page_title: Julia Morgan
section_title: YWCA projects
hierarchical_section_title: Julia Morgan / Career / YWCA projects
caption_attribution_description: w:National Register of Historic Places listings in Alameda County, California. Oakland YWCA Building, 1515 Webster St, Oakland, CA. Photographed from the southeast corner of Webster and 15th Sts. Camera location37°&#160;48′&#160;15.2″&#160;N, 122°&#160;16′&#160;05.08″&#160;W&#160;View this and other nearby images on: OpenStreetMap - Google Earth
context_page_description: Julia Morgan was an American architect and engineer. She designed more than 700 buildings in California during a long and prolific career. She is best known for her work on Hearst Castle in San Simeon, California.
  Morgan was the first woman to be admitted to the architecture program at l'École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris and the first woman architect licensed in California. She designed many edifices for institutions serving women and girls, including a number of YWCAs and buildings for Mills College.
  In many of her structures, Morgan pioneered the aesthetic use of reinforced concrete, a material that proved to have superior seismic performance in the 1906 and 1989 earthquakes. She embraced the Arts and Crafts Movement and used various producers of California pottery to adorn her buildings. She sought to reconcile classical and Craftsman, scholarship and innovation, formalism and whimsy.
  Julia Morgan was the first woman to receive American Institute of Architects’ highest award, the AIA Gold Medal, posthumously in 2014.
context_section_description: Julia Morgan's affiliation with the YWCA began when Phoebe Apperson Hearst recommended her for the organization's Asilomar summer conference center, a project she began in 1913. The Asilomar Conference Center, no longer YWCA but State-run, is still in Pacific Grove near Monterey, California. Morgan also designed YWCAs in California, Utah, Arizona, and Hawaii.
  Five of the Southern California YWCA buildings were designed by Morgan. The 1918 Harbor Area YWCA (San Pedro, CA) in a Craftsman building is still standing, as is the 1926 Hollywood Studio Club YWCA. Morgan's Riverside YWCA from 1929 still stands, but as the Riverside Art Museum. Her 1925 Long Beach Italian Renaissance branch has been demolished. The "gorgeous" Pasadena YWCA is being acquired by the City for restoration and public use after several decades of decay.
  She also designed YWCAs in Northern California, including those in Oakland and in San Francisco's Chinatown. The YWCA building in San Francisco reflects her understanding of traditional Chinese architecture. The building was restored in 2001 by the Chinese Historical Society of America (CHSA), and now houses the Chinese Historical Society of America Museum and Learning Center.
caption: Oakland YWCA
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