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JULIA MORGAN

BAY AREA ARCHITECTS

JULIA MORGAN

BIOGRAPHY

Julia Morgan
Born: San Francisco | 1872
Educated: The first woman to graduate with a Degree in Civil Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley, she was also the first woman to be granted a l'Ecole des Beaux Arts certificate in 1902
Died: 1957
THE JULIA MORGAN STORY

SUMMARY

Raised in Oakland

Upon her return from France she worked briefly for John Galen Howard and Bernard Maybeck before opening her own office in San Francisco.

One of her first commissions was the Bell Tower at Mills College, but it was the reconstruction of the Fairmont Hotel after the 1906 San Francisco fire that made her famous.

Her career, spanning the first half of the 20th century, produced more than 700 buildings, including private residences, public buildings, and her most famous work, Hearst Castle at San Simeon.

Commissions included, the Berkeley's Women's City Club and the Baptist Divinity School, and numerous YWCAs in California and Hawaii. She often used academic, eclectic styles and ambitious construction techniques for which her education prepared her.

Perhaps the most extraordinary woman in the history of architecture, because her practice transcended the purely local in both extent and importance.