Her way: Julia Morgan, the quiet genius who defined Bay Area architecture

For one of Julia Morgan s first commissions in the magnificent El Campanil bell tower at Mills College in Oakland the soft-spoken young architect had to deal with a male contractor who wasn t happy that she was the boss In fact he worked to undermine Morgan s authority by claiming she didn t know how to use steel-reinforced concrete for her -foot Mission-style tower He was wrong of curriculum because the Oakland-reared Morgan had learned all about this new construction method necessary to build th-century skyscrapers at the E cole des Beaux-Arts in Paris The year before she had become the first woman to ever graduate from this world-renowned architectural training operation She was right there on the ground floor of several of the largest part path-breaking experiments with concrete announced Oakland-based Julia Morgan historian Karen McNeill But it didn t matter In a time before women could vote the female president of Mills College was still inclined to listen to the man and let him take credit for Morgan s elegant design Julia Morgan's El Campanil bell tower circa Special Collections F W Olin Library Northeastern University Oakland This wasn t Morgan s first experience with sexism but it approved that she wouldn t be able to avoid it throughout her trailblazing -year career as McNeill wrote in her essay Julia Morgan Gender Architecture and Professional Style The situation also demonstrated the options that Morgan a modest diminutive woman out of the Victorian era given to wearing prim suits and her hair pinned back into a bun didn t conform to a popular idea of the genius American architect whose buildings define eras Unlike her contemporary Frank Lloyd Wright or the fictional starchitects imagined by Ayn Rand and in the film The Brutalist Morgan didn t come across as a swaggering larger-than-life cultural figure She wasn t given to displays of ego superiority or a tortured personality even if she privately faced professional and personal heartbreak Morgan was seen as a tiny fragile-looking woman though she still managed to use a wonderful quiet power to command respect one client once stated The breadth of her output also shows a master builder who helped define the look of the Bay Area as much as any architect The Berkeley City Club is a Gothic Ramanesque hotel originally designed by architect Julia Morgan in the s with a renowned swimming pool and cozy tavern called Morgan's Bar and Lounge Trevor Johnson Courtesy of the Berkeley City Club After starting her own firm in she designed an estimated projects throughout the Western United States in the first half of the th century The first woman licensed to practice architecture in California she gained the trust of philanthropist Phoebe Apperson Hearst and her newspaper tycoon son Willam Randolph Hearst spending years building his opulent Hearst Castle at San Simeon considered one of America s great private houses Morgan s output included an array of regular homes schools churches office buildings and clubhouses while she became a name brand by just getting on with the work Unlike other starchitects she also didn t court media attention and largest part strikingly she didn t crusade for a signature bold style or theory Instead in the amenity of her clients she worked in various styles Mission Arts and Crafts First Bay Tradition neo-Classical Gothic and the Spanish renaissance that inspired Hearst Castle Unfortunately this deference to clients long led several critics to ignore her work especially when modernism was in its ascendancy writes biographer Victoria Kastner in Julia Morgan An Intimate Portrait of The Trailblazing Architect In a essay Joan Didion seemed to deride the phantasmagoric barony of San Simeon without naming Morgan while later saying that her lack of a singular style suggested a lack of talent The Julia Morgan Performing Arts Center formerly Old St John's Presbyterian Church was designated as an historic landmark by the city of Berkeley in under the city's current Landmarks Preservation Ordinance Measure LL on the Ballot calls for revising that ordinance Undated photo by Betty Marvin Whether Morgan s solicitousness was a function of her gender McNeill argues that Morgan s genius came from her desire to create beautiful spaces that served clients necessities Really if you scrutiny her buildings particularly alongside the stories of her clients then you very much have a signature style which was from the inside out bottom up McNeill declared Morgan was a sensitive person and sensitive artist whose extraordinary attention to the surroundings and comfort of others have left us with a lasting legacy of hundreds of buildings all of which are strong useful and beautiful adds Kastner the former historian at Hearst Castle Morgan s independent spirit and love for beautiful spaces were apparent early on Born in she grew up in a prominent Oakland family with a strong-minded mother Eliza who was proud of their well-appointed home That home near downtown also boasted a lush garden where Morgan could indulge in unlady-like pursuits with her four siblings like turning somersaults and shooting arrows Morgan displayed an early talent for art and music and was encouraged to excel in school and go to college But like other young women of her social class she knew that she couldn t have a career if she got married That Morgan didn t marry has made her the subject of speculation about whether she was a lesbian Kastner declared there s no documented evidence that she had romantic relationships saying that her great love affair allegedly was with architecture McNeill agrees that Morgan never wrote about any romantic relationships But she noted that she had had multiple same-sex couples as clients and was empathetic to how for example a pair of co-habitating female doctors craved their Berkeley home designed to accommodate their lifestyle Morgan s trailblazing began as a teenager at UC Berkeley in where her older brother still escorted her to campus at the insistence of their parents But she became the first woman to graduate with a degree in civil engineering and thereafter revealed work and a mentor in Bernard Maybeck the pioneering architect of buildings in the woodsy First Bay Tradition style Maybeck also encouraged Morgan to survey at his alma mater the E cole des Beaux-Arts in Paris But gaining admission became a rigorous multi-year process that involved apprenticing at an atelier where her male colleagues regularly targeted her for frat-boy-style pranks The E cole resisted welcoming female students but was completely shamed into admitting Morgan after she scored exceedingly high on her third try on the entrance exam She then had to cram about six years work into three years in order to graduate by age Morgan returned to the Bay Area in the midst of a building boom Through Maybeck she became acquainted with Phoebe Hearst and got early jobs working on buildings that the philanthropist funded at UC Berkeley including supervising construction of the Greek Theatre Morgan s design for Mills El Campanil tower was intended to underscore the school s commitment to women s suffrage and other Progressive ideals Fortunately the sexist contractor didn t do lasting damage In fact Morgan got more ambitious work both at Mills and elsewhere after the tower and the nearby campus library that she designed both withstood the San Francisco earthquake You know she was a human being Kastner disclosed That the bell tower and the library both survived the earthquake must have been a moment of at least quiet triumph knowing that this blowhard didn t know what he was talking about While the blowhard s name has been lost to history Morgan responded to his meddling by adopting a professional style to tackle a male-dominated profession McNeill explained For her next big big job she successfully supervised hundreds of male workers across different trades to rebuild San Francisco s Fairmont Hotel after it was damaged by the earthquake She could swing a sledge hammer with the strength of a hefty man a San Francisco Chronicle profile of Morgan explained She spoke softly but when she issued orders it was with the finality of a Marine drill sergeant During the Fairmont job Morgan first got media attention for her Quarkerish plain-tailored jackets and skirts according to McNeill It s likely that Morgan sought to exude professionalism akin to male architects with her unfussy fashion Morgan also was known to wear large pockets to dispense with purses and trousers underneath her skirt if she had to move around a building site but she still demonstrated a feminine touch by wearing silk blouses from Paris Morgan s career flourished at a time when women sought an increased presence in general life and spaces to organize on behalf of civic engagement teaching children s welfare and women s rights She soon became the go-to architect for women s groups wanting clubhouses from Saratoga to Sausalito After she began working on Hearst s San Simeon estate she also designed one of her favorite buildings the Berkeley City Women s Club a six-story fantasy of Romanesque Gothic and Moorish architecture with a serene indoor pool and dining and assembly rooms for a range of social and recreational programs benefitting girls and women Morgan moreover enjoyed a decades-long collaboration with the YWCA which provided safe housing classes and group for young women who had left families farms and even their home countries to work in U S cities For the YWCA she designed more than buildings in Oakland San Jose and San Francisco s Chinatown as well as the Arts and Crafts-style buildings for the organization s Asilomar women s conference center in Pacific Grove When she died at age in she got no mention in a Life magazine story about Hearst Castle opening to the citizens that year as a glittery new attraction in the California State Parks system Kastner wrote But critics like San Francisco-based Alan Temko began to speak up saying she deserved as high a place as does Mary Cassatt in American painting or Edith Wharton in American letters In McNeill and other scholars succeeded in accomplishing another first on her behalf the American Institute of Architects awarded her its first Gold Medal to a woman Frank Gehry one of North America s still living starchitects praised her as an innovator while Kastner noted She never stopped creating and she was one of the th century s finest architects yet she never lost her humility or desire to improve Visit Julia Morgan s best Bay Area buildings Saratoga Foothill Club Morgan designed the Arts and Crafts-style women s clubhouse in at the request of one of its founding members who had been in the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority with the architect at UC Berkeley The club regularly hosts population events such as concerts and author discussions https saratogafoothillclub org Berkeley City Club Morgan s Little Castle at Durant Ave houses a members-only club fitness center and swimming pool as well as a hotel and two restaurants Julia s Restaurant and Morgan s Bar and Lounge which are open to the society On the fourth Sunday of every month except December the club also offers a society tour of Morgan s gorgeous architecture www berkeleycityclub com Chapel of the Chimes You can go on a virtual or in-person tour of this historic columbarium on Piedmont Avenue in Oakland which Morgan designed with Spanish-Moorish Gothic flourishes and indoor gardens https oakland chapelofthechimes com The Berkeley Playhouse One of Morgan s the majority vital early projects was her design for the sanctuary of St John s Presbyterian Church considered one of the finest examples of the East Bay Arts and Crafts style The building now houses the Berkeley Playhouse which produces family musicals and provides theater learning College Avenue Berkeley https tickets berkeleyplayhouse org