Bette Jones Hammel

Wayzata’s Bette Hammel is a highly respected Twin Cities author whose books have highlighted some of the Twin Cities’ best-designed homes and architectural standouts. After studying journalism at the University of Minnesota, she had stints with General Mills, where she wrote Betty Crocker scripts for NBC radio, then acquired radio station experience as a writer and broadcaster in Indiana and upper New York. Returning to Minnesota, she joined the advertising agency business where she used her radio and TV background for a multitude of accounts during the next 25 years. The focus of her career shifted when she married Richard Hammel, co-founder of HGA Architects and Engineers, in 1953. After her husband’s untimely death in 1986, she was asked by the firm to document its history. With that project under way, she learned the language of architecture. The result was her first book, From Bauhaus to Bow Ties: HGA Celebrates 35 Years, published in 1989. Five other books on architecture and her autobiography soon followed. Now, at age 94, Hammel still has plenty to write about. “She has a lot of energy, and she’s interested in everything,” says Ellen Green, a former editor. Green says Hammel illuminates well-designed buildings and recognizes the spirit of the architects who designed them. “It’s really pointing out you don’t have to know everything about architecture to enjoy it,” Green says. But architecture might have a rival in Hammel’s heart: Lake Minnetonka, where she often sailed with her husband as members of the Minnetonka Yacht Club. In addition to the beauty of the lake, Hammel is enamored with its storied past. “The history is so fascinating,” she says. It was that fascination with the history of the lake along with her desire to write a cozy mystery that led to her latest novel, Big Island Remembered.