“Drive is what she had, and the most spectacular will,” says Victoria Kastner, Hearst Castle’s official historian. Morgan’s groundbreaking career spanned a major earthquake, the Great Depression, and two world wars. By the time she died in 1957, she had designed an estimated 700 buildings, mostly in California, where she was the first woman in the state to be licensed as an architect.
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The architect Charles Moore described it as a “grand liquid ballroom.” Movie director Stanley Kubrick used it in 1959 as a location for a scene in Spartacus, and Lady Gaga filmed a video there last year.īut the mastermind behind the Neptune Pool - the architect Julia Morgan - preferred to remain out of the spotlight. Cary Grant, Jean Harlow, and Charlie Chaplin all enjoyed the shimmering waters of the Neptune Pool. Seventeenth-century statues of Neptune and the Nereids overlook the pool, which once served as the centerpiece for lavish parties hosted by Hearst Castle’s famous residents, William Randolph Hearst and Marion Davies. They’re also working to address persistent water leaks. (You can actually see the tilework better now that the pool is dry.) Both types of stone have corroded over the years, so restoration architects Page & Turnbull are tracking down replacements at Vermont quarries. The AIA Gold Medal is the organization’s highest honor it acknowledges architects whose work has had a lasting influence on the theory and practice of architecture.Luxurious white marble lines the 104-foot-long oval, along with dark green serpentine tiles forming squares, diamonds, and a Greek key pattern. In 2014, the American Institute of Architects posthumously awarded the AIA Gold Medal to Julia Morgan, the first woman to receive it. The fact that many of Morgan’s buildings still stand today and retain both their beauty and functionality, demonstrates her ability to design buildings that worked. By the time of her death in 1957, she had designed an estimated 700 buildings, mostly in California. She was also adept at working with different types of clients, from educational institutions to wealthy patrons.
Throughout her career, Morgan maintained a strong connection to the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA), for whom she designed over thirty buildings.Īlthough her training at the École stressed classicism, Morgan was comfortable working in many styles, and her designs range from simple Craftsman clubhouses, such as the YWCA in San Pedro, to the grandeur of Hearst Castle.
Her affinity for women’s organizations-and theirs for her-led to many commissions over the years, such as Mills College (1903-1923) and the Berkeley Women’s City Club (1929). Indeed, she began her professional career during a time of significant women’s activism and progressive reform. A high-profile commission to re-build the Fairmont Hotel following the 1906 earthquake solidified Morgan’s reputation, leading to a dramatic increase in clients and to financial success.Īs a woman striving to succeed in a man’s field, Morgan relied on many women’s organizations for support over the years.
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In 1904 she became the first woman granted a license to practice architecture in California and shortly thereafter started her own business. When Morgan returned to San Francisco in 1902, she went to work in the office of architect John Galen Howard. Her son, newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, would give Morgan her most famous, and largest, commission: the extraordinary La Cuesta Encantada, better known as Hearst Castle, built between 1919 – 1947. Hearst was to become an important client, supporter, and friend. While in Paris, Morgan was visited by Phoebe Apperson Hearst, a wealthy philanthropist active in women’s issues and education. At the urging of her mentor, architect Bernard Maybeck, she attended the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, becoming the first woman to earn a certificate in architecture from the prestigious school.
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At a time when few women sought professional careers, she graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 1894 with a degree in civil engineering. Her mother was an heiress and her father hailed from a well-connected East Coast family. Julia Morgan was born in San Francisco in 1872. Remarkable not only as an independent woman working in what was traditionally a man’s field, she was also a meticulous engineer and a talented designer. Julia Morgan was one of California’s most influential architects.
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