Women Who Built the Berkeley Campus: a Virtual Tour

It is not possible to speak about architecture and buildings on the Berkeley campus without including Julia Morgan even though she was involved with the design or construction of only a small number. Julia Morgan was born in San Francisco in 1872 into a wealthy family with strong roots in the social structure of the East coast. The family moved to Oakland when Julia was two years old and she grew up in that community. In 1890, Julia enrolled at the University of California and four years later became the first woman to receive a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering.  Her choice of major study was determined by opportunity since Berkeley did not have a program in architecture, her preferred topic from youngest days.

Following graduation, Morgan furthered her interests by attending the informal classes held by Bernard Maybeck in his Berkeley home where he introduced her to the possibilities presented by studying in Paris at the prestigious Ecole des Beaux-Arts. In 1898 and after two years of study and two prior rejections, Julia Morgan became the first woman admitted to the Ecole’s architecture section and four years later, at the age of 30, she received the Certificat d’etude in architecture, the first woman ever to do so. 

Upon her return from Paris, Julia Morgan launched her career by accepting a position with John Galen Howard, the supervising architect of the Berkeley campus. Initially, she was assigned as a draftsperson for the Hearst Mining Building. The project allowed Morgan to begin developing the approach which characterized her architectural style: combining the classical elements she had learned at Ecole with the natural and man-made environment of California. Soon after Morgan began work for Howard, he was noted to boast that he had “…the best and most talented designer, whom I have to pay almost nothing, as it is a woman.”[1] 

Morgan’s next assignment was as supervising architect for the Greek Theater, an essential component of the Hearst architectural plan and the first such classical open-air theater to be built in this country. She participated in the design, but more importantly was almost totally responsible for the actual construction of the structure.  Her expertise in the use of reinforced concrete was a critical factor in its successful completion in 1903.

Buoyed with confidence with the completion of the projects on the Berkeley campus and an on-going association which had developed with Mills College, as well as frustrated with working with the authoritarian, over-bearing John Galen Howard, Julia Morgan in 1904 acquired her California architecture license and opened an office of her own. From that time she was never forgiven by Howard for this career decision and was effectively barred from any meaningful association with the Berkeley campus until his influence waned.

In 1911, Morgan was privately commissioned by the Berkeley senior women students to design a meeting place similar to Men’s Hall. The simple structure, named Girton Hall after the Cambridge University women’s college, has survived several moves over the years and recently been relocated to the University’s Botanical Garden.

In 1927, Morgan and Maybeck designed the Hearst Memorial Gymnasium for Women which was commissioned by William Randolph Hearst as a memorial to his mother. The building became Morgan’s third major structure on the Berkeley campus. In 1951, at the age of 79, Morgan closed her office in the Merchants Exchange Building in San Francisco. She passed away six years later.

In 1929, Julia Morgan received an honorary degree from the University of California Berkeley, which acknowledged her accomplishments as “artist and engineer” and “designer of simple dwellings and stately homes.” Her national stature was confirmed in 2014 when the Board of Directors of the American Institute of Architects designated Julia Morgan as the recipient of its highest honor, the AIA Gold Medal Award. The award was first bestowed in1907 and Morgan became the 70^th recipient. As with many accomplishments in her life, Julia  Morgan was the first woman to be honored, but unfortunately the award was given posthumously 56 years after her death.