Julia Morgan: Architect of Beauty

by Mark Wilson

Overview

Julia Morgan, America’s first truly independent female architect, left a legacy of more than 700 buildings, many of which are now designated landmarks, in cities throughout California, as well as in Hawaii, Utah, and Illinois. Her work spanned five decades, and the total of her commissions was greater than any other major American architect, including Frank Lloyd Wright. Julia Morgan tells the remarkable story of this architectural pioneer, and features text, drawings, and photographs of the many buildings that still exist.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781423636540
Publisher:	Smith, Gibbs Publisher
Publication date:	03/01/2012
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	434,881
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 9.40(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	16 Years

About the Author

MARK ANTHONY WILSON is an architectural historian who has been writing and teaching about architecture for more than thirty-five years. He holds a B.A. in history from UC Berkeley and an M.A. in history and media from California State University, East Bay.

Read an Excerpt

Over the past thirty-five years I have been asked countless times by historians, architects, and college students what it is about the life and work of Julia Morgan that qualifies her to be placed in the top tier of the pantheon of American architecture. The answer lies partly in the fact that she was America’s first truly independent, full-time woman architect.1 Indeed, she was “a cultural revolutionary in a flowered hat” and “a quiet feminist,” as I put it in the introduction to the first edition of this book. She proved that a woman could do as well as any man in a job men had assumed women were incapable of performing. When Julia Morgan opened her own practice in San Francisco in April 1904, she shattered the glass ceiling in her chosen profession, one that had never allowed women to participate fully until she came along.

Table of Contents

Foreword vii

Acknowledgments xiii

Introduction xv

chapter 1: Auspicious Beginnings 1

chapter 2: Roots of a Revolution 9

chapter 3: Solid Foundations 15

chapter 4: For the Betterment of Womankind 25

chapter 5: To Refresh the Soul 47

chapter 6: Academic Achievements 57

chapter 7: Houses of God 69

chapter 8: Of Time and Death 79

chapter 9: Quiet Corners of Commerce and Culture 89

chapter 10: The Hearst Connection 105

chapter 11: Private Spaces 139

chapter 12: An Enduring Legacy 197

Notes 202

Bibliography 205

Index 206