Fred Bassetti

During World War II, he worked as a draftsman with the Federal Public Housing Authority and with Seattle architect Paul Thiry.

[6] After the war he studied at the Harvard Graduate School of Design under Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer, was in the same class as I.M.

[6][8] Within his first year there, a Bassetti-designed house won an award sponsored by The Seattle Times and the local AIA office.

[citation needed] Concrete and steel are hallmarks of modernism, but in the Pacific Northwest there was also a passion for natural materials.

An easily recognizable feature of many later Bassetti designs is a softening of edges, from the chamfered corners of the Jackson Federal Building, Key Tower (now Seattle Municipal Tower), and dormitory buildings at Western Washington University and of Central Washington University, to rounded corners that to Bassetti feel "good to the human hand.

"[12][13] When asked in 2009 which of his projects he takes greatest pride, Bassetti cited "the Forrest and Martin Residences, the Lisbon Embassy ("the building, on a great site, draws together Portuguese and American characteristics, using local materials") and the East Pine Receiving Station (for Seattle City Light).