Résumé

Bassett performed military duty in the US Army Infantry, 1943-1946. Bassett received the Purple Heart for wounds received on the island of Okinawa during W.W. II;

Draftsman, Alden Dow, Architect, Midland, MI, c. 1949.

Designer, Saarinen and Saarinen, Architects, Bloomfield Hills, MI, 1950-1951.

Designer, Eero Saarinen and Associates, Bloomfield Hills, MI, 1951-1955.

Designer, Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, San Francisco office from 1955-1981;

Associate Partner, Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, San Francisco office 1959-1960.

Managing (Senior) Partner and Design Partner, Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, San Francisco office from 1960-1981.

Professional Activities

Member, American Institute of Architects, (AIA).

NCARB Certified as of 1962.

Registered Architect in MI and TX in 1962.

Bassett accompanied Nathaniel Owings and John Woodbridge of SOM on a tour of Paris c. 1965, to study the city's monumental architecture. President Lyndon Johnson appointed Owings Chair of the Temporary Commission on Pennsylvania Avenue, and parts of the SOM firm became involved in the redesign project of Washington DC.

Professional Awards

Recipient, American Academy of Arts and Letters, Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize, New York, NY, 1963.

Fellow, American Institute of Architecture (FAIA), 1977.

Recipient, San Francisco Arts Commission, Award of Honor for Architecture, 1985.

Associate, National Academy of Design, New York, NY, 1970. (See "Associates: Architects," National Academy of Design 162nd Annual Exhibition, March 24-April 29, 1987, [New York: National Academy of Design, 1987], n.p.)

College

B.S.Arch., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 1949.

M.Arch., Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI, 1951. At Cranbrook, he worked with architect Eliel Saarinen.

College Awards

Elected to Phi Kappa Phi and Tau Sigma Delta, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI; awarded Alpha Rho Chi Medal;

Relocation

In 1987, Bassett lived at 167 Lovell Avenue in Mill Valley, CA, north of San Francisco in Marin County.

He continued to live in Mill Valley at the end of his life.

Parents

Bassett's father had been an architect in Port Huron, MI, and "Chuck" Bassett worked in his office as a teenager;

Spouse

Bassett met his wife, Doris "Dory" Bassett in the third grade; both he and Dory attended the School of Architecture at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI;

Children

The couple had four children: Christine Bassett of San Francisco, CA; Ann Wheelock of Tiburon, CA, Joseph Bassett of Mill Valley, CA; and Peter Bassett of Garberville, CA; and three grandchildren;

Biographical Notes

He was known as "Chuck" Bassett, pronounced "BASS-ett."

in 1962, Bassett occupied a corner office on the 15th floor the Crown Zellerbach Building. SOM's San Francisco Branch rented the entire 15th floor for its operations.

• Mill Valley, CA (Architect's Death)
  Mill Valley, CA

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• Port Huron, MI (Architect's Birth)
  Port Huron, MI

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