CAF Video Initiative - Piet van Dijk, FAIA

Piet van Dijk (1929 – 2019) is best known for his design of Blossom Music Center in Cuyahoga Falls, OH and working to preserve and renovate Cleveland’s Playhouse Square.

Born in Indonesia as the eldest son of a Shell Oil Co. engineer, van Dijk’s parents spent the WWII years avoiding their home in the Netherlands, van Dijk has stated his interest in building things derives from the relative isolation he and his brother experienced as children, forced to make their own toys.

After earning his undergraduate degree from the University of Oregon, van Dijk served in the Army for two years before pursuing his master’s degree at MIT where he met Louis Kahn and Pietro Belluschi. Van Dirk was introduced to Eero Saarinen by Belluschi who gave van Dijk his first job, working on the iconic TWA Terminal at JFK Airport. As Saarinen was preparing to move his office to Connecticut, van Dijk was offered a position to head the design team of three different architectural firms for the new Federal Office Building in Cleveland. At the project’s conclusion, all three firms offered van Dijk a job. He opted to go with Schafer, Flynn & Associates, whose history he held in great respect.

Started by the son of President Garfield in 1905, the firm continually rotated its lead architects and designers to give new young architects a chance to make their mark on the world. By 1966, it would be known as Schafer, Flynn, van Dijk & Associates; later as Flynn, Dalton, van Dijk & Partners; then as Dalton, van Dijk, Johnson & Partners; and finally as van Dijk, Westlake, Reed, Leskosky, and now Westlake Reed Leskosky/ DLR Group after the 2016 merger.

Van Dijk stepped down in 2004 as a lead architect with the firm, though in his interview, he wished he was still working on the exciting projects the firm continues to attract. Van Dijk’s distinguished legacy includes Blossom Music Center, the beloved summer home of the Cleveland Orchestra; Cleveland State University’s Music and Physical Education buildings and state-of-theart Natatorium, Ursuline College; Cain Park Amphitheater; University School’s Upper School; John Carroll University’s Chapel and Recreation Center; major medical facilities in Cleveland, Cincinnati and Warren, Ohio, and Wheeling, West Virginia; and the Temple Hoyne Buell Theater in Denver, Colorado. A fellow of the Ohio chapter of the American Institute of Architects, in 2000 van Dijk was awarded the AIA Ohio Gold Medal, its highest honor.

In the 1970’s, van Dijk focused on significant renovation and restoration projects in Northeast Ohio, including the exceptional Federal Reserve Bank by Walker and Weeks which opened in 1923. The Huntington Bank Building, previously known as the Union Trust Building, Union Commerce Bank Building, 925 Building and now known as The Centennial, was designed by Graham Anderson Probst & White and was completed in 1924. Originally asked to infill the grand banking halls for additional office space, van Dijk convinced the bank’s executives to restore the building instead which was completed in 1975. His other noteworthy preservation projects included the 1890 Society for Savings Building on Public Square, now KeyBank, designed by John Wellborn Root of Burnham & Root fame, five buildings on the campus of Baldwin Wallace College; the Palace, State and Ohio theaters in Cleveland’s Playhouse Square; the MK Ferguson Plaza, formerly Cleveland’s main post office; and the 1981 adaptation of the Old Akron Post Office into the Akron Art Museum.

Van Dijk’s dedication to historic preservation and creative reuse earned him numerous awards from the Cleveland Restoration Society, the American Institute of Architects, and National Preservation Honor Awards. In his mid-30’s when given the assignment, van Dijk worked closely Cleveland Orchestra Conductor George Szell and structural engineers Richard Gensert and Miklos Peller to design Blossom Music Center, the consensus best outdoor concert venue in the world. Completed in 1968, the slate-covered clamshell roof and wood stage baffle make it possible for the orchestra to hear themselves while performing without amplification.

Video Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnHNOslUfJ8