Copyright by Elise Louise King 2012
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Copyright by Elise Louise King 2012 The Thesis Committee for Elise Louise King Certifies that this is the approved version of the following: Welton Becket and Bullock’s Pasadena: Quiet Icons of Mid-Century Design APPROVED BY SUPERVISING COMMITTEE: Supervisor: Christopher Long Monica Penick Welton Becket and Bullock’s Pasadena: Quiet Icons of Mid-Century Design by Elise Louise King, B.S.F.C.S.; M.A. Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Interior Design The University of Texas at Austin May 2012 Acknowledgements I am grateful for the sustained support and advisement provided by UTSOA faculty and staff. Dr. Christopher Long, my thesis supervisor and general academic guru, has honed my writing abilities and continues to push me to ever-greater scholarly heights. He has been an invaluable resource during my two masters, and I look forward to our future collaborations. My second reader, Dr. Monica Penick, advised me through the proposal stage, providing weekly feedback and continued moral support. As an expert in post-war housing, she was also an all-knowing guidebook for mid-century resource materials. Welton Becket’s granddaughter, Alexandra Becket, graciously responded to my countless emails and phone calls and connected me with other family sources. She remains an outspoken advocate for her grandfather’s legacy and fights for the preservation of his architecture. I would also like to thank my patient husband, supportive parents, and gracious friends. They have supported me from the beginning and continue to encourage and inspire me daily. iv Abstract Welton Becket and Bullock’s Pasadena: Quiet Icons of Mid-Century Design Elise Louise King, M.I.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2012 Supervisor: Christopher Long Following the Second World War department stores transitioned from the downtown establishments of the first half of the century to the enclosed shopping malls of the second; however, for a period of about six years, from 1945 to 1951, the stand- alone department store fulfilled the needs of suburbanites. During this struggle to define the new suburban shopping experience, Welton Becket and Walter Wurdeman designed Bullock’s Pasadena—the first embodiment of their research-based “total design” philosophy. Today, Becket is best known for his iconic Capitol Records building and the assembly line efficiency of Welton Becket and Associates, but he devoted much of the late 1940s and 1950s to designing department stores and shopping centers. As store managers and fellow architects strained to build department stores for automobile, Becket emerged with a research-based solution that he later termed “total-design.” Similar to the concept of Gesamtkunstwerk, Becket’s “total-design” was a philosophy that required attention to nuance and detail—in the case of department stores this included furniture, v fixtures, carpet, and even price tags and restaurant menus. But he also sought to support his designs with research and study.1 Before Becket designed Bullock’s Pasadena, his first department store, he dedicated a year to analyzing the customers, employees, and efficiency of Bullock’s. This investigation resulted in an open-plan store with flexible furnishings and a sympathetic approach to the automobile, including parking lots that integrated with the store’s layout. Becket was not alone in his exploration of suburban department stores. Architects from around the country, including Raymond Loewy, Victor Gruen, John Graham, and Morris Ketchum, created their own prototypes for this new building typology. But many found it difficult to compete with Becket’s extensive research and empirical method. Several stores, such as B. Altman’s Miracle Mile branch on Long Island (1947) and Bamberger’s branch in Morristown, New Jersey (1949), had to be renovated or relocated within ten years of opening, unable to keep pace with growing storage and parking demands. Becket, by contrast, studied population densities and demographics, freeway connections and traffic congestion to establish the number of parking spaces and their location on site. Instead of utilizing parking space ratios, favored by his peers, he relied on a wider scope of analysis to inform his designs. Bullock’s Pasadena provides the basis for this study and demonstrates the evolution of Becket’s design process that would come to define one of the world’s largest architecture firms. 1 William Dudley Hunt, Total Design: Architecture of Welton Becket and Associates (New York: McGraw- Hill, 1971), 4. vi Table of Contents Acknowledgements................................................................................................ iv Abstract....................................................................................................................v Table of Contents.................................................................................................. vii List of Illustrations................................................................................................. ix Introduction..............................................................................................................1 Chapter 1 Background ............................................................................................3 The Rise of Department Stores.......................................................................3 Mid-Century Stores................................................................................4 Life as Becket .................................................................................................7 Early Years ............................................................................................7 Growing Reputation...............................................................................9 Bullock's and Beyond ..........................................................................12 Life without Wurdeman.......................................................................15 Chapter 2 The Store of the Future ........................................................................20 The Beginning of Bullock's ..........................................................................20 A New Store..................................................................................................21 Research, Research, Research .............................................................22 Parking=Paying....................................................................................23 Connecting with Nature.......................................................................25 Open for Business.........................................................................................26 Merchandising Strategies.....................................................................28 Departments.........................................................................................29 vii Conclusions............................................................................................................35 Illustrations ............................................................................................................37 Appendix A-Literature Review .............................................................................44 Bibliography ..........................................................................................................56 viii List of Illustrations Illustration 1: Bullock's Department Store, exterior ...........................................37 Illustration 2: Bullock's Department Store, casual women's shop......................38 Illustration 3: Bullock's Department Store, traditional furnishings shop ...........39 Illustration 4: Bullock's Department Store, accessories shop.............................40 Illustration 5: Bullock's Department Store, formalware and furs .......................41 Illustration 6: Bullock's Department Store, dining room....................................42 Illustration 7: Bullock's Department Store, boy's shop.......................................43 ix INTRODUCTION On September 10, 1947 “the store of the future” opened in a quiet, residential area of Pasadena, California.2 Designed by Welton Becket and Walter Wurdeman, this branch of Bullock's Department Store quickly emerged as a prototype for post-war retailing. Built for the automobile and a burgeoning suburban middle class, it featured an unprecedented six acres of parking and an open-plan interior defined by individual “shops.” One year after opening, Bullock's Pasadena had doubled its projected sales figures and positioned Wurdeman and Becket as architects for a new age. Today, Becket's buildings are more well-known than their architect. His Capital Records tower and Cinerama Dome are Los Angeles icons—featured in numerous films and photographs. But much of Becket's oeuvre consists of corporate and commercial designs, often dismissed by critics as “uninspired.” During the Depression Becket developed a commitment to budgets and efficiency that further categorized him as a bland, corporate architect. Much of this criticism is unfounded, but Becket remains difficult to classify. An architect without an individual style, he designed unique buildings based upon the needs of each client. Despite his role in Becket & Associates, one of the largest and most prodigious international architecture firms during the 1960s and 1970s, Becket is the subject of few studies. William Hunt’s Total Design: