Julia Morgan

Julia Morgan

Julia Morgan was born in San Francisco, California January 20, 1872 but she raised in Oakland, California. She received her undergraduate degree in civil engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. She was the only woman to receive the degree in 1894. She was such a great student that her instructors suggested for her to travel to Paris to study at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. However, when she arrived in Paris she was refused admission to the school for two years because they had never allowed a woman to join the school. She decided to enter into many of the most prestigious architecture competitions in Europe and she won most of the ones she entered into. Her feat at these competitions eventually persuaded the administration to admit her into the school under the field of architecture.

When she returned to San Francisco, she got hired by Jon Galen Howard. Howard at this time was supervising the University of California Master Plan. Morgan helped architect many of the buildings on the UC Berkeley campus such as the Hearst Mining Building and the Hearst Greek Theatre. In 1904 Morgan opened up her own office in San Francisco. She began building residential homes and buildings in Piedmont, Claremont, and the Berkeley neighborhoods. For most of the buildings she was constructing, she decided to keep to her distinct style of Arts and Crafts.

One of her most famous patrons was William Randolph Hearst. Their first project, the Los Angeles Examiner Building, was designed by Morgan in 1914. In 1919, Hearst also hired Morgan to design Hearst Castle which was built overlooking the Pacific Ocean at San Simeon harbor.

One of Morgan's most famous works was Hearst Castle. The castle is located near San Simeon, California about 250 miles from both San Francisco and Los Angeles. It used to In 1919, William Randolph Hearst hired Morgan to take his 250,000 acre ranch and turn it into something