Welton Becket

Welton Becket
Born	(1902-08-08)August 8, 1902 Seattle, Washington United States
Died	Los Angeles, California United States
Nationality	American
Alma mater	University of Washington
Occupation	Architect
Practice	Welton Becket and Associates
Buildings	Capitol Records Building Pan-Pacific Auditorium Beverly Hilton Hotel
Design	Century City Master Plan

Welton David Becket (August 8, 1902 – January 16, 1969) was an American architect who designed many buildings in Los Angeles, California.

Biography

Becket was born in Seattle, Washington and graduated from the University of Washington program in Architecture in 1927 with a Bachelor of Architecture degree (B.Arch.).

He settled in Los Angeles in 1933 and formed a partnership with his University of Washington classmate Walter Wurdeman and Angelean architect Charles F. Plummer. Their first major commission was the Pan-Pacific Auditorium in 1935, which won them residential jobs from James Cagney, Robert Montgomery, and other film celebrities. Plummer died in 1939.

The successor firm Wurdeman and Becket went on to design Bullock's Pasadena (1944) and a couple of corporate headquarters. Wurdeman and Becket developed the concept of "total design," whereby their firm would be responsible for master planning, engineering, interiors, furniture, fixtures, landscaping, signage, and even (in the case of restaurants) menus, silverware, matchbooks, and napkins.

The 3,000-seat Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, opened in 1958.

After Wurdeman's death in 1949, Becket formed Welton Becket and Associates and continued to grow the firm to the extent that it was one of the largest architectural offices in the world by the time of his death in 1969. In 1987, his firm was acquired by Ellerbe Associates, and the merged firm continued as Ellerbe Becket until the end of 2009, when it was acquired by AECOM. It is now known as Ellerbe Becket, an AECOM Company.

Becket's buildings used unusual facade materials such as ceramic tile and stainless steel grillwork, repetitive geometric patterns, and a heavy emphasis on walls clad in natural stone, particularly travertine and flagstone.

With The Walt Disney Company and the United States Steel Corporation, Becket's firm co-designed Disney's Contemporary Resort, which opened in 1971 at Walt Disney World Resort. The Contemporary was designed as a 14-story steel A-frame with a monorail running through the building. Modular guest rooms were assembled, finished, furnished, fully equipped and their doors locked, on the ground, then lifted by crane and inserted into the frame; however, this sometimes took multiple tries.

Welton Becket was elected a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 1952.

Becket's sons, Welton MacDonald Becket & Bruce Becket, are also practicing architects.

Commissions

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The 13-story Capitol Records Building.

City Hall Pomona, California, built in 1969, designed by Welton Becket and B.H. Anderson as two buildings joined by a central glass pavilion (photograph taken in 2004).

Glendale Central Library, finished March 13, 1973.

Becket's extensive list of credits includes:

• Pan-Pacific Auditorium (destroyed by a fire), Los Angeles, 1935 (with Walter Wurdeman)
• Jones Dog & Cat Hospital, West Hollywood, California, 1938 (with Walter Wurdeman)
• Manila Jai Alai Building (demolished), Manila, Philippines, 1939 (with Walter Wurdeman)
• General Petroleum Building, Los Angeles, 1949 (with Walter Wurdeman)
• Beverly Hilton Hotel, Beverly Hills, 1953
• Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles, 1953
• Parker Center (formerly the Police Administration Building), Los Angeles, 1955
• Capitol Records Building, Los Angeles, 1956
• Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, Santa Monica, 1958
• Hotel Tryp Habana Libre (formerly the Habana Hilton), Havana, Cuba, 1958
• The Nile Ritz-Carlton, Cairo (formerly the Nile Hilton), Cairo, Egypt, 1959
• Sheraton Dallas Hotel (formerly the Adams Mark Dallas and Southland Center), Dallas, 1959
• 100 California Street, San Francisco, 1960
• Kaiser Center, Oakland, 1960
• Petersen Automotive Museum (formerly a Seibu and Ohrbach's department store), Los Angeles, 1962
• Southern Cross Hotel, Melbourne, Australia, 1962 (demolished 2003)
• Cinerama Dome, Los Angeles, 1963
• Century City (masterplan), Los Angeles, 1963
• Gateway West Building, Century City, Los Angeles, 1963
• Hartford National Bank, Hartford, CT 1963
• McCarran International Airport, Las Vegas, NV 1963
• Federal Building, Los Angeles, 1964
• Los Angeles Music Center (officially the Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County), Los Angeles, 1964
• General Electric Pavilion (destroyed), New York City, 1964
• Pauley Pavilion at UCLA (officially the Edwin W. Pauley Pavilion), Los Angeles, 1965
• Gulf Life Tower (now known as the Riverplace Tower), Jacksonville, Florida, 1967
• Xerox Tower, Rochester, New York, 1967
• City Hall, Pomona, 1969
• Equitable Life Building, Los Angeles, 1969
• 800 Wilshire, Los Angeles, 1970
• PNC Plaza (formerly the Citizens Fidelity Plaza), Louisville, 1971
• Disney's Contemporary Resort, Lake Buena Vista, 1971
• Worcester Center Galleria (demolished 2012), Worcester, MA, 1971
• Chase Tower (formerly the Bank One Center and Valley Bank Center), Phoenix, 1972
• Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, New York, 1972
• Regions Center (formerly the AmSouth Center, AmSouth-Sonat Tower, and First National-Southern Natural Building), Birmingham, 1972
• Glendale Central Library, Glendale, 1973
• 100 Summer Street, Boston, 1974
• Reunion Tower, Dallas, 1978
• One Market Plaza, San Francisco, 1972
• Orange Civic Center, Orange, 1963
• Park Plaza Mall, Oshkosh, WI, 1970, now City Center a commercial business center for Oshkosh.

Interiors of the new Los Angeles International Airport, 1962

External links

File:Cinerama-Dome-decorated-for-Shrek-2.jpg

Becket's Cinerama Dome, with Shrek 2 decorations.

• Oral history — Perkins quote (pg. 75)
• Bigfloridacountry.com: Video clip of construction of the Contemporary Resort
• Bigfloridacountry.com: Contemporary Pictures
• Welton Becket at Find a Grave