Julia Morgan (January 20, 1872 – February 2, 1957) was an American architect and engineer. She designed more than 700 buildings in California during a long and successful career. She is best known for designing Hearst Castle in San Simeon, California.

Morgan was the first woman admitted to the architecture program at l'École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris and the first female architect licensed in California. She designed many buildings for institutions that served women and girls, including several structures for the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) and Mills College.

In many of her buildings, Morgan used reinforced concrete in creative ways. This material performed well during the 1906 and 1989 earthquakes. She supported the Arts and Crafts Movement and included California pottery in her designs. She combined classical styles with Craftsman designs, blending traditional knowledge with new ideas.

Julia Morgan was the first woman to receive the American Institute of Architects' highest award, the AIA Gold Medal, in 2014, after she passed away.

Early life and education

Morgan, the daughter of Charles Bill Morgan and Eliza Woodland Parmelee Morgan, was born in San Francisco on January 20, 1872. She was the second of five children. Her mother, Eliza, was raised by Albert O. Parmelee, a wealthy cotton trader who supported the Morgans financially when they moved to San Francisco. Two years after Morgan was born, the family moved to Oakland, where they built a home across San Francisco Bay. Though they lived on the West Coast, Eliza remained close to her family in New York. Every time a Morgan child was born, the Parmelees sent money to help the family travel by train so the baby could be baptized in the Parmelee family church in New York.

Charles Morgan, a mining engineer from New England, struggled in business and relied on the Parmelee family’s money. In 1865, he bought land in Santa Paula, California, to drill for oil, but the project failed. Later, he co-founded the Shasta Iron Company, which closed in 1875 due to poor income. In mid-1878, Eliza took the children to New York to live near the Parmelees for a year while Charles worked in San Francisco. In New York, Julia met her cousin Lucy Thornton, who was married to a successful architect named Pierre LeBrun. After returning to Oakland, Julia stayed in contact with LeBrun, who encouraged her to pursue education. During her time in New York, Julia was sick with scarlet fever and had to stay in bed for weeks. This illness caused her to have ear infections for the rest of her life. When Albert Parmelee died in July 1880, Julia’s grandmother moved into the Morgans’ home in Oakland, bringing the Parmelee family’s wealth. Both Julia’s mother and grandmother were strong female role models who had influence in the household because of their wealth.

Morgan graduated from Oakland High School in 1890. She was determined to pursue a career in architecture and enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley, where she studied engineering because the school did not have an architecture program. At Berkeley, she joined the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority and often was the only woman in her math, science, and engineering classes. During her time at the university, women were gaining more opportunities, such as starting clubs and joining new activities. Morgan helped create a chapter of the YWCA, which allowed women to use the gymnasium. She graduated in 1894 as the first woman to earn a B.S. degree in civil engineering from Berkeley with honors. After graduating, she joined the Association of Collegiate Alumnae, now known as the American Association of University Women.

One of Morgan’s engineering professors was Bernard Maybeck, an architect who designed buildings that respected the natural environment. Maybeck taught Morgan and her classmates, including Arthur Brown, Jr., Edward H. Bennett, and Lewis P. Hobart, about architecture in his home. He encouraged Morgan to study at the prestigious École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he had previously excelled. After graduating from Berkeley, Morgan worked with Maybeck for a year before traveling to Paris in 1896 to prepare for the Beaux-Arts entrance exam. The school had never allowed women to study architecture, but in 1897, it began accepting female applicants due to pressure from a group of French women artists, whom Morgan called “bohemians.” At Beaux-Arts, Morgan met members of the Union des femmes peintres et sculpteurs, a group that supported women in the arts. These women shared their ideas about how to help women succeed in professional fields.

The school admitted the top 30 candidates each year. Morgan tried three times to gain entry: on her first attempt, she scored too low. On her second try in 1898, she ranked in the top 30, but the examiners lowered her scores unfairly. After studying further with François-Benjamin Chaussemiche, a winner of the Prix de Rome, she finally passed the entrance exam in 1899, placing 13th out of 376 applicants. She was admitted to the Architecture Program but could only study until her 30th birthday, as the school did not allow older students. In early 1902, as her birthday approached, Morgan submitted a design for a grand theater, which earned her a certificate in architecture. This made her the first woman to receive one from the school, completing the program in three years instead of the usual five. She stayed in Paris long enough to work with Chaussemiche on a project for Harriet Fearing, a former New Yorker who wanted a “grand salon” for her home in Fontainebleau.

Career

After returning from Paris, Morgan began working for John Galen Howard, an architect in San Francisco who was overseeing the University of California Master Plan. She worked on several buildings at the Berkeley campus, including adding decorative details to the Hearst Mining Building and designing an early version of Sather Gate. She played a major role in planning and overseeing the construction of the Hearst Greek Theatre, an open-air theater at UC Berkeley that looks out over San Francisco Bay. Howard once told a colleague that Morgan was "an excellent draftsman whom I have to pay almost nothing, as it is a woman." She saved her money and planned to work on her own, taking on important side projects.

In 1904, Morgan became the first woman in California to earn an architecture license. While living in her family’s home in Oakland, she opened her own office in San Francisco, where her staff called her "J.M." After her first office was destroyed by the 1906 fire, she opened a new office in 1907 on the 13th floor of the Merchants Exchange Building at 465 California Street, in the center of San Francisco’s financial district. She worked there for the rest of her career until she retired in 1950. In 1907, she also partnered with Ira Hoover, a former draftsman for Howard. Together, they formed a firm called Morgan and Hoover, working until 1910. After that, Morgan started her own private practice again.

In April 1904, Morgan completed her first reinforced concrete structure, El Campanil, a 72-foot bell tower at Mills College in Oakland. Two years later, El Campanil survived the 1906 San Francisco earthquake without damage, which helped increase her reputation and launch her career. Throughout her career, Morgan is believed to have completed about 800 buildings, most of which are in California.

The destruction caused by the 1906 earthquake and fire gave Morgan many opportunities to design homes, churches, offices, and schools. One important project was redesigning the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco after its interior was damaged by fire. She was chosen because of her rare knowledge of earthquake-resistant, reinforced concrete construction. Her work on restoring the Fairmont in less than a year earned her a national reputation as "a superb engineer, an innovative designer and architect, and a dedicated professional." The increase in projects after the disaster brought her financial success.

Phoebe Apperson Hearst, impressed by Morgan’s work on the Fairmont, recommended her for several large projects, including the YMCA’s Asilomar Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove, near Monterey. Her son, William Randolph Hearst, was also impressed and, after his mother’s death, hired Morgan to design what became her most famous project, Hearst Castle.

Julia Morgan’s work with the Hearst family continued for three generations. Her first project for the family was in 1902, when she returned from the École: Phoebe Hearst’s Hacienda at Pleasanton. Her most famous patron was William Randolph Hearst, who was introduced to Morgan by his mother, Phoebe Hearst, who supported Morgan’s education at the University of California, Berkeley. This connection led to Morgan’s first major project outside California, the Los Angeles Examiner Building (circa 1914), designed in the Mission Revival style. The building is located at the southwest corner of Broadway and 11th Street in downtown Los Angeles. After the Examiner closed in 1989, the building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places despite the Hearst Corporation’s objections to its preservation. A 2016 restoration project allowed the building to be used by multiple commercial tenants, including Arizona State University in 2021.

In 1919, Hearst chose Morgan as the architect for La Cuesta Encantada, better known as Hearst Castle, built on the family’s campsite overlooking San Simeon in San Luis Obispo County. Morgan designed many of the tiles used in the project, which were made by California Faience.

The Hearst Castle project was Morgan’s largest and most complex, as Hearst’s vision for his estate grew over time. The project included The Hacienda, a residence and guest house complex built in a mix of Mission Revival, Spanish Colonial Revival, and Moorish Revival styles. It was located inland from Hearst Castle, near the Mission San Antonio de Padua in Jolon, California. Morgan’s work on the Castle and San Simeon Ranch continued until 1947, when Hearst’s health declined.

Morgan became William Randolph Hearst’s main architect, designing many buildings, including Phoebe Apperson Hearst’s Wyntoon, which her son inherited. Wyntoon includes a castle and a "Bavarian village" of four villas on 50,000 acres of forest near Mount Shasta in Northern California. Morgan also worked on the uncompleted Babicora, a cattle ranch and retreat in Chihuahua, Mexico, that Hearst owned.

Julia Morgan’s work with the YWCA began when Phoebe Apperson Hearst recommended her for the organization’s Asilomar summer conference center, a project she started in 1913. The Asilomar Conference Grounds, now state-run, still exists in Pacific Grove. Morgan also designed YWCA buildings in California, Utah, Arizona, and Hawaii.

Five YWCA buildings in Southern California were designed by Morgan. The 1918 Harbor Area YWCA in San Pedro, a Craftsman-style building, still stands. The 1926 Hollywood Studio Club YWCA also remains. The Riverside YWCA from 1929 is now the Riverside Art Museum. The "gorgeous" Pasadena YWCA was restored by the city in 2010 after years of decay. Morgan’s 1925 Long Beach Italian Renaissance YWCA was demolished.

Morgan also designed YWCA buildings in Northern California, including those in Oakland and San Francisco’s Chinatown. The YWCA building in San Francisco shows her understanding of traditional Chinese architecture. It was restored in 2001 by the Chinese Historical Society of America and now houses their museum and learning center.

Morgan made many contributions to Mills College, a women’s college in Oakland. Like her work for the YWCA, these projects aimed to help women advance in their careers. Mills College president Susan Tolman Mills became interested in Morgan in 1904 because she wanted to support a female architect and because Morgan charged less than her male peers. Morgan designed six buildings for the Mills campus, including El Campanil, believed to be the first bell tower on a U.S. college campus. (El Campanil should not be confused with Sather Tower, a nickname for the bell tower at UC Berkeley.) Morgan helped

Personal life

Julia Morgan was highly respected as an architect, but little is known about her personal life. She never married and had no known romantic relationships. She lived modestly, even though her clients were wealthy. Colleagues and people she knew were surprised by her simple style; one coworker said she dressed like a "nobody." Morgan gave few interviews and did not write about herself. Early interviews used language that focused on her gender, and newspaper articles followed her progress at the École des Beaux Arts. After that, she avoided interviews and only agreed to articles that focused on her work to build her reputation. She worked very hard with little sleep and food.

Morgan was very independent. When she moved to Paris, her parents gave her money to cover her first-year expenses. Even when her funds ran out, she never asked her family for more money. Instead, she learned to live on a tight budget. This experience taught her how to manage money well, which helped her become a successful businesswoman after she opened her own practice. It also helped her keep her projects within her clients' budgets.

One of the few public awards she accepted was an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of California, Berkeley, its highest honor. This degree was given to her on May 15, 1929, with the following tribute: "distinguished alumna of the University of California, artist and engineer; designer of simple dwellings and of stately homes, of great buildings nobly planned to further the centralized activities of her fellow citizens; architect in whose works harmony and admirable proportions bring pleasure to the eye and peace to the mind."

Belinda Taylor wrote a play titled Becoming Julia Morgan in 2012. In this play, Taylor imagined a plausible life story for Morgan based on the gaps in her known history.

Death and legacy

Julia Morgan believed her buildings would be her lasting memory, as they would remain long after she passed away.

Julia Morgan died on February 2, 1957, in San Francisco, California, at the age of 85. She was buried at Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland.

In 1995, the ballroom at the Merchants Exchange Building in San Francisco, where she worked from 1907 to 1950, was named the Julia Morgan Ballroom.

In 1999, a Mediterranean Revival house in Sacramento, California, designed and built by Morgan in 1918 for Charles Goethe, was renamed the Julia Morgan House. This house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

In 2006, a children’s picture book titled Julia Morgan Built a Castle was published and is available in many public libraries.

On May 28, 2008, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver announced that Julia Morgan would be inducted into the California Hall of Fame, located at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts in Sacramento. The induction ceremony took place on December 15, and Morgan’s great-niece accepted the honor on her behalf.

Julia Morgan was awarded the AIA Gold Medal in 2014, the highest honor given by the American Institute of Architects (AIA). She was the first woman to receive this award.

Gallery

• The ceiling of the Julia Morgan Ballroom, located in the Merchants Exchange Building in San Francisco
• Julia Morgan's home in Sacramento, California
• Julia Morgan Hall at the University of California Botanical Garden in Berkeley
• Girton Hall in Berkeley