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William Randolph Hearst's dazzling "castle" at San Simeon, California, is famous world round, yet only the aficionado can name Julia Morgan as the architect who built it. For more than thirty years she worked with Hearst in a rare collaboration, creating not only his art-filled hilltop palace but also a fairy-tale Bavarian "village" known as Wyntoon and many other commercial and domestic structures. Yet the Hearst commissions, notable as they are, are not Morgan's only claim to fame. One of the first women to graduate in civil engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, Morgan was the first woman ever to earn a certificate in architecture from the prestigious Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Returning to her native San Francisco in 1902, she was well placed to profit from the surge of building that followed the great earthquake just four years later. A member of an informal "old-girls'" network that linked the leaders of the increasingly active women's organizations, Morgan received commissions for schools, clubs, and conference centers, including major YWCA buildings from Salt Lake City to Honolulu. Churches, hospitals, sanitariums, sororities, and shopping centers - she designed them all, in a long career notable for a total of more than 700 structures designed and built. Her light-filled houses were carefully crafted in styles ranging from Arts and Crafts to Mediterranean and sizes ranging from modest cottage to elegant mansion. Her swimming pools were voluptuous, climaxing in the two peacock-hued beauties at San Simeon. Given the sweep of Morgan's accomplishments, it is astonishing that this is the first substantial book ever devoted to her career. Painstakinglyresearched for more than a decade by Sara Holmes Boutelle, founder of the Julia Morgan Association, this handsome volume lovingly documents Morgan's life and work. Letters, snapshots, working sketches, and blueprints bring the process of architecture to life, while striking photographs commissioned especially for the book record the results of Morgan's multifaceted creativity, from the china she designed for the Berkeley Women's City Club to the tiled towers and gilded ceilings at San Simeon.

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Library Journal Review

San Simeon, William Randolph Hearst's fanciful estate on the California coast, is famous worldwide, yet only a few know of its architect, Julia Morgan. Boutelle's book happily should correct that fault. Drawing from letters, photographs, sketches, blueprints, and reminiscences, Boutelle provides a fascinating look at Morgan's life and career. With degrees from Berkeley and the Ecole des Beaux Arts, plus good social connections, Morgan had no problems garnering commissions; her engineering expertise, eye for detail, and ability to work in a variety of styles rightfully made her one of California's most prolific architects. This handsome volume, with its breathtaking color photographs, is long overdue but well worth the wait. Highly recommended. H. Ward Jandl, National Park Service, Washington, D.C. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

Morgan (1872-1957) was William Randolph Hearst's favorite architect, and the theatrical Hearst Castle perched on a hilltop in San Simeon, Calif., might be considered a monument to her client's pretensions and her own pliabiity. Fortunately, this reclusive woman, who shunned publicity, left behind 700 other buildings in a medley of styles. In cottages, schools, churches, houses and civic projects, she swung eclectically between Arts and Crafts, California Mission, Bavarian, medieval and Mediterranean styles. Her work became unfashionable as modernism took hold, yet today it has attracted renewed interest. Her experimental use of color and decoration, her concern for indoor/outdoor living and for the relationship of structure to siteall these make her buildings relevant to contemporary designers. In this biographical-critical study, Boutelle, an architectural historian, considers each building on its own terms. One-third of the 368 illustrations are in color; plans, sketches and photographs help us to appreciate many original touches. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

CHOICE Review

Julia Morgan was the first woman architect trained at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and the most distinguished American woman architect in the first half of this century. The deliberate destruction of most of her drawings and office records before her death was based on her belief that no one other than former clients (with copies of their own) would be interested in her work. At the time she was correct; the rise of the International Style made Morgan's work anachronistic with its focus on historical references and Beaux-Arts planning. Resurgent interest in Morgan has been thwarted by the lack of organized, consolidated records. Boutelle attempts to correct this problem. This first full-length study of Morgan is a survey of her career, dominated by work done for the Hearst family. Famous for the 25-year project at San Simeon, Morgan also designed numerous buildings to support women's activities, in every case combining a Beaux-Arts approach with concern for the building's marriage to the site. More descriptive than analytical, ignoring feminist perspective, Boutelle has nevertheless laid a foundation for further investigation of Morgan's work. Excellent reproductions support the text, although many buildings discussed are not illustrated and the failure to number the images and to cite the owner of drawings in their captions is irritating. A selected bibliography and an invaluable list of all of Morgan's commissions complete this volume. For public, college, and university collections. -S. M. Klos, University of Oregon