JULIA MORGAN ARCHITECT LICENSE
JULIA MORGAN ARCHITECT PROFESSIONAL

I saw the pendulum of taste really change in the '80s and early '90s. How have perceptions about Morgan’s work changed over time? The smallest and biggest projects have the same level of consideration. When it’s looked at like that, her whole is tremendously unified. To me, I would argue that that’s a deeper way to talk about her work stylistically. She never forgot that architecture should honor the people it shelters. What she did all throughout her career was marry the formality and the actuality and the elegance and grandeur of the Beaux Arts style with the warmth and the individuality of the Arts and Crafts style. I would respond that the style is an approach. She was definitely denigrated for that, especially in the 1970s and '80s. One assumption that people made is that she didn’t have a style. What are some misconceptions about Morgan? But Kastner’s recently published book, Julia Morgan: An Intimate Biography of the Trailblazing Architect, provides the first holistic look at Morgan’s private life in addition to her architectural work. In the years since her death in 1957, Morgan’s reputation has risen from relative obscurity to that of one of the United States’ most distinguished architects.

JULIA MORGAN ARCHITECT PROFESSIONAL

Morgan was best known for her longstanding professional partnership with media tycoon William Randolph Hearst, though she completed hundreds of projects throughout her career, which primarily took place in California.

Her retirement coincided with her mission to write a book specifically about the castle’s architect, Julia Morgan. She soon left her graduate program and teaching gig to work there, eventually becoming the site’s historian until she retired in 2018. “I went on a tour expecting that that was what I would encounter,” Kastner says.Īs it turned out, she immediately became enamored with the place. She had heard of the site, but back in those days it was considered dark and gaudy, far from an architectural marvel. Morgan was one of the most prolific architects in American history, designing more than seven hundred buildings over her forty-seven-year career.Victoria Kastner first encountered what is now known as Hearst Castle in San Simeon, California, when she was a graduate student at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in 1978. The 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire provided Morgan with ample job opportunities, notably the rebuilding of the Fairmont Hotel, a huge undertaking that she accomplished in just one year. She quickly secured commissions to design homes in the Bay Area, including Phoebe Hearst’s in Pleasanton.

JULIA MORGAN ARCHITECT LICENSE

She is the first woman to receive the AIA Gold Medal, which she received posthumously in 2013.Īfter her studies, she returned to San Francisco and, after working briefly for another architect, earned her California architect’s license and opened her own office in 1904. She designed many buildings for institutions serving women and girls including YWCA buildings and buildings for Mills College. Julia Morgan was the first woman to be admitted to the architecture program at l'École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris and the first woman architect licensed in California.

Julia morgan architect