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When a titan of modernist architecture designs a house in a low-key city on the other side of the world from his birthplace, you tune in. And so it goes with Pietro Belluschi, the late Italian-American architect of Pan Am Building fame, who left behind a legacy of local residential architecture in Portland, Oregon—including the 1980s home Anna-Jaël Hotzel of Kollective Design was hired to renovate.
“I was thrilled to be working on a Pietro Belluschi house,” says Hotzel, although “the owners had no idea that their house was special because they just weren’t architecture or design people.” In fact, this was Belluschi’s final residential project in the city before his retirement.
“They got more excited about it as I gave them the history,” explains Hotzel. The family hadn’t intended to embark on a full renovation, but then, in February of 2024, an ice storm hit, decimating the inside of the house through burst pipes and a flooded kitchen. Behold, an unforeseen but unique opportunity to marry a quintessential Pacific Northwest vibe with the architectural intentions of a famous modernist. They needed to rethink the interior—but not entirely. “I don’t believe in changing things just to change them,” says Hotzel. In the kitchen, that meant keeping the footprint the same, even the location of the stove and island. Here’s how the designer respected the space’s original spirit while bringing it into 2026.
Make Choices Native to the Space
Belluschi had been obsessed with how light flows through a house. Hotzel brought a similar philosophy to designing the kitchen, situated on a hill and surrounded by trees. She preserved the original picture windows and added gentle task lighting from an Anna Erner lamp from Wilma.“I look at it from a sustainability standpoint where the trend’s not going to wear out in five years—when you stick to and honor the intention of the original design, it gives a home a sense of timelessness.” Nevertheless, nature pours into the kitchen through the original picture windows and gentle lighting with a canvas-shaded table lamp and thin hanging pendants.
“I’m kind of obsessed with Italian rationalism,” says Hotzel, an aesthetic that leans into the idea of form following function. “It’s warmer and has a little more depth to it than pure modernism.” So while the custom island’s curved stainless steel base is a beauty, it’s also fit with four enormous drawers. The designer also nixed harsh angles and materials in favor of softer touches, like pink laminate cabinet fronts from an Italian maker and unobtrusive finger pulls. No decoration for decoration’s sake here.
But Pay Homage to Your Own Story
Like Belluschi, Portland was not the owners’ hometown; the couple had moved there from India. Hotzel, too, is an immigrant (she is half German and splits her time between Germany and Portland). This special influence—“living in a country that is your second culture and knowing that you are going to have family visits from far away”—impacted Hotzel’s approach. Take the kitchen countertops: A member of the owners’ family had worked in a quarry in India, so they selected a more unusual Breccia marble as a nod to the family roots. If it meant sourcing the rock from Texas, so be it.
Especially when the weather outside is famously drizzly, a playful color scheme works wonders to brighten the room. “Portland people have a more subtle palette—there’s a lot of gray, white, and black,” admits Hotzel. “Not these clients.” The family coming from a vibrant culture, combined with the home’s innate Italian sensibility, naturally gave rise to these bolder design moves.
Over the course of the project, Hotzel and the family became not just collaborators, but friends. “You create these connections with people that you might not have met otherwise,” she explains. The same is true for this kitchen, where old and new, form and function, and warmth and connection come together in unexpected harmony.
