a home tour of pietro belluschi

To me the most noteworthy architects of Oregon are Pietro Belluschi and John Yeon both have done great works in architecture of now have come to be known as the Northwest Regional Style of the mid century modernist movement. Last week my friend and neighbor treated me to a home tour of Pietro Belluschi. I have seen two of John Yeon's houses and even entertained in the purchase of one sadly in need of restoration. I have not seen a house by Belluschi.

The event starts with a presentation at the Portland Art Museum (which is also designed by Belluschi) including a speech given by his son Anthony Belluschi.

All the paid visitors of the tour were given a guide book. The tour includes 6 residential houses and one church. The properties are scattered through out the greater Portland metropolitan area. Understandably one of the rule of the tour is no indoor photography or video without the express permission of the owners. Because of this I took only a few pictures of the exterior.

the seven properties in the self guided tour

The tour starts from 10am and ends at 4pm. To avoid the crowd we chose to begin with the farthest from downtown Portland. We started with the Ressler house that is in Milwaukie, Oregon.

Ressler house in the guide book, this is the only picture of the interior. The living room is a few steps down from the landing of the main entry. I like the view from the gorgeous finished period modern kitchen into a small garden which elevation is three feet or so from the kitchen floor. The house is impeccably design with attention to details everywhere you look. Constructed with the highest workmanship I have ever seen. There are extensive use of transom windows for cross ventilation. Then there are the Dutch doors, which are found in every house in the tour that day.

The Ressler house would turned out the be the crown jewel amongst the houses in the tour. It is situated on a few acre of land with some old growth trees and a creek with a stream.
the modestly sized house blends into the great landscape of the lot amongst the old grown trees; please note that the panoramic shot compressed this huge property and still this cover less than 180 degree view

The entire house is covered by flat roofs and is painted in dark brown as often the case with North West Regional midcentury.
the unassuming structure blends into the landscape - much of the house is sheltered from the hot sun by vegetations

If there is a house that is perfect in every sense of the word this is one. The owners are well traveled and had curated art pieces and culture artifacts from all over the world that are in harmony with this excellent work of Belluschi. While all the houses in the tour are excellent after seeing the Russler house you almost feel like the rest are let downs.
the unassuming breeze way leading to the main entrance at the end; here again borrowed much from traditional Japanese architecture; visually so simple and yet so elegant

We dwelled on  the property for over two hours to take in as much as we can. There is so much tranquil beauty inside and outside. To fully appreciate one have to take time to view and ponder from different observation points. When we decided to leave we realized we were very much behind schedule if we were to be able to even spend a fraction of an hour each of the remaining properties. We headed off to the Zion Lutheran Church.
from the simple and understated exterior appearance one would not realize how beautiful the inside is

While the design of Christian churches inherently are highly symmetrical, many (especially mid century) modern architects would use subtle elements of asymmetry and Belluschi is no exception. The arrangement of the glass blocks on two side walls are both modern, minimalist, as well as embrace the asymmetrical aesthetics of Japanese traditional architecture.

i took these photo to show the expensive size of the roof devoted to outside living space

you will never find the devotion of sheltered exterior space in calculating builder-built megahomes; mid century modern houses are all about indoor and outdoor living