Welton Becket was an architect who designed many of the most famous buildings in Hollywood and Los Angeles. He was responsible for two Disney-related buildings: The Ford Pavillion at the 1964/65 New York World’s Fair, which hosted the attraction Magic Skyway and the Contemporary Resort hotel, which opened in 1971 at Walt Disney World.
Becket was born in Seattle, Washington on August 8, 1902, and graduated from the University of Washington program in Architecture in 1927 with a Bachelor of Architecture degree. 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.
After Wurdeman’s untimely death in 1949, Becket formed Welton Becket Associates and continued to relentlessly grow the firm.
A neighbor of Walt’s in Holmby Hills, he became a friend of the family in the ‘50s and the Disney and Becket couples traveled together on several occasions in the ‘60s. Here are some recollections of those exciting trips.
Unfortunately only a few pages of this interview survived. […]
