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#Julia morgan style license

Where: Grace Dodge Chapel, Asilomar Conference Grounds, Pacific Grove.

What: Asilomar presents the original stage play “Becoming Julia Morgan”.

Lily Dayton can be reached at montereybay She said that her buildings would speak for her and they certainly do.” “I”m glad there is so little known about her personal life - she”s far more mythological that way. “It”s awe-inspiring to be standing inside the building she designed while I”m playing her,” said Akard. “Her style was simple and elegant and the simplicity of our stage mimics this.” “One of the joys is that the chapel is not a theater - there is no backstage, no fly lines, no offstage,” McQuiston said. This gives guests a chance to be immersed in the three different buildings and see Morgan”s work. There also will be a reception in the Phoebe Hearst Social Hall and a dinner in the Crocker Dining Hall. The play itself will take place in the Grace A. Morgan designed Asilomar as a YWCA camp in 1913, to give sanctuary to young women and girls. The granite in the fireplace is from Pebble Beach.” “The redwoods used to construct the buildings are from Big Sur. “This style was about using materials from the surrounding area,” said McQuiston. Morgan was known to say, “You have to understand the land before you can build upon it.” This is exemplified in the buildings at Asilomar. Also known as Craftsman style, this type of architecture attempts to blend into surrounding landscapes by using elements such as native trees, local stone, open space, natural light, exposed support beams and earth tones. Morgan”s signature style was Arts and Crafts. “She”d climb up there and check the work in progress - and wasn”t afraid to change things if they weren”t right.” “People knew she meant business if she hiked up her skirts,” said Akard. Whenever she was on a construction site, Morgan wore trousers underneath her big skirts so she could climb scaffolding and hang off wooden beams to supervise her creations. She opened her own studio and began to commission projects throughout the Bay Area.

#Julia morgan style license

In 1904, she was the first woman to obtain an architectural license in California. Morgan became the first woman ever admitted to the architecture program.Īfter completing the program, Morgan returned to San Francisco. She consistently won most of the contests she entered until, two years later, the university relented in the face of her undeniable talent. Rather than accept defeat, however, she continued to follow her passion by entering her creations in competitions throughout Europe. Once in Paris, she was denied entrance to the architectural program because she was a woman. Under the advice of one of her professors, she traveled to Paris to study architecture at the prestigious Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Morgan was one of the few women in the civil engineering program at UC Berkeley, where she achieved her undergraduate degree in 1894. “I spent a lot of time looking at pictures of her and walking around Pacific Grove, going inside her buildings and trying to get inside her head,” said Akard. “She wasn”t a media icon, she didn”t give interviews back then and there were no TVs,” Akard explained, “But how lucky this is - she is open territory!”Īkard got into character by reading about Morgan”s life, as well as historical documents from that time period (early 1900s) to give her character some context. But Laura Akard does just that, as the lead actress playing Morgan. It seems like a tough act to portray a character whose personal life we know so little about. “We know so much about her architectural design work, but understand little of her private life.” “While she was doing her research, the playwright kept running into brick walls of Julia”s privacy,” said play director and producer Scott McQuiston. The play debuted in Sacramento at the California Stage, where sold-out performances prompted an extended run.

Taylor won an Elly Award with this production for Best Original Work, voted by Sacramento Area Regional Theater Alliance. She cleverly reconstructs Morgan”s persona using the character device of a San Francisco Examiner reporter who attempts to uncover the details of her private life so he can write her biography. How does a person such as Julia Morgan come to be? This is the question that Bay Area playwright Belinda Taylor set out to answer in “Becoming Julia Morgan.” In fact, her works of art are said by many to be a part of nature.

All of these elements of nature inspired Morgan”s designs.