By the 1930s, Bebb's role in Bebb and Gould declined and the firm's work began to reflect the emergence of Art Deco. This new direction was reflected in the design for the Seattle Art Museum building (1931–1933) (now the Seattle Asian Art Museum) in Volunteer Park. (The design of the front elevation reflects the influence of draftsman Walter Wurdeman who had joined Bebb and Gould after graduating from the University of Washington.) Work slowed thereafter, as the Depression limited opportunities, although the firm designed several more University of Washington buildings in this period, and, as campus architects after 1932, supervised designs by other architects. In 1933 Gould was commissioned to design a new building to house the Everett Public Library. A masterwork of early-thirties design, the new Everett Public Library opened to the public on October 3, 1934.