Julia Morgan was born in Oakland in 1872.

In 1890, she enrolled in UC Berkeley's civil engineering program, since there was no architecture school at the time.

As a senior, Morgan met Bernard Maybeck, the architect of the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, and she was taken under his wing, attending informal classes at his house alongside other young aspiring architects.

At Maybeck's urging, she applied to the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts' architecture school, which he had attended in Paris. In 1898 and after two years of study and two prior rejections, Julia Morgan became the first woman admitted to École des Beaux-Arts' architecture school, four years later.

During her time at École, Morgan fared very well, receiving three medals and twenty-six mentions, as well as the second-place medal for the prestigious Godeboeuf Competition.

Lacking mentorship from the male upperclassmen, Morgan turned to some of the mothers of American students for support, who even helped her render some of her projects.

During her time in Paris, she travelled Europe far and wide, filling her sketchbooks with the buildings she saw.

After graduating from architecture school in Paris, Julia Morgan moved back to Oakland in 1902. She worked for a couple of years under UC Berkeley campus architect John Galen Howard, before receiving state licensure and opening her own practice in 1904.

Under Howard, Morgan first was a draftsperson for the Hearst Mining Building, and later, she was the supervising architect for the Hearst Greek Theatre, which was "the first such classical open-air theater to be built in this country."

Morgan's expertise in reinforced concrete - a new technique that most builders hadn't yet adopted - drove the project's successful completion in 1903.

Working for John Galen Howard proved difficult.

When she first started, he boasted that he had “...the best and most talented designer, whom I have to pay almost nothing, as it is a woman.” Limited by Howard's authoritarianism, Morgan went and received her state licensure and opened up her own practice.

Julia Morgan leveraged her strong community of women for her early commissions, leading to her first big solo job at Mills College, a women's college in Oakland. Mills College hired Julia Morgan to build El Campanil, a 72-foot tower, as the campus focal point.

Building El Campanil gave Morgan an opportunity to flex her architectural prowess; in particular, her knowledge of reinforced concrete, a new technique.

El Campanil became a testament to Morgan's skills when, three years later, the Great San Francisco Earthquake brought most Bay Area buildings crumbling and burning down - but not El Campanil, which stood unscathed.

The tragic disaster turned into a windfall for Morgan's business when the Fairmont Hotel called, asking Morgan to complete their building, which had been days away from opening before it was gutted by the earthquake's subsequent fire.

A shocked journalist asked the project's foreman if a woman was really in charge of the building, to which he responded that the building was in the charge of “a real architect, and her name happens to be Julia Morgan, but it might as well be John Morgan.”

Morgan's successful renovation of the hotel catapulted her practice into the spotlight.

A connection Julia Morgan made while in Paris with a fellow Bay Area resident, Phoebe Apperson Hearst, became one of her first residential commissions.

Julia Morgan's style was "characterized by her use of the California vernacular with distinctive elements that were characteristic of the Arts and Crafts movement, including exposed support beams, horizontal lines that blended with the landscape and extensive use of shingles, California Redwood and earth tones."

Morgan became a trusted architect to the Hearst family, and she was commissioned later in 1919 to build Hearst Castle for Phoebe's newspaper magnate son, William Randolph Hearst.

For the next 28 years, Morgan “supervised nearly every aspect of construction at Hearst Castle including the purchase of everything from Spanish antiquities to Icelandic moss to reindeer for the Castle's zoo.”

Julia Morgan designed more than 700 buildings during her career, most of which were constructed.

Other notable Berkeley buildings include the Berkeley City Club, which was completed by Morgan and opened in 1930 as a women's activity center. The project was built in just 11 months, fully funded by Berkeley Women.

Throughout her career, Julia Morgan and her career were supported by the local women's communities.

Morgan teamed back up with her former mentor, Bernard Maybeck, in 1927 to design the Hearst Memorial Gymnasium for Women.

Julia Morgan passed away in 1957 and was buried in Mountain View Cemetery.

Local historian and cemetery docent Dennis Evanosky says many are surprised when they see Morgan is buried in an unpretentious spot, but that this was actually Morgan's wish for herself; when asked of her burial, she said, “I want to be quietly tucked away with my own.”

Julia Morgan has received more acclaim posthumously through her biography, Julia Morgan, Architect, published by Sara Boutelle in 1988, and the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal Award in 2014.