“In 1913 Phoebe Apperson Hearst, whom she had met through Maybeck, hired Morgan to transform 30 acres on the Monterey Peninsula into the Y.W.C.A. conference center, renamed Asilomar, or “refuge by the sea.” Over the next 16 years Morgan would add 16 buildings, most in a rustic Arts and Crafts style featuring dramatic exposed wood trusses, redwood walls and stone fireplaces. Asilomar became a state park in 1956, and in 1987 Morgan’s buildings were added to the National Register of Historic Places.”

Julia Morgan in her Paris apartment, 1898.

Julia Morgan in her Paris apartment, 1898.

She studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, then the world’s most prestigious architecture school.

Credit: Julia Morgan Papers, Special Collections and Archives, California Polytechnic State University