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Architect Julia Morgan was the queen of the first.\n<\/p>\n
She was the only woman to graduate from UC Berkeley with a civil engineering degree in 1894. In 1898, she was the first woman accepted into the famous architecture program at the \u00c9cole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. She was the first licensed female architect in California in 1904. She was the first woman to receive a gold medal from the American Institute of Architects.\n<\/p>\n
Click to enlarge<\/span> “Julia Morgan is without doubt among the greatest American architects of all time and is a true California gem,” US Senator Dianne Feinstein said in a letter recommending Morgan for the award, which was awarded to the architect posthumously in 2014.\n<\/p>\n While the architect who broke barriers may have worked on more than 700 buildings across the country, including Hearst Castle, and is well known in California, that fame isn’t necessarily all over the place. When Jennifer Shields, a professor of architecture at Cal Poly University, moved to the area seven years ago from the East Coast, she said she knew nothing of Morgan.\n<\/p>\n But the more she learned about Morgan, the more excited she got, especially being able to go to the university’s Kennedy Library collections and archives to see the creator’s drawings in person. Shields said Cal Poly has a collection–one of the largest, if not the largest–of Morgan’s original work and correspondence.\n<\/p>\n Click to enlarge<\/span> Shields found herself “wanting to dig deeper into the archive, spend more time looking at these artifacts myself, and the more time I spent doing it, the more I thought people should see it,” she said. “More than just my students.”\n<\/p>\n And from January 15 to February 11, people can do just that. Cal Poly College of Architecture and Environmental Design presents Julia Morgan, Architect: Challenge Agreement at the university’s Art Gallery in the Dexter Building. An interactive virtual tour mirrors the exhibition and will be open to the public until April 30. Shields curated the exhibition with the help of Jesica Holada and Laura Survetti in private collections and archives as well as several students, including fifth year architecture students Munira Alyssa and Anja Wimmer.\n<\/p>\n “You’re supposed to dive deep into her time in Paris and her work in Saint-Simon [at Hearst Castle], but we really wanted to give an idea of \u200b\u200bher other work as well,” Shields said. “It’s a combination of original sketches and photos of her work and original letters and correspondence of her work that really shows how these projects came about, and really more of a window into her personal life.”\n<\/p>\n Shields said Morgan has been alienated from the media \u2014 she’s a private person who really wanted her work to speak for itself. Correspondence on display in the gallery, which voice actors bring to life via QR codes throughout the gallery, includes letters between Morgan and her cousin during her stay in Paris, highlighting the two-year struggle for admission to the \u00c9cole des Beaux-Arts. ; back and forth between William Randolph Hearst and Morgan over the nearly three decades I worked at Hearst Castle; and letters between Morgan and other clients.\n<\/p>\n Click to enlarge<\/span> “I don’t think she felt a responsibility to act in a certain way,” Fields said. “She’s worked in different aesthetics and has adapted her work…Depending on what her clients want, she has been sort of adapting her work to her clients’ needs and desires.”\n<\/p>\n Shields said this spirit of collaboration is different from today’s architects, who we believe are imposing their “individual vision” on the project. Morgan’s focus on building relationships with her clients is something that is really evident in Hearst Castle, which fuses classical and modern architecture with antiquities that Hearst imported from Europe and Asia, as well as Art Deco and Renaissance sculptures and paintings.\n<\/p>\n \u201cA collection of all these different styles and monuments that Hearst brought back from all over the world,\u201d Shields said. “It’s really unlike any other business in California or really across the country. I’ve incorporated different styles and visions into the architecture of this hill… It’s really very deep.”\n<\/p>\n Click to enlarge<\/span> She said the gallery isn’t necessarily architecturally specific. But it does include original Morgan drawings, a technique not many architects use anymore. Much of their design work is done on the computer. Shields said the exhibition is a reminder to step away from the computer screen and spend more time in the creative process.\n<\/p>\n “It’s really little artwork, her drawings are from school as well as her drawings of Hearst Castle,” Shields said. “It was partly a passion project for me, individually, but it’s also a pedagogical tool – a way I can help teach students about drawing and how we represent the built environment.” \u0394\n<\/p>\n \n Editor Camellia Lanham believes in less screen time. Send feedback to clanham@newtimesslo.com.<\/i>\n<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Architect Julia Morgan was the queen of the first. 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