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The decades-long friendship between the late Portland mid-century architects Pietro Belluschi and Walter Gordon will be the focus of an upcoming event to benefit two nonprofit organizations.

Proceeds from a tour on Saturday of the Jack and Betty Meier House in Southwest Portland, designed by Gordon in 1970, will be split between the historic preservation organization Restore Oregon and the Architecture Foundation of Oregon.

The event takes place from 4 to 6 p.m. and will feature a talk by Belluschi’s son and Portland architect, Anthony Belluschi. He will read excerpts from the 50-year correspondence between his father and Gordon spanning from the 1930s through the 1980s.

Gordon’s designs are lesser known than those of Pietro Belluschi, but he is also considered a major contributor to the development of the Northwest Regional Modernism style, said Brandon Spencer-Hartle, a senior field programs manager with Restore Oregon. The event will offer a rare opportunity for the public to tour one of Gordon’s residential designs before it goes on the market, Spencer-Hartle said.

Gordon and Belluschi worked together early in their architectural careers at the Portland office of A.E. Doyle. They remained close friends throughout their lives and, although they lived on opposite sides of the country, stayed in touch until Belluschi’s death in 1994.

After working for A.E. Doyle, Gordon started his own Portland architectural firm and taught at the University of Oregon in Eugene and Reed College in Portland. He died in 1997.

Tickets for the tour and talk, 鈥淓ntertaining Correspondence: The 50-year friendship of Pietro Belluschi and Walter Gordon,鈥� are $50 each. Restore Oregon’s tickets are sold out; however, tickets through AFO are still available or by calling 503-542-3825.