The 'Life' House - Page 5

What are Clausen's impressions of Belluschi's 'Life' house? "I'll have to admit," she told us recently, "my impressions at first were colored by discussions I had had with a journalist who was tracking Belluschi's work for years, and he didn't think much of it.

"But after poring through Belluschi's correspondence from the late 1950s, I've discovered that he had a lot more to do with that house than many thought, the structure was unquestionably his design, and it indeed was much better than they gave him credit for."

Clausen presently is a professor of architectural history at University of Washington, where she has taught since 1979. Her two books on Belluschi are "Spiritual Space - the Architecture of Pietro Belluschi" (Uof W Press, 1992) and "Pietro Belluschi - Modern American Architect" (MIT Press, 1994). A third, on Belluschi's Pan Am Building, is due out next year.