Alphabeta Cube – Fred Bassetti

                  

Bassetti formed a cube out of 12 wooden beams, surrounding a bronze polygon imprinted with letters of the alphabet, numbers, and math symbols including pi and infinity. Basically, he used the ad that inspired him to remake it in a modified form that was, in my opinion, most likely more visually appealing. Bassetti claims that the shape is meant to be arbitrary, that the natural shape and quality is the main idea, even going so far as to say that he expected kids to carve into his work, and he looked forward to how the public interacted with his piece. He also looked for how nature interacted with his work, weathering away cryptograms indicating famous literary authors and characters, which he carved into the ends of the wooden logs.

Fred Bassetti was born on January 31, 1917 in Washington, and died on December 5, 2013 in Oregon. Bassetti was a Pacific Northwest architect, a teacher, and a huge contributor to the regional approach to modern architecture in the 1940’s-1990’s. The AIA (American Institute of Architects) say he has made significant contributions to Seattle, the Northwest, and architecture as a whole. He established his first firm in 1947, lasting until 1962, called Bassetti & Morse, Architects. This then became Fred Bassetti & Company, Architects, then Bassetti Norton Metler Architects, then Bassetti/Norton/Metler/Rekeviks Architects, as a result of multiple partner changes. He was a guest critic at Columbia University, and lectured at Columbia University, MIT, Rice University, and the University of Washington, Idaho, and British Columbia. Bassetti made an appearance in a documentary called Modern Views- A Conversation on Northwest Modern Architecture. He was a part of the approach to design called critical regionalism; inspired by modernisms concrete and steel, as well as natural materials. Some of his architectural pieces include the Jackson Federal Building, Key Tower, and dorms at WWU and Central Washington University.