Welton David Becket (August 8, 1902 – January 16, 1969) was an American modern 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 moved to Los Angeles in 1933 and formed a partnership with his University of Washington classmate

Walter Wurdeman Welton David Becket (August 8, 1902 – January 16, 1969) was an American modern architect who designed many buildings in Los Angeles, California. Biography Becket was born in Seattle, Washington and graduated from the University of Washingt ...

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 James Francis Cagney Jr. (; July 17, 1899March 30, 1986) was an American actor, dancer and film director. On stage and in film, Cagney was known for his consistently energetic performances, distinctive vocal style, and deadpan comic timing. He ...

, Robert Montgomery, and other film celebrities. Plummer died in 1939. The successor firm Wurdeman and Becket went on to design

Bullock's Pasadena Bullock's Pasadena, in Pasadena, California, is a 240,000-square foot (21 368 m²) Late Moderne architectural style building. Built in 1947, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. History Design The building was ...

(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. 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 Ellerbe Becket was an independent Minneapolis, Minnesota-based architectural, engineering, interior design and construction firm until 2009, when it was acquired by AECOM. AECOM is ranked as one of the world's largest architectural firms, with of ...

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 Stainless steel is an alloy of iron that is resistant to rusting and corrosion. It contains at least 11% chromium and may contain elements such as carbon, other nonmetals and metals to obtain other desired properties. Stainless steel's corros ...

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 United States Steel Corporation, more commonly known as U.S. Steel, is an American integrated steel producer headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with production operations primarily in the United States of America and in several countries ...

, Becket's firm co-designed

Disney's Contemporary Resort Disney's Contemporary Resort, originally to be named Tempo Bay Hotel and previously the Contemporary Resort Hotel, is a resort located at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida. Opened on October 1, 1971, the hotel is one of two or ...

, 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, as well as his nephew MacDonald G. Becket and granddaughter Alexandra Becket.

Commissions

Becket's extensive list of credits includes: *777 Main Street, Hartford Connecticut * Pan-Pacific Auditorium, Los Angeles, CA, 1935 (with

) (destroyed by fire) * Jones Dog & Cat Hospital, West Hollywood, California, 1938 (with

) * Manila Jai Alai Building, Manila, Philippines, 1939 (with

) (demolished) *

General Petroleum Building The General Petroleum Building, also known as the Mobil Oil Building and the Pegasus Apartments, is a highrise building in the Modern architecture style located in Downtown Los Angeles . Design and construction Walter Wurdeman & Welton Becket we ...

, Los Angeles, CA, 1949 (with

) *First National Bank of Arizona Building, Phoenix, AZ, 1950 *Welton Becket Residence, Los Angeles, CA, 1952 * Los Altos Center Mall, Long Beach, CA 1953 * Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, 1953 *Baptist Memorial Hospital, Kansas City, MO, 1953 * Parker Center (formerly the ''Police Administration Building''), Los Angeles, CA, 1955 (demolished) * The Broadway department store (now Walmart) at Panorama City Shopping Center, Panorama City, Los Angeles, CA, 1955 * The Beverly Hilton, Beverly Hills, CA, 1955 * The Broadway Orange County, at the original Anaheim Plaza, Anaheim, CA, 1955 (demolished) *

Capitol Records Building The Capitol Records Building, also known as the Capitol Records Tower, is a 13-story tower building in Hollywood, Los Angeles. Designed by Louis Naidorf of Welton Becket Associates, it is one of the city's landmarks. Construction began soon after ...

, Los Angeles, CA, Project Designer Lou Naidorf, 1956 * Edens Plaza, Wilmette, Illinois, 1956 * Park Central Mall, Phoenix, AZ, 1956 *

Ace Hotel Los Angeles Ace Hotel Downtown Los Angeles, originally built as the California Petroleum Corporation Building and later known as the Texaco Building, is a , 13-story highrise hotel and theater building located at 937 South Broadway in downtown Los Angeles, ...

(formerly the ''Texaco Building'') on Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA, 1957 *

Santa Monica Civic Auditorium Santa Monica Civic Auditorium is a multi-purpose convention center at 1855 Main Street in Santa Monica, California, owned by the City of Santa Monica. It was built in 1958 and designed by Welton Becket and as a concert venue, it has a seating cap ...

, Santa Monica, CA, 1958 *

Hotel Tryp Habana Libre Hotel Tryp Habana Libre is one of the larger hotels in Cuba, situated in Vedado, Havana. The hotel has 572 rooms in a 25-floor tower at Calle 23 ("La Rampa") and Calle L. Opened in 1958 as the Habana Hilton, the hotel famously served as the resid ...

(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, TX, 1959 * Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena, Los Angeles, CA, 1959 (demolished) * Riviera Hotel and Casino expansion, Las Vegas, NV, 1959 (demolished) *Los Angeles Customs House and Federal Office Building, Los Angeles, CA, 1960 (with Albert C. Martin and

Paul R. Williams Paul Revere Williams, FAIA (February 18, 1894 – January 23, 1980) was an American architect based in Los Angeles, California. He practiced mostly in Southern California and designed the homes of numerous celebrities, including Frank Sina ...

) * 100 California Street, San Francisco, CA, 1960 * Kaiser Center,

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...

, CA, 1960 *Clark County Courthouse, Las Vegas, NV, 1961 (with Zick & Sharp) * Grossmont Center, La Mesa, CA, 1961 * Christown Mall, Phoenix, AZ, 1961 *Robert McCulloch Residence, Palm Springs, CA, 1962 *

Petersen Automotive Museum The Petersen Automotive Museum is located on Wilshire Boulevard along Museum Row in the Miracle Mile neighborhood of Los Angeles. One of the world's largest automotive museums, the Petersen Automotive Museum is a nonprofit organization specializin ...

(formerly a Seibu and Ohrbach's department store), Los Angeles, CA, 1962 * Walt Whitman Shops, Huntington Station, NY, 1962 *

Southern Cross Hotel The Southern Cross Hotel was a hotel in Melbourne, Australia. It was opened by the Prime Minister, Robert Menzies, on 24 August 1962 as Australia's first modern 'International' hotel, heralding the arrival of American-style glamour, the jet-set ...

, Melbourne, Australia, 1962 (demolished 2003) *Interiors of the new Los Angeles International Airport, 1962 *Boeing Building (formally McCulloch Building, Hughes Space Research Center) El Segundo, CA, 1962 * Airport Marina Hotel, Westchester, Los Angeles, 1961-2 (now Hotel June) *Security First National Bank, El Segundo, CA, 1963 (demolished) * U.S. Embassy, Warsaw, Poland, 1963 * Cinerama Dome, Los Angeles, CA, 1963 *

Century City Century City is a 176-acre (71.2 ha) neighborhood and business district in Los Angeles, California. Located on the Westside to the south of Santa Monica Boulevard around 10 miles (16 km) west of Downtown Los Angeles, Century City is one of ...

(masterplan), Los Angeles, CA, 1963 *

Gateway West Building Gateway West Building was a skyscraper in Century City, Los Angeles, California. Location The Gateway West Building is located on the southwest corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and the Avenue of the Stars in Century City, a district in the city o ...

, Century City, Los Angeles, CA, 1963 * Biltmore Fashion Park, Phoenix, AZ, 1963 * Hartford National Bank, Hartford, CT 1963 * ExxonMobil Building (formerly Humble Oil Building) Houston, TX, 1963 *

McCarran International Airport Harry Reid International Airport is an international airport in Paradise, Nevada, and is the main government airport for public use in the Las Vegas Valley, a metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Nevada, about south of Downtown Las Vegas. ...

, Las Vegas, NV, 1963 * Orange Civic Center, Orange, CA, 1963 *

Westfield Century City Westfield Century City (formerly known as the Century Square Shopping Center) is a two-level, 1.3 million-square-foot outdoor shopping mall in the Century City commercial district in Los Angeles, California. A property of the Westfield Corporatio ...

(formally Century City Mall) Century City, Los Angeles, CA, 1964 * Phillips Petroleum Building, Bartlesville, OK, 1964 * Federal Building, Los Angeles, CA, 1964 *North American Avaition Building, Los Angeles, 1964 *

Los Angeles Music Center The Music Center (officially named the Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County) is one of the largest performing arts centers in the United States. Located in downtown Los Angeles, The Music Center is composed of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion ...

(officially the ''Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County''), which includes Dorthy Chandler Pavilion,

Mark Taper Forum The Mark Taper Forum is a 739-seat thrust stage at the Los Angeles Music Center designed by Welton Becket and Associates on the Bunker Hill section of Downtown Los Angeles. Named for real estate developer Mark Taper, the Forum, the neighboring ...

and Ahmanson Theater, Los Angeles, CA, 1964 * Ford Pavilion, New York City, NY, 1964 (demolished) * General Electric Pavilion, New York City, NY, 1964 (demolished) *Mutual Savings and Loan Building, Pasadena, CA, 1964 * Pauley Pavilion at UCLA (officially the ''Edwin W. Pauley Pavilion''), Los Angeles, CA, 1965 *Santa Monica Shores Apartments, Santa Monica CA, 1967 * Gulf Life Tower (now known as the ''Riverplace Tower''), Jacksonville, FL, 1967 * Xerox Tower, Rochester, New York, 1967 * Fashion Island, Newport Beach, CA, 1967 (with William Pereira) *

5900 Wilshire 5900 Wilshire is a , 32-story skyscraper completed in 1971 in Los Angeles, California, United States. It is the tallest building in the Miracle Mile district, the second-tallest in the Wilshire Area, and the 38th-tallest in Los Angeles. The inter ...

, Los Angeles, CA, 1968 (with William Pereira) * La Habra Fashion Square, La Habra, CA, 1968 (Welton Becket and Associates) *

City Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...

Pomona Pomona may refer to: Places Argentina * Pomona, Río Negro Australia * Pomona, Queensland, Australia, a town in the Shire of Noosa * Pomona, New South Wales, Australia Belize * Pomona, Belize, a municipality in Stann Creek District Mexico ...

, CA, Project Designer Marvin Taff, 1969 * Equitable Life Building, Los Angeles, 1969 *

McKesson Plaza One Post Street is a 38-story, office skyscraper located at 1 Post Street and Market Street (San Francisco), Market Street in the Financial District (San Francisco), Financial District of San Francisco, California, United States. The building i ...

, San Francisco, CA, 1969 * One California, San Francisco, CA, 1969 *Park Plaza Shopping Center, Oshkosh, WI, 1969 * 800 Wilshire, Los Angeles, CA, 1970 *

Park Plaza Mall Park Plaza Mall is an enclosed shopping mall located in the Midtown neighborhood of Little Rock, Arkansas. Originally opened in 1960 as Park Plaza Shopping Center, an open-air shopping center, the mall is home to two Dillard's flagship stores and ...

Oshkosh, WI Oshkosh is a city in Winnebago County, Wisconsin, of which it is the county seat. The city had a population of 66,816 in 2020, making it the ninth-largest city in Wisconsin. It is also adjacent to the Town of Oshkosh. History Oshkosh was ...

, 1970, now City Center a commercial business center for Oshkosh. *

PNC Plaza PNC Plaza is a skyscraper in Downtown, Louisville, Kentucky and located at 500 West Jefferson Street. Owned by Pittsburgh-based PNC Bank, the 31-story, high structure was designed by architect Welton Becket and was completed in 1971. A notable ...

(formerly the ''Citizens Fidelity Plaza''), Louisville, KY, 1971 *

Beverly Wilshire Hotel The Beverly Wilshire, A Four Seasons Hotel, commonly known as the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, is a historic luxury hotel in Beverly Hills, California. Located at the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and Rodeo Drive, it was completed in 1928. It has ...

expansion, Beverly Hills, CA, 1971 *

, Lake Buena Vista, FL, 1971 * Worcester Center, Worcester, MA, 1971 * Chase Tower (formerly the ''Bank One Center'' and ''Valley Bank Center''), Phoenix, AZ, Project Designer

MacDonald Becket MacDonald George Becket (November 2, 1928 - December 7, 2017) was an American architect. He was the president, and later chairman and CEO of Welton Becket and Associates, an architectural firm in Los Angeles, California. He helped master plan Cen ...

, 1972 * Grand Ole Opry House, Nashville, TN, 1972 * Hyatt Regency, Knoxville, TN, 1972 * Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Uniondale, New York, 1972 * One Market Plaza, San Francisco, CA, 1972 *

Union Bank Building The Union Bank Building ( the Union Bank Tower or Former Union Bank Building and Annex), located in the Exchange District of Winnipeg, Manitoba, is the first skyscraper in Canada, once forming the northern end of Main Street, Winnipeg, Main Stre ...

, San Francisco, CA, 1972 *

One PNC Plaza One PNC Plaza is a high-rise office building located in the Golden Triangle neighborhood of the Central Business District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the Unit ...

, Pittsburgh, PA, 1972 * Regions Center (formerly the ''AmSouth Center'', ''AmSouth-Sonat Tower'', and ''First National-Southern Natural Building''), Birmingham, AL, 1972 *

Brady Sullivan Plaza Brady may refer to: People * Brady (surname) * Brady (given name) * Brady (nickname) * Brady Boone, a ring name of American professional wrestler Dean Peters (1958–1998) Places in the United States * Brady, Montana, a census-designated pl ...

, ''(formerly Hampshire Plaza),'' Manchester, N.H., 1973 * Glendale Central Library,

Glendale Glendale is the anglicised version of the Gaelic Gleann Dail, which means ''valley of fertile, low-lying arable land''. It may refer to: Places Australia * Glendale, New South Wales ** Stockland Glendale, a shopping centre *Glendale, Queensland, ...

, CA, Project Designer, Marvin Taff, 1973 *Chase Plaza, Lexington, KY, 1973 *

100 Summer Street 100 Summer Street is a high-rise building located in downtown Boston, Massachusetts. The building stands at with 33 floors, over 1.03 million square feet (over 92,000 m2) of office space, and was completed in 1974. It is ranked 24th on the ...

, Boston, MA, 1974 *United Plaza, Philadelphia, PA, 1974 * Hyatt Regency New Orleans, New Orleans, LA, 1976 *Intourist Hotel, Moscow, Russia, 1976 * Reunion Tower, Dallas, TX, 1978 *

Hyatt Regency Hotel Hyatt Hotels Corporation, commonly known as Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, is an American multinational hospitality company headquartered in the Riverside Plaza area of Chicago that manages and franchises luxury and business hotels, resorts, and vaca ...

, Dallas, TX, 1978 *Hyatt Regency Hotel, Washington, D. C. 1978 *Hyatt Regency Hotel, Louisville, KY, 1978 * US Bank Plaza, Boise, ID, 1978 * BNY Mellon Center, Pittsburgh, PA, 1980 *

One Tampa City Center One Tampa City Center, formerly known as GTE Center and Verizon Building, is an office skyscraper in Tampa, Florida. It was the tallest building in the state for three years and the tallest building in the city until the completion of the Bank o ...

(formerly the GTE Building) Tampa, FL, 1981 *Stanton Tower, El Paso, TX, 1981 * Wells Fargo Plaza, San Diego, CA, 1983 *OneOK Plaza, Tulsa, OK, 1984 (with

HKS, Inc. HKS, Inc. is an American international architecture firm headquartered in Dallas, Texas (USA). History The firm was founded in 1939 by Harwood K. Smith. In 2002, HKS expanded its international presence by opening HKS Arquitectos in Mex ...

) *

First Bank and Trust Tower The First Bank and Trust Tower (also known as the First Bank Tower and previously known as the LL&E Tower and 909 Poydras Tower), located at 909 Poydras Street in the Central Business District of New Orleans, Louisiana, is a 36-story, -tall skys ...

, New Orleans, LA, 1987 *Skyview Center, Los Angeles, CA, 1987

References

External links

Oral history — Perkins quote (pg. 75)Bigfloridacountry.com: Video clip of construction of the Contemporary Resort
* MacDonald Becket papers, Welton Becket and Associates, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession No. 2012.M.43 * Welton Becket architectural drawings and photographs, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession No. 2010.M.83 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Becket, Welton Architects from Los Angeles Modernist architects Fellows of the American Institute of Architects 1902 births 1969 deaths Architects from Seattle University of Washington College of Built Environments alumni 20th-century American architects