Back in February, I decided that the thing I wanted for my birthday was to visit Julia Morgan's Hearst Castle. If you aren't familiar with architect Julia Morgan , then you should fix that right away. Two years ago she was awarded the AIA Gold Medal, posthumously, as the first woman to receive this significant prize. (Many of us wondered why the AIA couldn't find a living woman architect to be awarded, but that's a story for another post.) She's generally considered one of the most important architects of the California Arts & Crafts movement of the early 20th century. She was the first woman admitted to the French Ecole des Beaux-Arts, the most prestigious school of architecture of the European academy system; the first woman licensed in architecture in California; and one of very few women architects practicing in this country in the early 20th century. Hearst Castle is considered one of her masterpieces. Unlike many of her buildings, ...
Musings on Architecture, Urbanism, and the Built Environment