- Belluschi, Pietro
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▪ 1995Italian-born architect (Aug. 18, 1899, Ancona, Italy—d. Feb. 14, 1994, Portland, Ore.), designed the Equitable Life Assurance Building (1944-47), in Portland, a sleek office tower of aluminum and glass that served as one of the earliest and finest examples of the International Style of architecture, but with a series of magnificent domestic and religious structures that relied on the use of indigenous materials, notably woods, he later became most closely identified as the premier regional designer of the Pacific Northwest. Before traveling to the U.S. as an exchange student in 1923, Belluschi studied engineering at the University of Rome. He attended Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., before settling in Portland and working for Albert E. Doyle, a prominent architect there. After Doyle's death Belluschi emerged (1928) as the firm's chief designer. In 1943 he purchased the company and renamed it for himself. In Portland he created such prized structures as the Portland Art Museum (1930-38), Sutor House (1938), St. Thomas More Chapel (1939-41), and Zion Lutheran Church (1950), examples of his principle of "eloquent simplicity." From 1951 to 1965 Belluschi headed the School of Architecture and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and he continued to collaborate with leading architectural firms. He codesigned such New York City landmarks as the Juilliard School of Music, Lincoln Center, and the Pan Am (now Met Life) Building and such San Francisco buildings as the Bank of America World Headquarters and St. Mary's Cathedral. In 1972 Belluschi was the recipient of the Gold Medal of the American Institute of Architects, and in 1991 he was awarded the National Medal of the Arts.
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▪ Italian-American architectborn Aug. 18, 1899, Ancona, Italydied Feb. 14, 1994, Portland, Ore., U.S.Modernist architect identified first with regional architecture of the American Northwest, from which his influence spread throughout the world. He was noted for his use of indigenous materials, especially woods for residential buildings and aluminum for tall office buildings, following his own dictum of “eloquent simplicity.”Graduating in 1922 as a civil engineer from the University of Rome, Belluschi went to the United States on a scholarship and continued civil engineering studies at Cornell University. He practiced architecture until 1950, and the following year he became dean of the School of Architecture and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After retirement in 1965 he continued to lecture and served as adviser to the U.S. State Department in South Korea and the Philippines. Belluschi participated in the design of more than 1,000 buildings. Among his works in Portland, Ore., are the Sutor House (1938), the Equitable Building (1948), considered to be the first glass curtain-wall structure in the United States, and Zion Lutheran Church (1950). His other well-known buildings (some in association with other architects) include the Portland Art Museum (1931); the Boston and Keystone buildings, Boston; the Bank of America World Headquarters, San Francisco (1969); and the Juilliard School, Lincoln Center, New York City (1969). In 1972 he received the Gold Medal of the American Institute of Architects.* * *
Universalium. 2010.
