Morgan, Julia
Morgan, Julia (1872–1957). American architect and engineer, she was the first woman to study architecture at the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris, and became California's first licensed woman architect. Her works include several buildings for Mills College, Oakland, CA, including the reinforced-concrete campanile (1903–4), library (1905–6), and gymnasium (1907–8). She was responsible for many private houses (some in Mission Revival style) in the San Francisco area and her responses to client-needs were realized drawing on eclectic motifs, often building with local materials, and always displaying the assurance in design acquired in Paris. Her Young Women's Christian Association buildings at Asilomar-Pacific Grove, CA (1913–28), are now a State Monument and National Conference Center. Insisting on fine detailing and sensitivity to human beings and sites, she was capable on occasion of creating eclectic fantasies of extraordinary power, among which must be mentioned San Simeon, CA (1919–38), a vigorously composed collection of cultural references at Enchanted Hill, for William Randolph Hearst (1863–1951). Her fine Arts-and-Crafts-inspired St John's Presbyterian Church, Berkeley, CA (1908–10), is now the Julia Morgan Center for Performing Arts.
Bibliography
Beach (1976);
Boutelle (1995);
C. James (1990);
Longstreth (1977);
Susana Torre (ed.) (1977);
Wadsworth (1990);
Winslow (1980);
R. Winter (ed.) (1997)
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Morgan, Julia