BREAKING BARRIERS IN ARCHITECTURE:

LOUISE BLANCHARD BETHUNE, JULIA MORGAN, AND BARBIE

with

VICTORIA KASTNER

AUTHOR OF JULIA MORGAN:

AN INTIMATE BIOGRAPHY OF THE TRAILBLAZING ARCHITECT

Thursday, March 28, 2024

10 am – 12 pm EST

VIRTUAL LECTURE via TEAMS

In recognition of Women’s History Month, this month’s DDC Talks will focus on barrier-breaking women in the architecture profession: Louise Blanchard Bethune, America’s first professional female architect, and Julia Morgan, the first woman licensed to practice architecture in California. Guests include speaker Kelly Hayes McAlonie, author of a recent biography of Bethune. McAlonie was also a key contributor in collaboration with Mattel in its design and launch of Barbie I Can Be: Architect, the Career Doll of 2012. She will discuss both projects and her perspectives on the status of women in the architecture profession.

Architectural historian Victoria Kastner will speak about her new book, Julia Morgan: An
Intimate Biography of the Trailblazing Architect, which provides the first in-depth look at Julia
Morgan’s fascinating private life, as well as her remarkable career. Julia Morgan was a lifelong
trailblazer. In 1902 she became the first woman to graduate from the renowned architecture
program at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In 1904 she became California’s first licensed
female architect. And in 2014 the American Institute of Architects posthumously awarded her
the Gold Medal, as its first female recipient. Best known as the designer of William Randolph
Hearst’s lavish estate at San Simeon, she built an astonishing 700 additional projects throughout
the west. Victoria will share new information about many of these buildings, as well as reveal the
many triumphs and tragedies of Julia Morgan’s inspiring personal life.