Early Life & Education Notable Works Creation of the YWCA

Julia Morgan’s Riverside YWCA was a substantial departure from the sumptuous take on the Mediterranean and Mission Revival styles preferred by the influential Riverside businessman and Mission Inn owner, Frank Miller. The comparatively modern façade and concrete structure of the neighboring Riverside YWCA was not in keeping with Miller’s vision for an aesthetically unified downtown area, with his luxury hotel at the center of all activities. Despite Miller’s vocal misgivings about Morgan and her designs, the YWCA would not be dissuaded from their choice of In the early 1950s, a loosely knit group of artists formed architect, who had a proven understanding of their the Riverside Art Association to encourage the study institutional needs. Furthermore, the women of the and appreciation of the arts. Their first home, the YWCA preferred the gently hybridized, feminine Riverside Art Center, was an abandoned Municipal aesthetic proposed by Morgan. Julia Morgan designed over thirty buildings for the YWCA in the United States, at most locations. Design and decoration frequently included a courtyard or Dog Pound that City of Riverside officials leased to the including several throughout California, five of which were in Southern California. central atrium, archways, colonnades, small balconies, and decorative wrought Art Association for $1 a year. Recommended to the directors of the YWCA by Phoebe Apperson Hearst, iron. With the exception of the Craftsman style Harbor Area YWCA in San Pedro Morgan worked with the organization to create ideal spaces where women could (1918), Julia Morgan’s YWCAs of Southern California tend to be highly reflective By 1960, the Association needed more space for its enrich their lives, find a sense of community, and provide them with safe shelter. of her penchant for Mission Revival and Italian Renaissance Revival architecture, studio classes and numerous exhibitions. The and yet each exhibits its own character. Association purchased Julia Morgan’s YWCA for The Riverside YWCA building underwent three design manifestations to suit $250,000 after a successful fund drive and, on July 5, three different locations, ultimately settling on Lime Street and Mission Inn Morgan designed YWCA buildings for San Pedro (Harbor Area, 1918); Pasadena 1967, YWCA officials formally turned over Morgan’s Avenue (formerly 7th Street), next to the Municipal Auditorium. Morgan reoriented (1921); Long Beach (1923); Hollywood (Hollywood Studio Club, 1925); and building. The transition into the existing Riverside Art her YWCA building design so that the tallest portion of the structure was on the Riverside (1929). After decades of neglect, the Pasadena YWCA building was Museum was soon underway. right side of the property, thereby maintaining a visual balance and a sense of acquired in 2012 by the City of Pasadena. The Long Beach YWCA has been authority juxtaposed with the larger auditorium. demolished. The Hollywood Studio Club closed in 1975 and, until April 30, 2012, In 1982, the building was placed on the National Register was used as a Job Corps Dormitory run by the YWCA. The Harbor Area YWCA of Historic Places and was designated a Historic As with all of her clients, Morgan worked closely with the YWCA to design still operates from the original Morgan building, thus making it and the Riverside Landmark by the City of Riverside. facilities that were tailored very specifically to their needs. Morgan often adhered Art Museum the only Morgan designed Southern California YWCA buildings In 2014, Morgan was posthumously awarded the American to a basic floor plan that the YWCA found to be ideal for the programs provided currently in use as of 2017. In 1990, RAM trustees began a campaign to obtain $1,250,000 in capital improvement funds. With Institute of Architects (AIA) Gold Medal, making Julia generous assistance from the City of Riverside, the goal was met in 1991. That year, extensive renovations Morgan the first woman to be given the prestigious honor increased exhibition space and added a climate control system, collection storage, an additional first-floor since its inception in 1907. office, and an extended kitchen area. Unused bathroom space became the upstairs library and a glass roof weatherproofed the garden atrium.

Julia Morgan (1872-1957) was born in San Francisco to Charles Bill and Eliza The primary models from which architecture students at the École des Beaux- Woodland Parmelee Morgan. Her parents, both from prominent East Coast Arts were instructed included Neoclassical, French and Italian Baroque, Italian families, raised their family in Oakland, California. Morgan was instilled with her Renaissance, and Gothic styles. The current home of the Riverside Art Museum, mother’s acute pragmatism and her father’s encouragement to pursue an one of Julia Morgan’s many commissions by the Young Women’s Christian education and career despite the traditional societal constraints faced by women Association (YWCA), exemplifies the manner in which Morgan’s strictly traditional of the late 19th and early 20th Century upper class. In 1894, Morgan graduated architecture studies abroad enabled her to approach her buildings with a from the University of California at Berkeley as one of the first female civil European design vocabulary, but it was her own ingenuity that enabled her to engineering students. It was the support of her professor and mentor, the fluidly unite a variety of these elements with the styles she was so familiar with venerated architect Bernard Maybeck, that enabled Julia Morgan to persevere in California. Throughout the Riverside Art Museum building one can see and eventually gain acceptance to l’École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts elements of Neoclassical, Italian and Renaissance Revival mixed with Mission in Paris, the most prestigious architecture school at the time. In 1902, Julia Revival, as well as hints of Moorish Revival and Arts and Crafts. Though the Morgan became the first female graduate and, in 1904, she was named the first building has undergone many alterations since its completion in 1929, it stands licensed female architect in California. as a lasting testament to a distinctive California style that Julia Morgan helped to originate.

As chief patron of the University of California at Berkeley, William Randolph Hearst’s mother, Phoebe Apperson Hearst, introduced her son to Julia Morgan, thus beginning a creative partnership that would last decades. Morgan’s commissions for Hearst include the 1914 Mission Revival style Los Angeles Examiner Building; contributions to Phoebe Apperson Hearst’s storybook Bavarian castle and village, Wyntoon; and the Hearst Building in San Francisco, to name but a few of the dozens of buildings Morgan designed for Hearst.

Julia Morgan is perhaps most famous for having been the trusted and indefatigable principal architect behind William Randolph Hearst’s jewel, “La Cuesta Encantada”, most widely known as Hearst Castle in San Simeon, California. Design and construction of the Castle began in 1919 and continued through 1947, incorporating historic European architectural elements and decorative objects purchased by Hearst into a pastiche of unique designs by Morgan.