OFab Is Proud to Honor Julia Morgan, Lady Badass
As a single female business owner, I am absolutely an advocate for all Women Owned Businesses and in awe of women in history who accomplished amazing things whilst not even being able vote! I visited Hearst Castle recently and had no idea that the entire property was designed by a Bad Ass woman who fought through adversity to blaze uncharted territory for all the little girls out there!
This month, we are excited to feature Julia Morgan, the ground-breaking female architect of the 20th Century, best known for her design of Hearst Castle.
One of the first female engineering majors at the University of California, Berkeley, Julia attempted to enroll at the École des Beaux-Arts in architecture in Paris. No female had ever been allowed in this elite French college and she was denied for years, even though she jumped through every hoop they gave her. Finally the École had no choice but to accept her - but then gave her a deadline to finish the 6 year graduate program before she turned 30. Of course, they knew she was 27 at the time. Welp, don’t challenge a tiny genius because she completed the program in 2.5 years, so they messed around and found out!
After the Great San Francisco Earthquake in 1906 damaged the legendary Fairmont Hotel in SF, Julia rebuilt the repaired hotel within a year.
Philanthropist Phoebe Apperson Hearst became an admirer of Julia’s work and commissioned her to create the first conference center in the country for the YWCA, now known as Phoebe Hearst Social Hall.
Fairmont Hotel
Fairmont Hotel
Famously, Phoebe introduced Julia to her son, newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst, and the rest is history.
Julia personally designed most of the structures, grounds, pools and animal shelters on the estate, down to the minutest detail.
Morgan worked closely with Hearst, the original art hoarder (so that makes her OFab’s OG organization guru), to integrate his vast art collection into the structures and grounds at San Simeon.
Hearst Castle
Hearst Castle
Over the course of her 46-year career, Morgan designed over 700 buildings, primarily in California. To give you context, Frank Lloyd Wright only completed 532! San Francisco Chronicle architecture critic Allan Temko wrote: “This great Californian, who designed not only San Simeon, but more than 700 other buildings during her long career . . . deserves as high a place as Mary Cassatt in American painting, or Edith Wharton in American letters.”
All of us had dreams, as little girls, of what we wanted to be when we grew up. Mine has changed….I want to be as innovative and tenacious as the one and only Julia Morgan! Men and women alike should be inspired by her!
