DESIGN 11/2019 Spotlight 37Foto: Sergey Didenko/Shutterstock.com
obsessed with Morgan’s life and work,
the crown jewel of which is the fantastic
house she spent 28 years designing and
building for Hearst, a place he referred to
as La Cuesta Encantada, or The Enchanted
Hill. This year, Hearst Castle is celebrating
100 years since its inception and last year
marked 60 years since it has been open to
the public.
Meanwhile, too, Morgan has attract-
ed more interest, perhaps because of the
#MeToo movement and greater aware-
ness of sexual discrimination. She was
the first woman to attend the architec-
ture program at the École des Beaux-Arts
in Paris, where she earned a degree in
architecture, but only after having been
rejected three times. She later was the
first licensed female architect in Califor-
nia. She opened her own practice in San
Francisco in 1904/5.
In March this year, The New York Times
published her long overdue obituary as
part of its “Overlooked No More” series of
remarkable people whose deaths had nev-
er received mention in the paper. Morgan
was wholly dedicated to her profession:
When she retired in 1951, at age 79, she
left a legacy of more than 700 buildings,
nearly all of which are protected national
or state landmarks. Before my mother and
I visited Hearst Castle, we spent a night in
another Morgan monument, the elegant
Asilomar Hotel & Conference Grounds
in Pacific Grove, near Monterey. From
there, Hearst Castle is a two-and-a-half
hour drive south along Highway 1, a two-
lane asphalt road clinging to California’s
coastline and offering some of the most
spectacular views the country has to offer.
At the town of San Simeon, visitors to
Hearst Castle turn away from the Pacif-
ic and head into the Santa Lucia Range.
We had wisely booked tickets in advanceT
he road to Hearst
Castle on Califor-
nia’s coast is serpen-
tine and narrow, and
it is one of the most
breathtaking routes
in the world. In fact,
this may be why visitors can only reach
the Castle via bus, as the fantastic views
to the Pacific Ocean, and eventually to
the Mediterranean villa once it comes
into view several miles inland, are likely
to distract anyone going up the steep hill.
Recently, I joined my spry 85-year-old
mother on a tour of Hearst Castle. I was
naturally drawn to the spectacular archi-
tecture and in awe of how such a palace
could have been built nearly a century ago
using primitive roads (or none at all) to
transport the building materials. All in all,
Hearst Castle includes 165 rooms and 123
acres of gardens and terraces, as well as an
indoor Roman Pool covered in mosaics,
the dreamy outdoor Art Deco Neptune
Pool, which last year underwent a $10 mil-
lion restoration, and an art collection that
features Flemish tapestries, Thorvaldsen
sculptures, 15th-century Spanish paint-
ings, and Italian Renaissance furniture.
An exact cost of the construction remains
unknown, but by some estimates, it was
more than $10,000,000.
And there were other reasons to make
this pilgrimage to Hearst Castle. William
Randolph Hearst was a legendary news-
paper publishing baron in the early 20th
century, and since I’ve spent much of my
career as a journalist, his biography in-
terests me. But it is Hearst’s professional
relationship with the prolific architect
Julia Morgan that intrigues me even
more: Ever since I had moved back to my
native California in 2014 after nearly 15
years living in Berlin, I had become mildlyacre [(eIk&r]
, Morgen (4.047 m^2 )
awe [O:]
, Ehrfurcht
cling [klIN]
, sich anklammern, sich
anschmiegen
dedicated: be ~ to sth.
[(dedIkeItEd]
, in etw. völlig aufgehen
distract [dI(strÄkt]
, ablenken
enchanted [In(tSÄntEd]
, verwunschen,
verzaubert
Flemish [(flemIS]
, flämisch, flandrisch
inception [In(sepS&n]
, Gründung, Anfang
intrigue [In(tri:g]
, faszinierenlandmark [(lÄndmA:rk]
, Wahrzeichen
legacy [(legEsi]
, Vermächtnis, Erbe
licensed [(laIs&nst]
, eingetragen, qualifiziert
obituary [E(bItueri]
, Nachruf
obsessed [Eb(sest]
, besessen
overdue [)oUv&r(du:]
, überfällig
pilgrimage [(pIlgrImIdZ]
, Wallfahrt, Pilgerreise
prolific [prE(lIfIk]
, erfolgreich, produktiv
serpentine [(s§:pEnti:n]
, kurvenreich, gewunden
spry [spraI]
, agil, rüstig
tapestry [(tÄpIstri]
, Wandteppich, GobelinDESIGN
An American castle
Hearst Castle, das Landschloss eines amerikanischen Zeitungsverlegers, entstand vor 100 Jahren.
ELIZABETH ZACH hat das historische kalifornische Herrschaftshaus besucht, um seine ganze Pracht
zu bewundern – und um einen Eindruck von seiner „vergessenen“ Architektin zu bekommen.ADVANCED US PLUS