Welton Becket (August 8, 1902 – January 16, 1969) was an
architect who designed many buildings in
Los Angeles, California.
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.
After Wurdeman's death in 1949, Becket formed Welton Becket Associates and continued to grow the firm. At the time of Becket's death in 1969, his architectural firm was the largest in the world. 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 of unusual facade...
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