“I dove in headfirst-becoming fluent in Italian, making Italian friends, learning to cook from my Italian landlady, and traveling throughout the country (and Europe) as much as I could. “I was living in history, and it awoke something in me,” she says. “No one had studied her interests and influences, what she saw abroad, or how she expertly applied that knowledge back home in California.”Įarly on in the international program, Kahn studied to be an architect under a founding member of Superstudio (Italy’s Radical Architecture movement of the 1960s), but realized her passions lay in studying the rich history around her. “At that time, scholarship about Julia Morgan was generally limited to four areas: the fact that she was a woman in a man’s profession, her education at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris, her legacy as an Arts and Crafts architect, and Hearst Castle, of course,” says Kahn. But during her studies, she also saw a unique opportunity to explore the early influences of Morgan, a fellow San Francisco Bay Area native who, from 1898 – 1902, attended the exclusive architecture program at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris-the first woman to do so-and traveled extensively in Europe, including many visits to Florence, Italy. ![]() In her academic program, Kahn focused on American and Italian Renaissance architecture. Her thesis has now been adapted into an essay published in the new book Julia Morgan: The Road to San Simeon, Visionary Architect of the California Renaissance (Rizzoli Electa, 2022). Those are some of the questions Architectural Historian Johanna Kahn set out to answer early on in her career while earning her master’s degree in architectural history. ![]() ![]() The lavish Hearst Castle on California’s Central Coast is her best-known work that continues to inspire architectural designers today, and remains as a National Historic Landmark, California State Park, and California Historical Landmark.īut what or who influenced Julia Morgan? What types of stylistic elements, attributes, and historical buildings fed into her designs? And how did her early architectural style evolve into the work of the visionary architect we know of today? When thinking of pioneering architect Julia Morgan, one might picture grand spaces defined by soaring archways, polished marble columns, and sun-drenched courtyards.
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