Julia Morgan may be best known for designing the Hearst Castle in San Simeon, but her career includes dozens of buildings she designed all over California including the historic YWCA building on North Marengo Ave. in the Pasadena civic center, built in the early 1920s.
Apart from being the first woman licensed to practice architecture in California, Morgan was also the first woman who was admitted to the architecture program at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1898, one of the most respected architecture schools in the world.
“She was an architect as a woman, at a time when that was quite rare,” author of “Julia Morgan: An Intimate Biography of the Trailblazing Architect,” Victoria Kastner said.
The biography draws on interviews, letters, and Morgan’s diaries, including never-before-seen reflections on faith, art, and her life experiences, according to Kastner.
Architectural historian Victoria Kastner will speak about her new book, “Julia Morgan: An Intimate Biography of the Trailblazing Architect,” at The Gamble House in Pasadena on Friday, June 10, starting at 6 p.m. Tickets to the event at The Gamble House are $10 for Gamble House members, and $20 for non-members. The Gamble House is located at 4 Westmoreland Place in Pasadena.
To purchase tickets, visit https://gamblehouse.org/upcoming-events/. For more information, call (626) 793-3334.
Kastner said while Morgan was getting a degree in École des Beaux-Arts, she had to endure misogyny and mistreatment but despite these, she thrived and ended up being the first woman to get a degree from the school.
“She was harassed, she was teased and pushed and played tricks on. The instructors artificially lowered her score because they wanted to keep her out.”
“She finally embarrassed them into letting her in, by scoring so high on the admission exams — 13th out of about 400 people. So they finally let her in, and it was a very difficult program, but she went through it, sailed through, was the first woman in the world to ever graduate from there.”
When Morgan graduated, she faced more challenges, being a woman in a male-dominated industry.
As the only woman on the construction site, Morgan had to deal with all kinds of men, some of whom were good to her but many were not. But despite all the challenges, “she just worked harder and did better than anybody else.”
Throughout her career, Morgan designed 700 buildings. Of her remarkable creations, the most iconic is Hearst Castle in San Simeon, California. Morgan spent thirty years constructing the estate for the newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst.
“She put a lot of effort into making sure that whatever she designed was beautiful and suited to the people who would be using it,” said Kastner.
She designed many YWCA buildings in California, as well as in Hawaii, Honolulu and Salt Lake City.
Morgan is the designer of the YWCA building in Pasadena.
In 2021, it was reported that the City of Pasadena was seeking an injunction against the former owner of the Pasadena YWCA building Angela Chen-Sabella, who owns Trove Investment Co.
Chen-Sabella claims the city must sell the building back to her on claims that the city has not put the building into use since it was acquired by eminent domain over a decade ago.
“As a result of the wrongful conduct of the defendants, and each of them and because real property is unique, an injunction is therefore necessary to allow the city to continue its efforts to pursue an ENA [Exclusive Negotiating Agreement], lease and development agreement with potential developers in regards to the YWCA building,” the lawsuit states.
Meanwhile, Kastner said aside from Morgan’s career as an architect, her book “Julia Morgan: An Intimate Biography of the Trailblazing Architect,” will also detail Morgan’s personal life.
“My book, Julia Morgan, an intimate biography of the trailblazing architect is so exciting because it’s the very first book to tell the story, not just of her buildings and her career, but of her personal life, what she thought, how she felt about things,” said Kastner.
