During the years when he was president of his firm, Welton Becket (1902-1969) was often quoted in the press as saying that he wanted to give his clients what they wanted, not what he as the architect of a building desired. He was not interested in creating “Welton Beckets.” Those statements caused a great deal of confusion, as Becket seemed to erase himself completely from the creative aspect of the design process. It gave critics an opportunity to interpret his work as purely commercial, as if it were devoid of any input regarding siting, material selection, proportions or style.
Recent research indicates that this interpretation is misguided. Becket inspired his designers to propose design solutions that might not immediately be appreciated by his clients. The best example is the design for the circular Capitol Records building that Becket personally pushed through despite the client’s initial objection that the building looked like a stack of gramophone records, making it appear to be too easy a solution for a building that would house the headquarters of a record company.
This presentation will explore the nature of the relationship between Welton Becket and such powerful clients as President Dwight D. Eisenhower or Conrad Hilton. An image emerges of a charismatic architect who worked hard to deliver buildings on time and within budget and encouraged his designers to be as creative as possible. These relationships are the basis of not only Becket’s great success but also the jealousy he encountered regularly from his colleagues.
Wim de Wit is an independent architectural historian and curator. He studied architectural history in the Netherlands and has held positions as curator of architecture in Amsterdam, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Stanford. In those capacities, he organized exhibitions and wrote accompanying catalogs on a variety of subjects, including the Amsterdam School (Amsterdam, 1975 and New York, 1983), Louis Sullivan (Chicago, 1986), the World’s Columbian Exposition (Chicago, 1993), Bernard Rudofsky (L.A., 2007-2008), “Overdrive, L. A. Constructs the Future, 1940-1990” (L.A., 2013), and “Design for the Corporate World” (Stanford, 2017). He is currently working on a book-length study devoted to the work of Wurdeman and Becket and Welton Becket & Associates, which will be published by the Getty Research Institute in early 2027.
Welton Becket: Architecture, Innovation, and the Midcentury City, to be published by the Getty Research Institute in February/March, 2027.
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