Famous Italian architect designed campus structure to reflect Oregon's natural beauty
By Autum Dierking
Italian-born Pietro Belluschi, the architect of the Chapel of Christ the Teacher, made a name for himself designing more than one thousand buildings - several of which are here in Portland. A few of his designs can even be found on the Register of Historic Places.
Belluschi was a leader in the Modern Movement in architecture with an eye for light and space and was also fond of using local materials in his designs, evident in the native rock and wood integrated throughout the Chapel.
On the outside, he made use of stones from local rivers to create a natural rain path. On the inside, he utilized a variety of woods, including fir, hemlock and pine and cherry furniture to achieve his final effect. The cross-shaped centerpiece of the Chapel, the baptismal fountain, was designed by an expert in ancient baptisms Belluschi found.
Perhaps one of the most awe-inspiring elements of the Chapel, however, is its sturdy black walnut doors carved by a friend of Belluschi's, LeRoy Setziol, from trees that had washed up on the Oregon beach.
During the early stages of design, Belluschi told Meredith Clausen for the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution as part of the Northwest Oral History Project, "I'm doing a chapel for the University of Portland. That is (what) worries one and keeps him awake at night ... And I know that some clients, some of the laymen, people in particular to the University of Portland, are very conservative, and they see a conventional church with a steeple, the kind they have in New England, white churches, which I admire very much. They are very nice, but not for Oregon."
It was due to this high regard for the setting of his buildings that Belluschi's Chapel came to reflect the natural resources surrounding it.
