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Oral History of Edward Charles Bassett

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Oral History of Edward Charles Bassett ORAL HISTORY OF EDWARD CHARLES BASSETT Interviewed by Betty J. Blum Compiled under the auspices of the Chicago Architects Oral History Project The Ernest R. Graham Study Center for Architectural Drawings Department of Architecture The Art Institute of Chicago Copyright © 1992 Revised Edition Copyright © 2006 The Art Institute of Chicago This manuscript is hereby made available to the public for research purposes only. All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publication, are reserved to the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries of The Art Institute of Chicago. No part of this manuscript may be quoted for publication without the written permission of The Art Institute of Chicago. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface iv Preface to Revised Edition v Outline of Topics vi Oral History 1 Selected References 149 Curriculum Vitae 150 Index of Names and Buildings 151 iii PREFACE On January 30, 31, and February 1, 1989, I met with Edward Charles Bassett in his home in Mill Valley, California, to record his memoirs. Retired now, "Chuck" has been the head of design of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill's San Francisco office from 1955-1981. Those twenty-six years were a time of unprecedented growth and change to which Chuck not only bore witness but helped shape. Chuck Bassett was one of the SOM triumvirate of the postwar years: he was the West Coast counterpart of Gordon Bunshaft in New York and William Hartmann in Chicago. In 1988 the California Council of the American Institute of Architects awarded SOM, San Francisco, a 42-year award for "...the genuine commitment that the firm has had to its city, to the profession and to both art and the business of architecture." Although Chuck prefers to be known as a team player, his personal contribution to this achievement is unmistakable in the context of urban San Francisco since 1955. Chuck's talent and personality seems to have been a fortuitous marriage with the architectural tradition of the Bay Region. Our recording sessions were taped on five 90-minute and one 60-minute cassettes which have been transcribed and reviewed by both Chuck and me. Chuck made corrections and some lengthy additions that he feels clarify and amplify his original intention. The transcript has been edited to retain as much as possible of the flow, tone, and spirit of the original narrative. For Chuck's thoughtful recollections that will be invaluable for future historians who seek a more comprehensive picture of SOM San Francisco during the postwar years, I thank him. For Chuck's cooperation throughout the recording process, I owe him my appreciation. Chuck Bassett's oral history has been sponsored by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, whose reputation he helped to establish. We are grateful to SOM for their support of this oral history program that seeks to document the recent architectural past through eyewitness accounts from architects who created it. Thanks go to transcriber Joan Cameron and editor Sarah Underhill for their skilled contributions in bringing this document to completion. Betty J. Blum April 1992 iv PREFACE TO REVISED EDITION Since 1992, when the previous preface was written, advances in electronic transmission of data have moved at breakneck speed. With the ubiquity of the Internet, awareness and demand for copies of oral histories in the Chicago Architects Oral History Project collection have vastly increased. These factors, as well as the Ryerson and Burnham Library's commitment to scholarly research, have compelled us to make these documents readily accessible on the World Wide Web. A complete electronic version of each oral history is now available on the Chicago Architects Oral History Project's section of The Art Institute of Chicago website, http://www.artic.edu/aic, and, as before, a bound version is available for study at the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries at The Art Institute of Chicago. In preparing an electronic version of this document, we have reformatted it for publication, reviewed and updated with minor copy-editing, and, where applicable, we have expanded the biographical profile and added pertinent bibliographic references. Lastly, the text has been reindexed and the CAOHP Master Index updated accordingly. All of the electronic conversion and reformatting is the handiwork of my valued colleague, Annemarie van Roessel, whose technical skills, intelligence, and discerning judgment have shaped the breadth and depth of the CAOHP's presence on the Internet. This endeavor would be greatly diminished without her seamless leadership in these matters. Publication of this oral history in web-accessible form was made possible by the generous support of The Vernon and Marcia Wagner Access Fund at The Art Institute of Chicago; The James & Catherine Haveman Foundation; The Reva and David Logan Family Fund of the Community Foundation for the National Capital Region; and Daniel Logan and The Reva and David Logan Foundation. Finally, to the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries at The Art Institute of Chicago and its generous and supportive director, Jack P. Brown, we extend our deepest gratitude for facilitating this endeavor. Betty J. Blum February 2005 v OUTLINE OF TOPICS Early Exposure to Architecture 1 Study at University of Michigan at Ann Arbor 11 Army Experience 18 Return of University of Michigan After the War 26 Relationship with Roger Bailey 31 Work in Alden Dow's Office 34 Master's Degree at Cranbrook 39 Work in Saarinen Office 40 Impressions of Eliel Saarinen 47 Impressions of Eero Saarinen 52 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Auditorium and Chapel 53 Decision to Leave Saarinen Office in 1955 for Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, California 60 Impressions of Kevin Roche 63 Crown Zellerbach Headquarters, San Francisco 71 John Hancock Building, San Francisco 80 Different Working Methods at Skidmore, Owings and Merrill Offices 84 Mauna Kea Beach Resort Hotel, Kamuela Bay, Hawaii 90 Alcoa Building, San Francisco 98 Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Complex, Oakland, California 102 Weyerhaeuser Corporation Headquarters and Technology Center, Tacoma, Washington 104 Relationship of Architect and Developer 115 United States Embassy Building, Moscow 119 Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, San Francisco 125 Influence of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe on Skidmore, Owings and Merrill 139 Personal Goals on Entering Architecture 143 vi Edward Charles Bassett Blum: Today is January 30, 1989, and I'm with Chuck Bassett in his home in California. You were born in 1921 in Port Huron, Michigan? Bassett: September 12th, right. Blum: And educated at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and at Cranbrook—an education that was interrupted by military service in the Pacific Theatre. You worked for the Saarinens from 1950 to 1955 and Skidmore, Owings and Merrill [SOM] from 1955 until 1981. Are you still a consultant? Bassett: Not any longer. I'm still in and out. They ask me to get in the way once in a while, but I'm generally through. Blum: I see. How did your long-standing career in architecture begin? Do you have early recollections of thinking about architecture? Bassett: Well, that's very simply answered. My father was an architect in Port Huron, and at the time I was growing up, he was not registered. He had a small town practice, but at that early age he was a member of a firm maintained by a man by the name of Walter Wyeth, who was at that time about the only architect in Port Huron. My father, who was born in 1900, just because of the way things were then did not go to the university. I think it was a product of lack of money and his high school graduation then being followed almost immediately by army service near the end of World War I. Then he and my mother were married. There was nothing in his social situation at that time that would have provided funds for him to go on to school. Because he was an excellent draftsman and, I think, had a fine natural sense of architecture, he began working in Wyeth's office, and also for a bridge company in Sarnia, Ontario. In this little office my father became the number two man, the chief draftsman. He learned to do 1 everything. It was a wonderful kind of practice. When the site had to be surveyed, he could do it, he could design it, then render it, and do the working drawings including most of the structural and mechanical documents. Then the secretary, who was very experienced, would write the specs. The practice was mostly medium size residential work with some commercial and institutional buildings distributed throughout Michigan's "thumb" area. There was work in Canada, too. Anyway, I was conscripted at a very early age to help around the office, especially for the task of making blueprints. They were made in the old- fashioned way, I doubt if there are many people left who remember that. Blum: How was that? Bassett: Well, there was a machine into which the blueprint paper, with the tracing resting on top of it, was introduced. After a timed exposure to light, it emerged and was dipped in a trough of water and placed against a vertical metal surface above the trough, then painted with a chemical bath and rinsed by water running down. Then you laid the wet piece of paper that had been exposed but not developed against this flat plane, and painted it with a bright yellow chemical with a big brush. All of a sudden, there was the blueprint. Blum: It turned blue? Bassett: It turned blue immediately. The paper was originally kind of a pale yellow. Then you rinsed it, because you had valves on the side and the water came down from a pipe at the top and rinsed the blueprint clean.
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