On July 15, about 16 of us went on Rick's San Francisco Architecture tour. I now know what I'm looking at from my girlfriend's kitchen window, the plethora of public access spaces in the FiDi and SOMA districts, and so much more. Thank you Rick for the great tour. In the spirit of the tour, I thought some guild members might be interested in this and a recent article about architect Julia Morgan.
The Bay Area architecture we love: Why we enjoy such beauty and variety
The region’s extraordinary diversity of building styles includes missions, Victorians and the modernist office towers and cozy ranch houses that still define how we work and live
(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
In an aerial view, cars drive by the San Francisco skyline as they cross the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge on October 27, 2022 in San Francisco, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
By Martha Ross | Bay Area News Group
PUBLISHED: July 23, 2025 at 8:45 AM PDT
The region's extraordinary diversity of building styles includes missions, Victorians and the modernist office towers and cozy ranch houses that still define how we work and live.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2025/07/23/the-bay-area-architecture-we-love-why-we-enjoy-such-beauty-and-variety/?utm_email+=6407240F2542346FB471742D77&lctg+=6407240F2542346FB471742D77&active=no&utm_source=listrak&utm_medium=Email&utm_term=https%3a%2f%2fwww.mercurynews.com%2f2025%2f07%2f23%2fthe-bay-area-architecture-we-love-why-we-enjoy-such-beauty-and-variety%2f&utm_campaign=bang-multi_pubs-afternoon_briefing-nl&utm_content=hybrid
Her way: Julia Morgan, the quiet genius who defined Bay Area architecture
The architect behind Hearst’s San Simeon and many other buildings in California defied the 20th-century image of the tortured male master builder.
By MARTHA ROSS | Bay Area News Group
UPDATED: July 14, 2025 at 4:22 AM PDT
For one of Julia Morgan’s first commissions in 1903, the magnificent El Campanil bell tower at Mills College in Oakland, the soft-spoken young architect had to deal with a male contractor who wasn’t happy that she was the boss.
In fact, he worked to undermine Morgan’s authority by claiming she didn’t know how to use steel-reinforced concrete for her 72-foot, Mission-style tower. He was wrong, of course, because the Oakland-reared Morgan had learned all about this new construction method, necessary to build 20th-century skyscrapers, at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. The year before, she had become the first woman to ever graduate from this world-renowned architectural training program.
“She was right there on the ground floor of some of the most path-breaking experiments with concrete,” said Oakland-based Julia Morgan historian Karen McNeill.
But it didn’t matter. In a time before women could vote, the female president of Mills College was still inclined to listen to the man and let him take credit for Morgan’s elegant design.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2025/07/11/her-way-julia-morgan-the-quiet-genius-who-defined-bay-area-architecture/