Julia Morgan: An Intimate Biography of the Trailblazing Architect by Victoria Kastner
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
On sale: January 18, 2022
Julia Morgan was often dismissed as a one-time wonder for the elaborate castle she built for William Randolph Hearst, but recently critical thinking has shifted. The American Institute of Architects decided to give their highest honor posthumously to Julia celebrating her work in its entirety.
It was the Spring of 1919 when Julia first visited San Simeon. World War I had ended and the country was on the verge of the Roaring Twenties and an era of prosperity. She would spend nearly thirty years working on this project.
One of the unique things about Julia was that she was a native Californian when most of the San Francisco architects were transplanted Easterners. When she enrolled in Berkley's University of California, there was no architecture department so in 1890 she became one of its first female civil engineering majors and she made an important life long friend Phoebe Apperson Hearst, the mother of William Randolph Hearst.
The description of the 1906 catastrophic San Francisco earthquake and how it affected Julia and her work is compelling as well as how the commission to repair and rebuilt the Fairmount Hotel eventually became hers.
Carefully researched, containing new information, and written in highly readable language, this biography is a worthy addition to understanding the life of Julia Morgan.
Lavishly illustrated with beautiful color photographs, maps, and other ephemera, the book covers the genealogy of Julia's family, her childhood, through every aspect of her life and career. She died at the age of eighty-five on February 2, 1957.
The Hearst Castle was presented to the California state parks system and more than forty-five million have visited since guided tours began on June 2, 1958. I was one of them.
Thanks to NetGalley and Chronicle Books for a copy of this book for an honest review.
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