Berkeley City Club
More than just a building
Although Julia Morgan is renowned as the architect of the Hearst Castle at San Simeon, the Berkeley City Club is her most complete castle-like creation. Built in eleven months, this six-story landmark opened in 1930 as the “Berkeley Women’s City Club” with a membership of over 4,500. Originally a social club and residence for women, the Berkeley City Club has been available to both women and men since 1962 and today serves as a club, hotel, dining room, event and conference center. This historic building also hosts guided public tours, art exhibits and provides a beautiful venue for theatre and musical performances.
The building reflects the expanding roles of Bay Area women in the 1920s. The founding group of women, active in civic, social, athletic and philanthropic causes, wanted one impressive, multi-use building rather than several small clubhouses. At the height of her career, Bay Area architect Julia Morgan was a natural choice for the project.
The City Club is known for its steel-reinforced concrete walls and ceilings (artfully fashioned to look like wood), leaded glass windows, interior courtyards and magnificent indoor swimming pool. This building is a blend of Romanesque and Moorish styles of architecture common to the areas surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. Julia Morgan’s engineering skills, evident in the seismically solid building’s exterior, were matched by her attention to the interior designs for furniture, light fixtures, distinctive fireplaces and even dishes.
When the club opened in 1930, its members were jubilant. Eva F. Hicks, Chairman of the Furnishing Committee would exclaim, “Is a castle in Spain realizable? Yes, when four thousand women dream it together!” T.E. Caldecott, then Mayor of Berkeley, congratulated the club members, saying that the building was “indicative of the future of this splendid city” and “an inspiration to all of us.” Indeed, the club would bring great gifts to the Berkeley community, its halls and hearths welcoming East Bay residents to celebrate art, culture and most of all, friendship.
About Julia Morgan
Born in San Francisco, Julia Morgan grew up in Oakland, the second of five children. She was one of the first women to graduate from the University of California at Berkeley with a degree in civil engineering. After two unsuccessful attempts Morgan was the first woman accepted in architecture at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. (Morgan was denied at first because the school was not accepting women, and the second time because she failed the entrance exam. She claimed in a letter that she had been failed deliberately because she was a woman.) Morgan graduated at the age of 29 and was also the first licensed female architect in California.
From 1904 to 1947, Morgan headed her own firm in San Francisco, designing more than 700 structures. In addition to Hearst Castle at San Simeon and the Berkeley City Club, other well-known buildings include the Phoebe Hearst Memorial Gymnasium at UC Berkeley (assisted by her mentor Bernard Maybeck;) the bell tower, library, social center and conference center at Mills College in Oakland;) the post-1906 earthquake rebuilding of San Francisco’s Fairmont Hotel; YWCAs throughout California as well as in Honolulu and Salt Lake City; the Asilomar Conference Center in Pacific Grove; and the second Wyntoon (a Hearst family retreat) on the McCloud River.
*** Information courtesy of the Landmark Heritage Foundation
To donate to the preservation of Julia Morgan's "little castle" please go to http://www.landmarkheritagefoundation.org
More information about Julia Morgan
Julia Morgan: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For an in-depth biography of Morgan and links to further resources.
The Julia Morgan Collection at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
Cal Poly houses architectural drawings and plans, office records, photographs, correspondence, project files, student work, family correspondence, and personal papers from the estate of California architect Julia Morgan.
Index of Buildings by Julia Morgan
An excellent resource for photographs of Morgan-designed buildings.
Women in Architecture
Contemporary female architects gratefully acknowledge Morgan's trailblazing contributions.
Julia Morgan Center for the Arts ~ Berkeley, CA
Morgan designed the building in 1908 as the St. John's Presbyterian Church. It is now a thriving arts and performance organization.
Hearst Castle
William Randolph Hearst's "castle" is probably Morgan's most well-known projects and certainly the most opulent of the residences she designed.
North Star House Foundation
The North Star House Foundation is citizen's organization assisting in the restoration of the Morgan-designed North Star House, located in Grass Valley.
Wyntoon at Great Buildings Online
Morgan designed Wyntoon, William Randolph Hearst's northern villa estate on 50,000 acres of forested land near Mount Shasta in Northern California.
For further reading
Julia Morgan, Architect. Sara Holmes Boutelle, with Richard Barnes, Photographer. Abbeville Press, August 1995. ISBN 0-7892-0084-8. Amazon
Julia Morgan, Architect of Dreams. Ginger Wadsworth. Lerner Publications Company, August 1990. ISBN 0-8225-4903-4. Amazon
Julia Morgan, Architect of Beauty. Mark Wilson, Lynn Forney McMurray. Gibbs Smith, Publisher, September, 2007. ISBN-10: 1423600886. Amazon
Julia Morgan Built a Castle. Celeste Mannis and Miles Hyman. Viking Juvenile, October, 2006. ISBN-10: 0670059641 (for grades 1-5) Amazon