Forty years after leaving Rensselaer with his architecture degree, P. Richard Rittelmann ’60, FAIA, returned to orchestrate a massive construction project that will have a major impact on the future of the university.
Rittelmann is principal-in-charge of the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies, the $80 million, 218,000-square-foot building now rising along 15th Street. When it opens next fall, the new building will rank among the world’s most advanced research facilities.
Rittelmann is the board chairman of Burt Hill Kosar Rittelmann Associates, one of the most highly regarded architectural-engineering firms in the country. Thirty-six years ago, when he joined the practice based in Butler, Pa., it consisted of 12 people. Today, approximately 360 employees in Butler, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Washington, Boston, and Cleveland provide a range of services including architecture, engineering, master planning, research, energy management, and interior design. In 2002, Burt Hill was ranked 187th by Engineering News-Record in its list of the Top 500 Design Firms. The biotechnology center may not be the biggest or the most challenging project Rittelmann has undertaken, but it is shaping up to be one of the most satisfying.
“This is where I grew up — in the School of Architecture,” he says. “So this project is very important to me. It offered a phenomenal opportunity to pull together all that I’ve learned and experienced over the years and use it to do something important for my alma mater.”
Rittelmann is also primary author of the master plan for the entire South Campus Development Project, which stretches from the biotechnology center on 15th Street, all the way to 8th Street where the 160,000-square-foot Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center designed by the London-based architecture firm of Nicholas Grimshaw & Partners soon will take shape.
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