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.

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. 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. 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, 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. 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. 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. Belluschi was on the jury that selected the winning design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

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. 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.

  • Library Building (now Smullin Hall) at Willamette University, Salem, 1938
  • St. Thomas More Catholic Church, Portland, 1940
  • Peter Kerr House, Gearhart, Oregon, 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
  • Coats House, 3600 Whiskey Creek Rd, Netarts, 1942
  • Oregonian Building, Portland, 1947
  • Baxter Hall and Collins Hall, Willamette University, Salem,
  • Equitable Building, Portland, 1948
  • First Presbyterian Church, Cottage Grove, Oregon (NRHP), 1948
  • Percy L. Menefee Ranch House, Yamhill, Oregon, 1948 1951
  • St. Philip Neri Catholic Church, Portland, 1952
  • Tucker Maxon School, Portland, 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 of the Main Line, with Charles Frederick Wise, Merion, Pennsylvania, 1956–1957
  • Church of the Redeemer (Baltimore), 1958
  • Bennington College Library, Bennington, Vermont, 1957–1958
  • Central Lutheran Church, Eugene, Oregon, 1959
  • Temple B'rith Kodesh, Rochester, New York, 1959–1963
  • Goucher College Center, Towson, Maryland, 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, Oregon, 1966
  • Saint Joseph's Roman Catholic Church, Roseburg, Oregon, 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
  • 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
  • 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, 1986
  • United Hebrew Congregation, Chesterfield, Missouri, 1986–1989
  • Murray Hills Christian Church, Beaverton, Oregon (1987–89)
  • Centennial Tower and Wheeler Sports Center, George Fox University, 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

  • Oregon Encyclopedia biography
  • 1983 interview from the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art
  • Photographs of Pietro Belluschi's works from the Phyllis and Robert Massar Photograph Collection of Pacific Northwest Architecture - University of Washington Digital Collections