Morgan Biography
Julia Morgan was born in San Francisco, California on January 20, 1872, the second of five children. She was a diligent student, and graduated from the University of California, Berkeley campus in 1894, with a degree in Civil Engineering. She then worked for one year for a former professor, architect Bernard Maybeck, and with his encouragement, decided to study architecture at L'Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, France.
At the time, L'Ecole des Beaux Arts did not accept women students. Despite letters of recommendation from Maybeck and others, L'Ecole de Beaux Arts did not relent and admit Morgan until 1897. Morgan had to spend more than a year studying French and learning the metric system. She then failed twice to rank within the required top 30. But, in October 1898, she became the first woman accepted. In 1902, she won her four L'Ecole de Beaux Arts certification medals at the age of 29, and became the first woman to graduate from the prestigious institution.
That same year, Morgan returned to California where she worked for John Galen Howard, the supervising architect for the University of California's Master Plan. She assisted Howard in the design and construction on the Berkeley campus of the Hearst Memorial Mining Building and the Greek Amphitheater. Two years later, she opened her own office in San Francisco and developed a solid reputation as a competent and gifted architect, with Phoebe Apperson Hearst as one of her first clients. Hearst's patronage drew other clients, and Morgan's firm was a thriving enterprise. She built a bell tower at Mills College in Oakland, California that withstood the great San Francisco Earthquake of April 18, 1906, and following the devastation of that natural disaster, she was commissioned to rebuild the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco.
In the Fall of 1912, Morgan met with Phoebe Apperson Hearst, Mary Sroufe Merrill, and other women who visualized the future sites for the various buildings that were to make up the YWCA® conference facility, now the Asilomar Conference Grounds. Morgan designed the buildings in a campus layout throughout the forest, meadow, and dunes. The first building, the Phoebe Apperson Hearst Social Hall (now the Administration Building) was completed in 1913. In 1928, Morgan completed the last of her structures at Asilomar, Merrill Hall. In 1987, the remaining 11 of her original 14 structures were listed on the Registry of National Historic Places.
Throughout her career, Julia Morgan designed from 700 to 800 building projects, including residences, schools, churches, stores, hospitals, gymnasiums, theaters, numerous YWCA® facilities, and the monumental Hearst Castle. She closed her offices in 1951 and spent the next few years of her retirement visiting with friends and family, and traveling with family members in Europe and South America. She died on February 2, 1957 at the age of 85.
Morgan shunned publicity of any kind, and never permitted signs bearing her name at construction sites. She also did not have her work published in architectural publications, adamantly believing that, "architecture is a visual art, and the buildings speak for themselves." And Morgan was right. Her legacy does indeed speak for itself, as well as for her innovative ideas and personal philosophy. Morgan's many buildings at Asilomar have stood the test of time. Over 75 years since they were built, these structures endure as artistic accomplishments by a woman who was a leader in the field of architectural design, and as a continuing source of lodging and meeting space for conferees from all over the world.
