbreaking blend of Georgian and modern styles. Wright wrote: Belluschi’s “exterior would mark an advance in culture for Portland.”

To this day, the ageless, 1932 brick building anchors the South Park Blocks and is recognized as one of the 20th century’s most distinguished art exhibition buildings.

“Belluschi vision for the Portland Art Museum simultaneously demonstrated a deep understanding of history as well as the future as expressed through the ideals of modernism,” said museum director Brian Ferriso. “For the curators and me, installing some of humankinds’ most important artistic creations within Belluschi’s spaces is exhilarating. The architecture truly elevates the art and the viewing experience, creating an enduring impression for all those who enter.”

Belluschi’s 1937 Morninglight Chapel for the Finley Mortuary was a modern brick structure drawing on Scandinavian influences. It was selected in 1938 by the American Institute of Architects as one the 100 most outstanding buildings erected after World War I.

Also in 1938, the Library Building, now Smullin Hall, rose at Willamette University in Salem.

“While researching a book on the architecture of Willamette University, I became aware of the architectural mastery of Pietro Belluschi. He designed several buildings on the campus in the 1930s and 1940s, which displayed early in his career a command of the key elements of timeless, tasteful design. His careful attention to detail, use of high-quality materials and proper sense of proportion produced structures of beauty and utility that set a high standard for those who followed him on the campus. Throughout his career, whatever the precise style he chose to employ, his buildings always stood out for their integrity of design and lasting utility. He was truly one of the great architects of the 20th century.” — William F. Willingham Ph.D, consulting historian

With the 1938 Jennings Sutor House on Northwest Skyline Boulevard, he employed the hallmarks of the Northwest Modern style that Belluschi and his architectural contemporaries John Yeon and Van Evera Bailey introduced to their residential clients and that endear them to modernists today.

The style’s warmth relies on simple materials such as wood or brick and “the judicious use of such intangibles as space, light, texture and color,” Belluschi explained. In Portland Monthly’s list of the city’s 10 Greatest Homes, architect William Hawkins said the Sutor House “launched a thousand ships.”

Sutor’s will stated that the modern home, published in national architectural and home and garden magazines, had to be purchased by someone "who will appreciate the architectural beauty of the house and surrounding grounds.” After he died in 1961, executors of the bachelor’s estate were directed to find such a buyer.

“As the fortunate current stewards of the Sutor house, Pietro Belluschi’s first commissioned home, we are continually inspired by the way his design encompasses nature in all seasons. The architecture expands to feature the garden and outdoor living in the summer. In the rainy months, its interior curves and wood elements create a cozy hearth. Every day, Pietro’s vision invites us to ‘forest bathe’ in the Japanese tradition, to connect to our senses and the natural world, and we find ourselves more rooted in appreciation for the things that really matter.” — Erin Graham and Aric Wood

The 1940 St. Thomas Moore Catholic Church represents Belluschi’s first new church design in the developing Northwest Regional style. “Churches such as St. Thomas Moore in Portland and First Presbyterian in Cottage Grove display not just the clean lines of modernism, but an almost arts and crafts-like reverence for materials such as wood,” wrote Libby.

Belluschi’s 1941 “Home in the Grass,” Peter Kerr’s beach house in the Palisades area of Gearhart, was designed around the trunk of a tree that supports the roof and allows owners Herbert and Shirley Semler to enjoy the scenery from their deck. Long after they purchased the property in 1993, they found a stone with a facial image of Pietro to identify the home as one he designed.

“We have great memories of him as he came by frequently to visit and we also have letters from him," recalled Herbert Semler. "Shirley has always been interested in architecture, so he and my wife got along beautifully.”

Time magazine reported that Belluschi bought out his partners and opened Pietro Belluschi, Architect in 1943.

He operated his busy company out of a remodeled concrete industrial building in Goose Hollow. Belluschi and his wife, Helen, moved out of the family’s small house he designed in Council Crest to a forlorn farmhouse and orchard in unincorporated Aloha. Here, they raised their young sons, Peter and Anthony.

In two phases, starting in 1944, Belluschi carefully added and subtracted from the plain structures. He designed a wide roof to connect the house to a two-room shed that stored wood and fruit, and laid concrete on the ground in between. The practical, welcoming loggia – it was much more than a covered patio – was perfect for dining outdoors under exposed rafters.

He kept the home's original wide-plank Douglas fir floors and most of the simple floor plan, and further relaxed the boundaries between indoor-outdoor spaces by installing unpainted spruce on the walls and ceilings, and tall, well-positioned windows that framed trees and sloping land.

The most dramatic changes came when he removed interior walls to create an L-shaped living-dining space that opened to the once-isolated kitchen. A two-sided fireplace elevated 16 inches off the floor with a hood sculpted of smooth concrete and an angled hearth would be features he would repeat in his residential designs and a concept copied in many other modern living rooms.

The rural setting inspired Belluschi to live with nature, not from it. It also provided building materials during wartime scarcity. He used salvaged materials and cedar logs from nearby woods. A carpenter was hired to turn a young maple tree from the farm into legs for dining room furniture and a coffee table.

Living here helped Belluschi sharpen his vision of modern design, freed from what he called "artificial standards," "architectural pretense" and "superficial culture."

Belluschi was quoted in The Architectural Forum in 1946 saying he had "become quite attached" to his straightforward farmhouse.

“With his remodel designs, the Aloha Farmhouse became a small size example of my father’s vision for Pacific Northwest Modernism,” said Anthony Belluschi. “Old photos also show the Scandinavian influences of my mother’s Finnish heritage with her choice of rugs, fabrics and decor.”

The time Pietro Belluschi lived in Aloha was “one of the most important and prolific” of his career, according to architectural historian Diana Painter, who researched and wrote the nomination form that earned the Aloha Farmhouse listing on the National Register of Historic Places alongside many other Belluschi projects.

“I am reminded daily how important architecture is to our lives,” says Kim Allchurch-Flick of John L. Scott Real Estate, who represented the owner when the farmhouse sold in March 2019.

Belluschi sold the property in 1948 and moved the family to a home in Dunthorpe that he didn’t modify and that no longer exists.

Between 1930 and 1950, before his firm was acquired by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Belluschi achieved international prominence, primarily for his 1948 design of the Commonwealth Building (originally the Equitable Building). It was the first office tower with a glass and aluminum curtain wall and air conditioning, and is still accepted as a seminal work by architects Philip Johnson, I.M. Pei and others.

The resourceful Belluschi wanted to make the most of the aluminum surplus after WWII.

Today, Margot Moore-Wilson feels personally connected to the Commonwealth tower since her father, Ralston T. Moore, was a partner-owner in the Grand Metal Products Corporation, which provided the exterior metalwork.

“It’s my understanding that numerous innovative techniques were utilized in the construction. I was extremely young at the time so much of the dinner table conversation about the project passed over my head,” she recalled. “However, I was later told that my father had come up with new techniques to counteract some of the qualities of aluminum that made it problematic for construction. When he consulted with Alcoa [industrial corporation], they seemed to feel that these techniques could reasonably be used in the construction of this building. Even now, over 70 years later, the Commonwealth Building stands out on account of its distinctive green and silver appearance.”

Mark Vogel of Mark Vogel Associates worked on the 12th floor of the Commonwealth. “I find it remarkable in its timelessness. Belluschi designed an aluminum and glass panel to skin his building, now a standard in high-rise design.”

While concentrating on soaring curtain walls, swooping concrete and masses of stone in the city, Belluschi also created a midcentury modern masterpiece on the top of a knoll looking out toward the valley in Yamhill.

The radically modern, single-story 1948 Percy L. Menefee Ranch House, with an expansive living room bookended by glass walls, captured the attention of national magazine writers and architectural critics, and was deemed the “most progressive house” in the U.S.

“Although I was probably just four years old, I have the most vivid memories of visiting my grandfather, PL Menefee, at his turkey ranch in Yamhill County in the 1950s," said Betsy Menefee Rickles. "The image of the huge open fireplace with its copper hood left an indelible impression on me as did the oversized walk-in refrigerator in the kitchen and the large drawer in the dining room where PL and his wife, Gin, kept the toys for their grandchildren. Of course, at that time I had no idea that my sisters and I were romping through one of Pietro Belluschi’s ‘finest houses of his career,’ as noted in William Hawkins’ ‘Classic Houses of Portland, Oregon, 1850-1950.’”

Belluschi is especially remembered for his churches in Oregon and across the country, which, like the residences he designed, benefitted from local resources to help them blend into their suburban or rural sites.

“Pietro Belluschi was always very interested in, and aware of each regions’ natural physical setting, its local materials, and its local artists whose work would be sensitively integrated into his designs,” said architectural historian and educator Libby Dawson, who became a close friend of Belluschi’s during the last 20 years of his life.

He invited artists to collaborate on church designs in Portland, especially bronze sculptor Frederic Littman, wood sculptor Leroy Setziol, and printmaker and architect Joachim Grube.

For his designs in the East, he collaborated with wood sculptor and furniture designer George Nakashima, metal and wire sculptor Richard Lippold and faceted glass artist and painter Gyorgy Kepes.

“Being an artist himself, it was important to Belluschi to integrate his architecture with the beautiful works of artists, for a heightened sense of spirituality,” said Dawson.

“My uncle, George Nakashima, was a woodworker who collaborated with Pietro Belluschi on a design project, the Portsmouth Abbey. They both shared an appreciation of Northwest design and architecture. Nakashima was born in Spokane, attended the University of Washington School of Architecture and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His parents, Katsuharu and Suzu, lived in Portland before being interned and returned to Portland a few years after the war ended.” — Vicki Nakashima

Belluschi worked with the same contractor and a team of talented Norwegian craftsmen who perfectly executed the often technically impressive laminated freestanding arches and masonry walls installed in the 1948 First Presbyterian Church in Cottage Grove, 1950 Zion Lutheran Church in Portland and 1958 Church of the Redeemer in Baltimore.

Lisa Brizendine, the secretary of Zion Lutheran Church, said, “It is a joy and privilege to work and worship in this beautiful building.”

Rev. Dan Hues, pastor at Zion Lutheran Church, said Belluschi’s masterful design produces a sense of awe when people enter.

“Zion evokes a sense of the natural while simultaneously connecting the worshiper with the supernatural,” he said. “The square inlets in walls of the nave convey a sense of light dancing through the shade and shadow of a forest, while the colored glass delicately unveils the city from the chancel area.”

Hues believes Belluschi wanted to create a refuge in the midst of the city, “while also accepting the reality that the structure itself is an irrevocable and essential part of the city. Because of this beautiful house of worship that Belluschi designed, this congregation will always feel connected to him, just as they are connected to this very special place."

Architect Scott Clarke said he has “the good fortune” to pass by Belluschi’s 1959 Central Lutheran Church in Eugene on a regular basis.

“It sits at the south edge of the University of Oregon, confronting 18th Avenue with its unapologetic boxiness. Perhaps it remains unnoticed by many, as its form suggests that it might be a somewhat modest affair. Those that look deeper and longer are rewarded with a building that conveys much about where we are and what we value," he said.

“The box, as it turns out, is a highly articulate thing. Like a good painting, the wood and brick walls are composed with the greatest care, being divided into smaller segments and strata in ways that break the whole into a composition of meaningful parts,” he continued. "These parts are all made of ordinary stuff, nothing extravagant. But each part realizes the full potential of the ordinary materials from which it is made. This building, like so much of Belluschi’s work, is a product of an architect who fully embraced and understood his adoptive home: it is innately of Oregon.”

Clarke also praised the church’s excellent acoustics – “Its proportions of height, width and length are suspiciously like the best concert halls” – and the laminated wood structural system resembling the stone arches of Gothic churches and associating places of worship with ships.

“How fortunate we are to have this building and others by Belluschi to remind us of what is special and important about the place where we live and the merits of being thoughtful about the way we choose to inhabit the place we call home,” he said. “This building reminds of what might be a kind of Oregon ethos: make the most of modest means."

Don Pagano of Portland shared a slice of family lore about Belluschi’s design for the 1952 St. Philip Neri Catholic Church in Southeast Portland.

“Belluschi’s vision of the new church, which is now one of his landmark buildings, was quite different from the more ornate ideas of many of the senior women of the parish, my grandmother, Mary Pagano, in particular,” he said.

Belluschi proposed that the major statuary on either side of the altar be totally white, in keeping with the modernist less-is-more structure.

“Grandma tried valiantly to rally the troops to prevent this sacrilege from happening, but in the end Pietro won the battle, one of my grandmother’s few defeats,” Pagano said. “Over the years, much of the interior of the church has been decoratively repainted, for better or worse, contrary to Belluschi’s original concept.”

In 1951, at the height of his influence, Belluschi turned away from his $150,000-a-year practice to accept a $15,000-a-year academic job as the dean of the school of architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1952 and a full member of the National Academy of Design in 1957. He served as a presidential appointee on the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts from 1950 to 1955.

While living on the East Coast, he began a second career as a collaborator and design consultant, helping to pioneer a new field in which influential architects lend their name and a critical eye to projects actually executed by other firms.

He partnered with other top architects to refine projects such as New York’s 1963 Pan Am (Metlife) Building with Walter Gropius and the 1969 Juilliard School at Lincoln Center, which has since been altered.

After retiring from MIT in 1965, Belluschi continued to teach, design buildings and serve as a consultant on both architectural and urban planning issues. His primary projects were churches for which he was the architectural design consultant, including the 1986 Chapel at the University of Portland.

Architect Karl R. Sonnenberg of Zimmer Gunsul Frasca said he feels privileged to have not only experienced many of Pietro’s buildings but to have had a few encounters with him and his son, Anthony. Sonnenberg’s firm collaborated with Pietro on several buildings including an expansion to the Portland Art Museum, what is now the Unitus Plaza, and other projects.

“It was Pietro, who at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, encouraged a young Bob Frasca [of Zimmer Gunsul Frasca] to move to Portland. So he was not an infrequent visitor to ZGF offices,” said Sonnenberg. “In 1987, my very pregnant wife and I went to an AIA [American Institute of Architects] tour of the University of Portland chapel designed by Pietro. He spoke to us about her being pregnant and led the group on a very detailed tour of the chapel explaining how the design came to be. He was very much a gentleman, charming and modest. I always thought it interesting that he was an excellent architect yet his degrees were in civil engineering not architecture. His churches, of which I’ve been in many, are all inspiring in a peaceful calming way.”

“I can still see the church of my youth in Bologna, as every church I’ve been to,” Belluschi once told biographer Meredith Clausen. “The church is not the building; it’s the coming together of people – how they face each other, how they feel each other.” – Pietro Belluschi

Rev. John Dennis of the Presbyterian Church in Corvallis recalled that when he went searching for an architect, Belluschi’s name was recommended. “I contacted him immediately and was shocked to find out that the lead architect for the Pan Am Building and the beautiful Episcopal Cathedral would take an interest in a midsized congregation in downstate Oregon,” he said. “He loved churches and he signed on. And with his counsel he made a wonderful difference in Corvallis.”

Dennis recalled that an “unwritten payment system” was bringing porterhouse steaks and red wine from Stroehecker’s grocery store to meetings in which Belluschi would talk at great length about lighting, acoustics and sacred spaces.

“We were a small project fortunate to have been overseen by a great man,” Dennis said. “I will remember him for his generosity.”

The 1971 Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption in San Francisco is one of the city’s most unusual landmarks as well as Belluschi’s best-known church design and perhaps his most critically reviled building, according to Gragg.

Collaborating with engineer Pier Luigi Nervi, Belluschi designed a small, 200-foot-square plan that rises into eight hyperbolic paraboloid vaults to form one immense, column-free space, 140 feet high.

"Anyone with faith can pray out of doors, in nature,'' Belluschi said in 1971, "but in a church there must be intense feeling. A church is a catalyst for spiritual thought, and I try to enhance this. There is the recognition of a need for spiritual drama as well.''

Michael DiTullo said that “St. Mary’s Cathedral was like a magnet for me. I found myself walking out of the way, up hill, just to keep it in my sights, or taking an extra 15 minutes to get somewhere so I could stop in and just soak up the space, forms and structure.”

He said the building found its way on many of his inspiration boards as he worked on projects for Intel, Motorola, Honda and Google while living in San Francisco.

Recently, he moved back to Portland and is living near Reed College. “There is a small school on our regular walk to Marigold Coffee and I’ve been admiring its clean modernist lines and exposed beam structure. I was walking by with my friend and neighbor, illustrator Jason Sturgill a few days ago. He caught me staring at it and said, ‘You know that building was designed by Pietro Belluschi?’ Of course it was.”

In 1972, the American Institute of Architects gave Pietro Belluschi its highest honor, the Gold Medal.

He was a member of the jury that selected Maya Lin’s design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C., completed in 1981.

Around that time, John Brockamp of the Brockamp & Jaeger general contracting firm worked with Belluschi and participated in the design phase as well as the construction of concepts and solutions.

“Pietro Belluschi stands out in my mind as a man who not only had control of his projects but also an immense joy of building," he said. "This joy was shared with all during his frequent job site visits and continues to live on in his inspiring work of stellar churches and many award-winning projects. Building with Pietro Belluschi is a fond memory of mine and was a great experience for our firm.”

An offer from a former client to sell one of Belluschi’s earliest Northwest modern residences in Portland’s West Hills motivated him to return, in 1973, to the city where his reputation for innovation and elegant buildings began.

It is incredibly poignant that Pietro spent his last years here, what’s now known as the 1948 Burkes-Belluschi House, before passing away on Valentine’s Day, 1994 at age 94.

Don Magnusen was a executive at U.S. Bank and in the early 1980s, he was put in charge managing the design, construction, leasing and financing of the U.S. Bancorp tower, better known as “Big Pink” because of its coppery glass treatment coupled with the pink hues of polished Arena Arosa granite.

The tower’s unique stair step appearance on the north and east sides look like a "walk up to the sky,” said Magnusen.

The architectural design team was Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and Pietro Belluschi was hired as a special consultant to the bankers.

“A few years after completion of the project, I decided to contact Mr. Belluschi to see if he would be available to autograph my set of plans,” said Magnusen. “On April 21, 1991, I drove up to his Northwest home and met with him. He autographed my page of blueprints that depicts the stair steps. My wife then framed it and it hangs today in my study.”

Belluschi’s second wife, Marjorie, continued to live in the house and in 2009, son Anthony and daughter-in-law Marti inherited the property and saved the worn, but unaltered house from the wrecking ball.

Together, the Belluschis have created not a time capsule, but a beautiful modern home that’s as handsome and timeless as its woven-wood ceiling. More than 3,000 architects and preservation supporters have toured the property since most of the renovations were completed in 2013.

The couple worked with Takashi Fukuda of Fukuda Nursery & Landscaping to create a Japanese-style landscape that reflects the home’s clean lines, natural materials and other Asian architectural influences.

They also enhanced the courtyard by adding a stone water fountain and sculptures by Richard Hunt and Lee Kelly. Anthony (“Tony”) Belluschi’s wife, Marti, said her husband asked Lee Kelly, a longtime friend of Pietro’s, to create a sculpture for their courtyard.

“For months, Lee and Tony would sit on the bench in our courtyard and talk about Lee’s designs and the best location,” she said. “To me the sculpture is stunningly perfect; a beautiful synergy between Lee and Pietro.
"

Lee Kelly recalled: “I first met Pietro in the 1970s when I made a proposal to the Portland Development Commission for a sculpture at 2nd and Lincoln. They were initially reluctant to give me the job, but Pietro was consulting for them and he saw something in the work and I got the job. I’m grateful to him for making a difference.”

Anthony was awarded Restore Oregon’s DeMuro Award for preserving, restoring and expanding the meticulously engineered and crafted home. “Pietro’s aesthetic was so perfectly and gracefully carried forward by his son,” said Peggy Moretti, executive director of Restore Oregon, the nonprofit founded in 1977 as the Historic Preservation League of Oregon.

In 2014, Restore Oregon’s Mid-Century Modern Home Tour exclusively featured Belluschi-designed homes. Tickets quickly sold out and attendees came from across the country.

“We cannot think of another Northwest architect who had a greater impact on architecture and design nationally and internationally than Pietro Belluschi,” said Moretti. “That we have such a large number of Belluschi-designed homes, churches and commercial buildings in the Portland area is a cultural asset beyond measure. We should be very proud of the fact that the Northwest and its environs influenced his work and ensure good stewardship of these treasures for future generations.”

Bob Packard was a young partner at Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects in 1986 when he gathered the courage to ask Pietro Belluschi to design a house for his family. He confessed he neither had a lot of money nor the site to build it.

“To my surprise, he answered, ‘I’d be honored.’ We arranged to meet,” recalled Packard. His wife, Jane, was traveling so when Packard arrived at Belluschi’s home alone, Pietro asked about his wife. "I explained and he said, ‘Bob, the soul of a home revolves around her. Let’s wait until she returns.’”

For eight months, the couple met with Pietro, who would sketched out ideas while one of the two Packard kids sat on his lap.

The Packard House, designed by Pietro Belluschi with help from architect John Hinchcliff, was Pietro’s last dwelling.

“It was so much more than a house or even a home,” said Packard. “Every day, we were reminded of his insights about life, proportion, light, materials, and the respectful relationship between nature and building. He always reminded us that less can be more.”

Joachim Grube of Yost Grube Hall Architecture met Pietro Belluschi in 1978. They became friends and collaborated over the next 12 years on Pacific Northwest churches: Christ the King Catholic Church (1978-80); University of Portland Chapel (1985-86); St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church (1982-84); Murray Hills Christian Church (1987-89); Trinity Lutheran Church (1987-90); Our Savior’s Lutheran Church (1990-1997).

“That late in life, he returned to his roots, to lean, modest yet graceful wood structures, carefully sited and designed in close collaboration with congregations and their neighbors,” said Grube.

In 1991, Pietro Belluschi was awarded the National Medal of Arts for his lifetime achievements, the second architect after I.M. Pei – and the only person from Oregon – to receive the award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

In 1992, at the regional American Institute of Architects Convention in Portland, Grube proposed a toast, three days after Belluschi’s 93rd birthday:

“This is a toast to Pietro and his lifelong quest for beauty and honesty in architecture. He has been searching for the truth. He extracts the essence from reality and transforms it into poetry, poetry that stirs our soul as only true art can do. His buildings have a moving simplicity, the restraint and humility of a Mozart sonata. Nothing is artificial. There is no notion of fleeting styles. To the contrary, 50 years later, his buildings exude the same joy, eloquence and integrity as at the time of their birth.”

--Janet Eastman | 503-294-4072

Randy Gragg’s 1994 Oregonian story, “Belluschi revered as creative, ‘spiritual’ architect,” contributed to this reporting.

jeastman@oregonian.com | @janeteastman

Belluschi’s Continuing Legacy

Pietro Belluschi and his Oregon buildings drew many young architects to Portland, and the state benefits from their talents.

Belluschi has also had a lasting influence on the University of Oregon’s architectural community. Nancy Yen-wen Cheng, who heads the Department of Architecture, said his impact if felt “through not only his groundbreaking architecture but also his perpetually endowed fund to foster and promote education in architectural design.”

The endowment has allowed students to learn from prominent architects such as James Cutler, William Leddy, Marsha Maytum, Michal Pyatok, James Cutler, Tine Hegli and Colin Rowe.

“These visitors keep alive Pietro Belluschi’s commitment to the art of building, said Cheng.

Her colleague, Judith Sheine, the design director of the Tallwood Design Institute, added:

"The University of Oregon Department of Architecture is privileged to be able to continue the pioneering legacy of Pietro Belluschi with the Belluschi Visiting Professorship, which brings similar groundbreaking architects to our students and to Oregon.”

Encyclopædia Britannica credits Pietro Belluschi with designing or consulting on more than 1,000 buildings. Here is a partial list:

• Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company Building, southern addition, Portland, 1926

• Pacific Building, Portland, 1926

• Public Service Building, Portland, 1927

• Belluschi Building, Portland Art Museum (National Register of Historic Places), 1932

• Library Building (now Smullin Hall) at Willamette University, Salem, 1938

• St. Thomas More Catholic Church, Portland, 1940

• Peter Kerr House, Gearhart, 1941

• Chapel, River View Cemetery, Portland, 1942

• Korten Music Store, Longview, Washington, 1945

• Sweeney, Straub and Dimm Printing Plant, Portland (National Register of Historic Places), 1946

• Emmanuel Lutheran Church, Longview, Washington, 1946

• Burkes House, Portland, 1947

• Oregonian Building, Portland, 1947

• Baxter Hall and Collins Hall, Willamette University, Salem, 1947

• Psychology Building, Reed College, Portland, 1947–1948

• Equitable Building, Portland (National Register of Historic Places), 1948

• First Presbyterian Church, Cottage Grove (National Register of Historic Places), 1948

• Percy L. Menefee Ranch House, Yamhill, 1948

• Sacred Heart Church, Lake Oswego, 1949

• Zion Lutheran Church, Portland (National Register of Historic Places), 1950

• Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Portland Branch, 1950

• Central Lutheran Church, Portland, 1951

• St. Philip Neri Catholic Church, Portland, 1952

• Tucker Maxon School, 1953

• YWCA building, Salem, 1954

• Marion County Courthouse and World War II Memorial, Salem, 1954

• Trinity Lutheran Church, Walnut Creek, California, 1954

• Temple Israel, Swampcott, Massachusetts, 1953-1956

• First Lutheran Church, Boston, 1954–1957

• Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church, Bethesda, Maryland, 1955

• Temple Adath Israel, with Charles Frederick Wise, Merion, Pennsylvania, 1956–1957

• Church of the Redeemer in Baltimore, 1958

• Bennington College Library, Bennington, Vermont, 1957–1958

• Central Lutheran Church, Eugene, 1959

• Temple B'rith Kodesh, Rochester, New York, 1959–1963

• Goucher College Center, 1960

• 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

• Hoffman Columbia Plaza, now Unitus Plaza, Portland, 1966

• Immanuel Lutheran Church, Silverton, 1966

• Saint Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church, Roseburg, 1968

• 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

• University of Virginia School of Architecture, 1970

• Woodbrook Baptist Church, 1970

• 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

• United Hebrew Congregation, Chesterfield, Missouri, 1986–1989

• Murray Hills Christian Church, Beaverton, (1987–89)

• Centennial Tower and Wheeler Sports Center, George Fox University, 1991

• Breitenbush Hall, Oregon State Hospital, Salem (National Register of Historic Places)

• Portsmouth Abbey School campus, Portsmouth, Rhode Island. Belluschi designed 14 of the 27 buildings on campus between 1960 and 1991.

• Uncle Toby’s Story House (1932), Blue Wing Lodge (1936), Guardians’ Lodge (1929), Kiwanis Lodge (1931), Camp Namanu, Sandy

• Lacamas Summer Home, Camas, Washington

• Chapel of Christ the Teacher, University of Portland

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