CAF Video Initiative - Norman Perttula, FAIA

A native of Duluth, Minnesota and a graduate of the architectural program at the University of Minnesota, Perttula earned a scholarship to Harvard for graduate school where he met Piet van Dijk. Both ended up recruited by Eero Saarinen to his office to work on iconic projects that defined the best of Modern Architecture in America.

In his five years at Saarinen’s office in Birmingham, Michigan, Perttula would be a part of the team that designed the University of Chicago’s Law School Library (1959) and TWA’s International Terminal at New York’s JFK Airport (1960). He captained Saarinen’s architectural team that designed the Dulles International Air Terminal in Washington, D.C. (1962). As Saarinen was planning to relocate his office to Connecticut, Piet van Dijk recommended Norm for the Director of Design position at Dalton Dalton Newport, Cleveland’s powerhouse architectural and engineering firm.

With impressive projects on DDN plate, Perttula moved his family to Cleveland in 1961 and dug in. Eero Saarinen died unexpectedly in September 1961 during surgery for a brain tumor at the age of 51. Perttula’s 1973 Cleveland Arts Prize citation – awarded after only 12 years in town, correctly cited, “his great skill at handling large complicated developments. His own beautiful drawings show a close involvement with every detail of his buildings.” Among the projects cited that exemplify these challenges—and Perttula’s signature gifts—is the world headquarters he designed for B. F. Goodrich in Akron, Ohio in 1971, the keystone of a major urban renewal project. A three-level bridge connects the new building to the historic existing manufacturing and office facilities; the Ohio Bell Corporate Data Center in Brecksville, Ohio (1973); Springfield College Library in Springfield, Massachusetts (1973); Ohio University Library in Athens, Ohio (Phase One, 1967; Phase Two, 1971); Cleveland State University’s main classroom building (1971); Lakeland Community College in Lake County (1969, 1971, 1973); and Park Centre – now Reserve Square, a bold experiment at that time in downtown living that combined a multilevel enclosed shopping mall, recreational facilities and indoor parking with 1,000 apartment units completed in 1973.

Perttula served as Director of Design at Dalton Dalton Little Newport and was senior design principal for successor firm URS Consultants, Inc. from 1984 until his retirement in 1991. He continues to handle occasional special projects, and most recently was a key member of the design team charged with a comprehensive renovation of the landmark West Point US Military Academy Campus.

Norman Perttula has won numerous regional and national awards include the Cleveland State University Convocation Center in downtown Cleveland (1991); the Ohio Bell/ AT&T corporate headquarters at East 9th and Lakeside (1984); Master Builders’ World Headquarters and Technical Center in Beachwood (1980); the adaptive reuse of Firestone Tire & Rubber world headquarters in Akron (1983); the Air Force Institute of Technology’s Science, Engineering & Support Complex at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio (1986); the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Building at Wilberforce University (1972); and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, a medical school for the military, in Bethesda, Maryland (1980), which received the U.S. Department of Defense’s prestigious Blue Seal Award for most outstanding design.

Perttula was made a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 1983, served as local AIA Chapter President in 1976, president of AIA Ohio and became Vice President of the AIA Ohio Foundation. Perttula served on the City of Cleveland Fine Arts/ Design Review Committee for decades.

Video Interview: In Editing Phase