By: Brenna Guthrie, Alexis Bland and Emily Pollard

Who is Fred Bassetti?

Fred Bassetti was born in the Seattle area, specifically Tukwila, Washington. He attended the University of Washington where he first started pursuing an engineering degree but later found his real interest in architecture. He graduated from UW just as the United States was entering World War II where he worked as a draftsman in the war to build houses for war time workers. After he was finished in the war he went on to get his masters in architecture from Harvard. After him and his wife won first place in a home design competition, his popularity in architecture took off. Fred Bassetti holds a major role in designing most of Seattle, Washington and a lot of famous buildings across Washington State.

Fred Bassetti is responsible for many art pieces across Western Washington University as well including Carver Gym, the bookstore, Fraser Hall, Humanities building, the Ridgeway Complex, and Wilson Library- here he also had installed his piece called Alphabeta Cube but it was later moved to Fairhaven due to reconstruction going on at Wilson Library. Bassetti refers to his work as truth and honesty. “He lets his designs evolve naturally, drawing inspiration from the surroundings, structural considerations and the site itself. In the same way that the play of the sun and wind determine the growth of a plant, the environment can shape the best design for a building.” (historylink.org). He always gave credit of his work to the nature around it and used the value of nature to design his structures to be so beautiful. Around the time of Bassetti, in the art world, environmental art was really booming, which was earthworks and land art. Bassetti’s work related to environmental art because of the way he liked to use the nature around his architecture/installations.

Alphabeta Cube

The Original placement of the Sculpture, right outside of Bassetti’s design of Wilson Library

As stated earlier the Alphabeta cube sculpture was originally placed outside of Wilson Library. Due to the growth of Westerns campus the installation was moved during remodeling and met its forever home in Fairhaven. The sculpture still blends among the nature around Fairhaven’s dining hall. When the art piece was first introduced the community was worried about hoodlums carving into the wood. Fred’s outlook on this was “at least (the art) is being used and enjoyed” and wasn’t concerned on others contributions to the work.

Pictures thanks to Emily Pollard

Research thanks to Brenna Guthrie and Alexis Bland

Works Cited:

Anderson, Matthew. “Fred Bassetti designed much of Westerns Campus.” Western Today, Western Today, 6 Dec. 2013, https://westerntoday.wwu.edu/features/fred-bassetti-designed-much-of-westerns-campus. Accessed 26 Apr. 2017.

“Brief History of Western Washington University.” , Western Libraries, https://library.wwu.edu/hr/specialcollections/sc_chronology. Accessed 26 Apr. 2017.

http://www.historylink.org/File/8959