Central
Lutheran Church Portland Oregon 1948-50
image Clausen, M., Pietro Belluschi Modern American Architect
MIT Press 1994
Discussion Central
Lutheran Church
"The counterpoint of vertical lines and horizontal lines, of round and
rectangular shapes, is delicately balanced. The bell tower is open on two sides
and gains a look of strength without bulk. The round brick apse with its indented
pattern of crosses, relieves the narrow windows and wooden mullions of the
nave wall. The apse is wider and higher than the nave and thereby allows clerestory
and side light into the interior of the chancel."
-Jo Stubblebine, ed. The Northwest Architecture of Pietro Belluschi.
New York: F.W. Dodge Corporation, 1953. p50-51.
The Creator's Words
"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."
-Pietro Belluschi. from Paul Heyer. Architects on Architecture:
New Directions in America. p228-229.
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