Pietro Belluschi Distinguished Visiting Professorship

Pietro Belluschi Photograph from 1959. Shows a black and white crowd in lawrence hall.

Honoring Pietro Belluschi's Oregon Legacy

Photograph of the Belluschi family in a wood panelled room. Shows Pietro and his wife and two elementary age boys in a black and white photograph. — *Pietro Belluschi and his young family. Photo courtesy Anthony Belluschi.*

The Pietro Belluschi Distinguished Visiting Professorship in Architectural Design was created at the UO School of Architecture and Allied Arts in 1993 as a perpetually endowed fund to foster and promote education in architectural design. Pietro Belluschi (1899–1994), one of the most notable architects in Oregon, was best known for establishing a Northwest regional style and for serving as dean of the MIT school from 1951 to 1965. Belluschi’s work was widely published during this time and he became the most widely known of any architect or artist of Oregon and emerged as a leader in the development of American Modern architecture. One of his most important buildings was the Equitable Building (1944–47) in Portland, Oregon, which featured a concrete frame office block clad in aluminum with a completely sealed air-conditioned environment, considered to be the first office building of its kind.

Belluschi's churches and residences further expanded the Pacific Northwest style with a frequent use of blending Modern design with regional materials, particularly local wood. He influenced both domestic and religious architecture of the country for more than a quarter century and, indeed, continues to inspire and instruct architects today. Belluschi’s built legacy remains a strong, clear, and significant body of work whose qualities demonstrate his genius for form, light, and the use of natural materials. His work, in Oregon and elsewhere, is marked by integrity, discipline and rigor, and is a lasting testimony to his humanity, his sensitivity and his celebration of the human spirit.

The endowment supports a short-term appointment for a prominent architect to teach and lecture at the School of Architecture & Environment.