Julia morgan, architect of dreams

The paper ” Julia Morgan, Architect of Dreams” is a wonderful example of an architecture assignment. “ My buildings will be my legacy…. They will speak for me long after I’m gone.” Thus did Julia Morgan announce her retirement from architecture and the closing of her San Francisco office in May 1951. At that time her career spanned 47 years and Miss Morgan had designed over 700 buildings. Just as she had predicted, Julia Morgan is today included among the best of America’s architects. Born in San Francisco on January 20, 1872, Julia Morgan and grew up in nearby Oakland. She was one of the first women to graduate in civil engineering from the University of California. While at Berkeley she was encouraged to pursue architecture in Paris at the Ecole Nationale et Speciale des Beaux-Arts. However, Morgan had to wait for two years for the Ecole to consider her request for admission as they had never had a woman student before! Becoming the first woman to receive a certificate in architecture from the Ecole, Julia Morgan returned to San Francisco and began working for architect John Galen Howard. She opened her own office in 1904 and quickly established herself as an architect of repute working in the Piedmont, Claremont, and Berkeley neighborhoods. Of the enormous amount of work that Julia Morgan was commissioned for, perhaps the best known is the Hearst Castle in San Simeon, California. An eclectic architect, Morgan worked in a variety of styles prompting her reputation as a ‘ client’s architect’. Julia Morgan is unarguably one of Americas most important and prolific architects. Being a woman architect when there were none, only adds to her exclusivity and increases the necessity of including her work and design ideas in the forthcoming book, ‘ Important California Architects’