In May 2001, members of the Cottage Grove First Presbyterian Church celebrated the 50th anniversary of their first service in their historic building. Here are a few passages about the architect, Pietro Belluschi (gleanings from various Web sites).
Pietro Belluschi was born in Ancona, Italy, in 1899. He trained as
an engineer at both the University of Rome and at Cornell University,
emigrating to the U.S. in 1923. After working as a mining engineer,
he joined the Portland-based architecture firm of A. E. Doyle.
Belluschi acted as chief designer with A. E. Doyle for several years
before becoming a partner in 1933. He assumed control of the firm
under his own name in 1943.
During his years in Portland, Belluschi designed several commercial
buildings in the evolving International Style. Although his commercial
designs owed much to the International Style, his domestic and
religious work showed a preference for regional traditions and
native materials. While contemporary firms rejected tradition,
Doyle's office maintained a strong Beaux Arts tradition.
From 1951 to 1965, Belluschi acted as Dean of Architecture and
Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In his
fifty years of practice, both in Portland and in Massachusetts,
Belluschi designed over 1,000 buildings.
In His Own Words -- On Architecture
"Architecture, unlike other arts, is not an escape from, but
an acceptance of, the human condition, including its many frailties
as well as the technical advances of its scientists and engineers. It may rise to great art if it achieves unity, order, and form by appropriate technical means, and if it meets its purposes with conviction. I suppose only then will we have achieved the 'Great Society.' The great
architect strives for comprehension, rather than originality for its
own sake; a thorough study of a problem, made within the freedom
that knowledge provides, is always the greatest source of originality.
"An architect should not be afraid to vary his philosophy to suit a
particular project. We must accept the enormous variety of situations
that our age has created, and try to find solace in the thought that
nature has evolved the orchid and weed, the whale and the mouse,
the eagle and the hummingbird - all from a wonderfully complex yet
orderly system. We should not attempt to formulate a rigid
intellectual program for architecture. Anyway, it seems impossible for
us to draw laws and conclusions that cannot be challenged.
"To have a certain consistency as a social art, architecture must have
integrity and it must be based on what is possible, extracting whatever
beauty may be hidden, while doing it in an understated way. Most
important, probably, is structure. Not only the way in which a building
is put together, or the simplicity of its structural idea, but how this is
expressed without striving to make the bones be the whole answer.
Structure that has been hidden, twisted or polluted as an idea, will
seldom produce good architecture."
From Paul Heyer,
Architects on Architecture: New Directions
in America, pp. 228-229.
On Innovation
"I am committed to a philosophy of simplicity, of understatement,
but that of the saint, rather than that of the fool. It comes from
deep understanding and purification, so that every time you omit |
saying something, or choose not to make a personal statement, you do it for good reason, for taste and restraint. I think in terms of what is
appropriate - how to meet one's duty to a client's particular project
may emerge. The client, in turn, must be able to appreciate and accept the poetic values inherent, but not always obvious, in simple design.
"To search for the solution in an abstract way is very tempting
but only a few extremely gifted, elected architects can do it. Even
when they are gifted, they too fall on their face - as did Wright in the
later years, and Stone; Rudolph himself admits that he goes all the
way to do what he thinks is an experiment, and then allows that he
might fail. Architecture, as an art, must strive for roots and continuity
but must not deny the man of genius his right to innovate if that is his
moment, and his voice rings true."
From Paul Heyer,
Architects on Architecture: New Directions
in America, p. 226.
Obituary, Dean Pietro Belluschi, 94
From the MIT News Office at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, March 2, 1994
Pietro Belluschi, one of the world's leading architects who served as
dean of MIT's School of Architecture and Planning for 14 years,
died February 14 at his home in Portland, OR, at the age of 94.
His buildings include MIT's MacGregor House dormitory at 450 Memorial Drive, opened in 1970.
The New York Times described him as a modernist architect
whose work ranged from elegantly simple structures at the start
of his career to such massive urban skyscrapers as the Pan Am Building in New York City and the Bank of America in San Francisco. He participated in the design of more than 1,000 buildings in all,
among them the Juilliard School of Music and Alice Tully Hall in
New York, which were done in association with a colleague from MIT,
Eduardo F. Catalano, now professor emeritus of architecture . . . .
At [Belluschi's] retirement, MIT President Julius A. Stratton praised
Dean Belluschi as "an inspiration to faculty members and students
alike," adding that "his taste and judgment" had helped shape the
Institute's own building plans and would be permanently reflected in
the development of the campus during that period.
He continued: "During a period when contemporary architecture was
dominated by a spirit of impersonal functionalism, he sought to combine elegance and beauty with usefulness. Here at MIT his creative spirit has been a dominant factor in the development of the School of Architecture and Planning . . . . He has brought to the Institute a number of outstanding new members to the faculty. He has
supported with vigor and imagination the extension and
strengthening of the graduate program in the Department of
City and Regional Planning [now Urban Studies and Planning].
Outstanding among the developments in planning during his tenure as dean were the establishment in 1958 of the PhD degree in planning, and the founding, with Harvard, in 1959 of the Joint Center for Urban Studies."
The church building, erected in 1951, is on the Oregon Historical Registry. Designed by award-winning architect Pietro Belluschi, it is his least traditional Oregon church and has been featured in exhibitions and publications worldwide. Belluschi served as Dean of the School of Architecture at MIT and was the recipient of many honors, including the Gold Medal of the American School of Architects.
The building is completely ground level. A versatile floor plan has allowed varied used over the years such as local mission and community activities.
The original bell tower was carved and constructed by Hugh Peniston, Pastor Emeritus, who served the church from 1947 - 1979. The carvings are symbols of the Christian Faith, such as a fish and cross. He also carved the sign at the front of the church.
