Julia Morgan

Before visiting the Hearst Castle in San Simeon, California, I knew nothing about architect Julia Morgan who was hired by William Randolph Hearst to construct the famous estate.

She had a long and interesting career, designing over seven hundred buildings in the San Francisco area. And it sounds like she had quite a heroic and indefatigable spirit:

"Upon the advice of one of her instructors, architect Bernard Maybeck, Morgan traveled to Paris to study at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Though she arrived in Paris to begin her studies in 1896, Morgan was refused admission for two years because the administration had never conceived of allowing women to study there. So she entered every prestigious architecture competition in Europe, and won most of them, forcing the hand of the administration. Morgan was eventually admitted in the field of architecture."

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