General Petroleum Building

In 1947, when General Petroleum Corporation (Mobil Oil) was considering construction of an office building in downtown Los Angeles, the Bullock’s department store in Pasadena was the architectural – and business – sensation of metropolitan Los Angeles. One of the directors at Bullock’s was also an official at Mobil Oil Corporation. Impressed with the work on the department store, he was instrumental in the selection of Wurdeman and Becket for the office building. Becket considered this a big break for the firm.

With a construction cost of $8 million, it was by far Wurdeman and Becket's largest building to date. It also set the stage for the firm's future reputation as one of the nation's leading designers of office buildings.

This project innovated the use of lightweight aggregates that reduced the weight of structural steel, the gross weight of the building and the cost of the structure. This is a very flexible building, employing a modular system of movable wall partitions which made it possible for General Petroleum to inexpensively, and without loss of time, change the size of its offices to accommodate its own operations or the desires of its leasing tenants.

The General Petroleum building, in the office field, was just as big an aesthetic and economic success as Bullock’s was in the department store field. With the General Petroleum office building as the starting point, Becket became a strong player in the corporate office building market.

The building, now known as the Pegasus, has since been converted into residences.