Socially Responsive Architecture

The Young Women’s Christian Association, Julia Morgan,

and the Honolulu YWCA

Benjamin Weaver
Stephanie Zurek

Professor Doordan
Twentieth-Century Architecture
December 13, 2004

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With the advancement of women’s rights in the early 20th century, female architects
enjoyed an increase in the number of projects, especially those commissioned by women
and buildings for the exclusive use of women. Calls for social reforms and advancement
of concerns for the poor and less fortunate, especially among women, led to many
projects concerning low-cost shelter and recreation exclusively for women. At the
forefront of these groups was the Young Women’s Christian Association, and with their
reform movements came a need for many new structures to serve women across the
country. The YWCA found in Julia Morgan an architect who shared its ideals in creating
communities for women and who provided regionally responsive design.

History of the YWCA

The rise of the Young Women’s Christian Association, beginning in the middle of
the 19 century, through the middle of the 20th century, led to the development of a new
th

building typology in America- a religious, recreational and residential center for young
women. The YWCA organization began in England and in the United States in response
to a large influx of young women into urban areas. The Protestant middle class was
concerned that the young women coming from both the American countryside and the
European continent were in need of both shelter and guidance. Concerned citizens
organized ways in which to help young adults build safe, healthy and productive lives
within the city. Within a larger religious reformation movement, members initially met
for prayer. Soon, the organizations established boarding houses to provide shelter for
young women new to city life. The Associations first began in cities, but then gradually
spread to student centers and smaller towns. Usually, the presence of the YWCA in a
rural setting existed through the support YWCA constituents from city or student clubs.1

Functions of the YWCA

The history of the YWCA has been defined by inclusive membership in the
organization. Association work sought to welcome women from a wide range of
backgrounds, including foreign immigrants. The YWCA sought to meet a variety of
needs identified as belonging to young migrant women who worked in low paying jobs

. . . in a way the Associations were led on, one by one, to meet the fundamental
necessities of girls: religious fellowship and instruction, individual needs of employment,
protection, housing and food, acquaintance with the right kind of friends and books, study
for culture and self-support, physical preparedness for life, and a chance to work together
in being useful to the whole community.2

Existing boarding houses at the time provided inadequate and often unsafe shelter.
Standard boarding houses provided none of the necessary services identified above
and lacked recreation areas for the women’s enjoyment. Residential units in the
YWCAs were either self-supporting financially, or in the cases of the larger

1
2

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facilities, were profitable.3 In the first decade of the twentieth century, the
organization struggled with the perception of being a “poorly run boarding house
with many rules.”4 In 1913, the YWCA changed the name of its boarding units from
“home” to “residence,” in the hopes of changing the public’s conception of YWCA
services. According to Mary Sims, by 1935, YWCA residences were “highly
desirable place[s] to live.”5
The YWCA provided a haven for young women destitute and alone in the city and
helped them develop into well-rounded individuals. Early YWCAs were centers for
administrative purposes and general activities, providing facilities comparable to
those of a women’s club for a large number of middle-class women and girls. These
buildings also provided space for the headquarters of other women’s groups and
activities.6

YWCA and YMCA architecture

When a building or the building is the embodiment of the loyalty and enthusiasm of the
members, that glorifies it as nothing else can adorn it, from the swimming pool in the
basement to the moving picture installation and soda fountain on the roof. It is also
praiseworthy according to its figurative windows and doors. From how many windows
do the workers look out upon the community and see all the girls as they move about in
all directions? Are there plenty of doors on the four sides for girls to come in – large
doors for great assemblies, and little doors for steady, everyday wants?7

The first facility of the YWCA building type was a New York City Association building
erected in 1887. In an article appearing in “The Century Magazine,” in June 1889, Helen
Campbell describes the new building type. It is a five story brick building with terra
cotta ornament. A tiled vestibule leads into broad entry hall. Off of the hall is a parlor
with an open fire-place on one side and an employment room and offices on the other. A
seventy by forty foot chapel sits in the back of the building on the first floor. A library
occupies the front of the building on the second floor, while classrooms take up the third,
fourth and fifth floors. Also on the fifth floor is an art room with skylights.8
YWCAs were often located in buildings acquired by the organization. Before the
generosity of many donors, the Association had to rely on the use of several multi-
purpose rooms for their diverse programs. Libraries, classrooms, dining areas, and
residential rooms were standard features of a YWCA building. Often, the residential
areas were housed in a separate structure. In addition to the aforementioned services, the
YWCAs joined a growing movement in promoting the benefits of physical activity. The
YWCAs strived to include a swimming pool or plunge or a gymnasium, if not both. In
1893, of the 52 city Associations, 9 had gymnasiums, while the rest used other rooms for
physical activities.9
3
The Natural History of a Social Institution, p. 61.
4
The Natural History of a Social Institution, p. 61.
5
The Natural History of a Social Institution, p. 61.
6
The Natural History of a Social Institution, p. 56.
7
Fifty Years of Association Work Among Young Women: 1866-1916, p.281-282.
8
Fifty Years of Association Work Among Young Women: 1866-1916, p.106.
9
The Natural History of a Social Institution, p. 42.

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 The importance of having buildings designed specifically for YMCA programs in
each major city was recognized upon the formation of the Young Women’s Christian
Associations of the United States of America, a unification of two related national
organizations in 1906.

Next to emphasis on the development of the trained professional secretary it appears that
no one factor helped more to stabilize the movement as a whole than did the erection of
the Young Women’s Christian Association buildings in all the larger cities and many of
the smaller ones of this country.10

In addition to providing appropriate facilities for activities, the new buildings

provided an exciting sense of pride in ownership among many women’s groups across the
country who traditionally were not used to claiming property as their own. Among the
growing thrill of ownership, there was also a sentiment of caution in many of the
Associations. Many women warned of the risk of confusing building acquisition with
membership reality and progress. While smaller communities had fewer opportunities
for new construction, they encouraged program development regardless of equipment
availability.11
The benefits of having identifiable YWCA facilities are comparable to the points
expressed by the Young Men’s Christian Association in its building programs. Early
YMCA buildings housed functions very similar to those of YWCAs, except for the lack
of residential quarters for young men. YMCA leaders proposed buildings as being
permanent symbols of their presence in the community and advocated their use in
boosting civic pride. YMCA buildings were designed specifically to invite young men in,
competing with the many commercial buildings in the city.
Thus, the YMCA had to combine in a single structure a building that was welcoming to
young men, impressive to the public, efficient in the production of proper values, and
financially self-supporting.12

The early YMCA model was the New York YMCA, built in the latter half of the
th
19 century. It included commercial spaces on the ground floor and offices on the fifth
floor to generate revenue for the building. All the major spaces in the building were
arranged in a semi-circle around a central reception area so that a monitor could see all
that was happening in the building. This plan was adapted from Sunday school
architectural models.13 Later YMCA buildings turned to residential facilities for income-
generating purposes and stressed activities of a recreational nature rather than of a
religious nature.

10
The Natural History of a Social Institution, p. 55.
11
The Natural History of a Social Institution, p. 56.
12
“Manhood Factories,” p. 45.
13
“Manhood Factories,” 46.

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 At the beginning of the twentieth century, a small team of
architects was put in charge of designing YMCA buildings
throughout the country. This team typically designed, “a
simple rectangular Georgian or Renaissance Revival
clubhouse of brick or stone with classical detail ornamenting

Diagram of YMCA panoptic plan

From ”Manhood Factories,” p. 52.

the fenestration, cornice and

entrance.”14 These buildings
ignored regional architectural
practices and did not vary
from the panoptic plan. This
team eventually faced heavy
The value that the YMCA placed on the architecture of its criticism for their focus on
buildings can be seen in this 1908 Chicago Tribune cartoon
profit, their lack of sensitivity
From ”Manhood Factories,” p.41.
to local programs and their
use of inferior materials and
construction techniques.
In response to the twentieth century’s early building campaigns, the YMCA International
Committee placed Neil McMillan in charge of a new Building Bureau in 1915.
McMillan created a system that helped local associations in selecting a site and an
architect. The Bureau also aided in providing a project schedule and certain design
details typical in YMCA buildings. An additional department within the Building
Bureau, the Furnishings Service, helped in interior decorating and buying. The local
architect was responsible for final drawings, the design of the façade and the building’s
construction. This system provided the local YMCAs with input from both the
experienced larger organization and from a local architect with a sense of regional
traditions and civic pride.15

14
Manhood Factories,” 51.
15
Manhood Factories,” p. 51-54.

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 With the introduction of the Furnishings Service, the YMCA acknowleded the
distinction between the artistic and financial aspects of constructing an association
building. The YMCA was no longer just a social machine; it was also a work of art.16

Feminism and Project Commissions

As the YWCA spread throughout the United States, women’s groups were
growing in their sense of freedom. Specifically, in the American West, women had a
“frontier mentality” and were increasingly independent. These educated women formed
social clubs. Initially, the clubs met in private residences but later insisted on building
club-houses to prove their existence. Such women had both individual and collective
financial resources for various architectural commissions. These early decades of the
twentieth century are remembered as a period of “Female Institution Building.”17 In
addition to commissions for their own private residences, women commissioned projects
in the form of buildings for women’s colleges, primary schools, and social clubs. Women
looked increasingly to female architects for their buildings under the philosophy that
choosing a female architect would reinforce their institution’s ideology. In addition,
female architects were perceived as being more sensitive to the needs of the young and
disadvantaged.18 One particular female architect from the West Coast was sought out by
women’s organizations in their building programs. Julia Morgan proved to be the
equivalent of the YMCA Building Bureau on the West Coast in terms of understanding
and satisfying the YWCA program requirements as well as providing regionally sensitive
designs and details.

Julia Morgan and the YWCA

Born in San Francisco in 1872, Julia Morgan was the first woman accepted to the
Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, an education that surely contributed a great deal to her
often very traditional designs later in her career. This acceptance is a great
accomplishment in and of itself, but beyond that, Morgan became one of the first, and is
still considered, one of the most important female American architects.
Upon returning to her home in California after completing her education in Paris,
Morgan began by collaborating with Bernard Maybeck on several buildings in Berkeley.
After working with John Galen Howard for a short time, she set off on her own as
California’s first female architect. Morgan was quickly swept up in the architectural
boom following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and one of her first important
commissions involved the reconstruction of the Fairmont Hotel. Stanford White, the
original architect, was shot only a few weeks after receiving the original commission, and
Morgan was chosen to replace him as principal architect for the reconstruction. Her
degree in engineering received years earlier from Berkeley, and her experience with
reinforced concrete working along side Howard on Berkeley’s campus likely helped her
to be selected for the job of restoring the heavily damaged structure to its original Italian
Renaissance style.

16
Manhood Factories,” p. 54.
17
“Sincere and Good: The Architectural Practice of Julia Morgan,” pp. 118,121.
18
“Sincere and Good: The Architectural Practice of Julia Morgan,” p.120.

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 Having been licensed only two years
as an architect, Julia Morgan’s practice
expanded after the Fairmont project. Many
of her commissions were for institutional
buildings, as well as some private homes,
churches, and other projects. Of the many
commissions that architect Julia Morgan
received, the YWCA asked Morgan to
design “hostess houses” in Camp Fremont,
San Pedro and San Diego during World War
I. These buildings provided a place for
soldiers to meet with their families near the
military bases. At the time of the war, the
YWCA had been called upon to use its
experience in organizing women into service
operations to aid the nation during its time
of increased need. Women began flocking
to industrial centers for war related
employment and to be near military camps.
The YWCA constructed emergency housing
Pools, Berkeley Women’s Club (top) and Long to provide safe shelter for these new women.
Beach YWCA Incidentally, the work that the organization
did throughout the country in the time of
war helped to strengthen its national
network.19
Morgan’s interest in institutions related to social concerns, especially those of
women, helped her in one of her first commissions for Phoebe Apperson Hearst at
Asilomar. Having already worked on Hearst’s “Hacienda” homestead for the past
decade, Morgan was asked to work on the conference center at Pacific Grove, which a
YWCA member competition later names Asilomar. Over the next sixteen years, Morgan
designed several structures at Asilomar, including the administration building, conference
center, and chapel. Using local wood, stone, and other materials, she kept the buildings
in harmony with the surrounding Monterey forest.
Morgan worked on several buildings for Hearst and gained great praise for her
attention to detail and concern for the clients’ needs and specific budget limitations.
Asilomar was a great success as a conference and training center for the YWCA and its
personnel, and it exposed many YWCA board members to Julia Morgan. As a result,
additional commissions for YWCAs began to arrive at Morgan’s office, seeking her
talents specifically. One of her first major YWCA commissions was for a multipurpose
building in Oakland. In 1912, Morgan made a trip to the East Coast to study YWCA
clubhouses and buildings, in order to learn what sort of project she would be undertaking.
Following the tradition of the Italian Renaissance palazzo, Morgan designed a classical
interior for the courtyard buildings with many open formal and informal spaces.
The Oakland YWCA as well as several other YWCA projects demonstrates how
Morgan adapted the typical elements of a YWCA to her own buildings. Pools and
19
The Natural History of a Social Institution – The Y.W.C.A., p. 61-62.; Julia Morgan, Architect, p.92.

6
athletic facilities became more public rather
than private, as seen in the Long Beach, San
Jose, and Berkeley Women’s Club buildings.
No longer were pools hidden away; instead
Morgan chose to include spectator balconies
to enhance the pool’s athletic and aesthetic
qualities.
Morgan paid special attention to the
most public spaces of the building, as seen
in Oakland’s main lobby spaces. The
portico and interior lobby of her YWCA
building for the Panama-Pacific Exposition
in 1914-15 further demonstrate this desire
for larger, more public spaces where people
would not only pass through, but would also
stop and socialize with others, adding to the
overall atmosphere of the space. In
Oakland, Morgan designed a large central
courtyard modeled after Bramante’s cortile
in Rome’s Santa Maria della Pace church.
The two story space is covered by a large
skylight that gives the indoor space an
outdoor feel, and allows much light to
penetrate the central axis of the building.
Morgan reflects on the local characteristics
of the region in the detailing of the Oakland
YWCA. Wooden brackets above the central
space are designed in the vernacular style of
the East Bay and the exterior of the building
has much iconography in the form of
terracotta depictions of local agricultural and
cultural traditions.
In 1920, after the Oakland YWCA
and Panama-Pacific expositions were
completed, Morgan worked in the city of
Pasadena on a YWCA to be part of a larger
civic center for the rapidly expanding city.
The center was to be designed in a classical
style and Morgan’s YWCA was to be no
different. With the help of associate
architects Marston and van Pelt, Morgan
carried out a traditional Beaux-Arts façade.
Her interior, as with Oakland and the Interior Spaces, Oakland YWCA
Panama-Pacific Exposition, shows her
concern for circulation and the hierarchy of
spaces throughout the building.

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 Open space was very much a concern in
Julia Morgan’s designs, and her ideas of a
courtyard are evident in both the internal spaces
of the Oakland, Pasadena, and other YWCAs,
but also in the exterior courtyard of the Emanu-
el Sisterhood Residence in San Francisco (1921-
22). The Sisterhood Residence had many
programmatic features similar to the YWCA
commissions that Morgan had already received,
including residential, athletic, and other
recreational facilities. Differing from Oakland,
however, Morgan chose to design an outdoor
courtyard space for people to traverse, rather
than the interior atrium spaces she had
previously used. The large open courtyard she
designed overlooks the street below due to a
sloping site condition, although it is essentially
on the ground floor of the building as one
enters. A one story loggia caps the space as it Emanu-el Sisterhood Residence
spills out to the street, and the upper two stories
of the Residence surround the courtyard on the remaining three sides, allowing for views
into the space from a large number of rooms. In later designs, especially the Honolulu
YWCA, Morgan continues to implement this larger outdoor space in her designs, and
mixes interior with exterior areas for people to move about.
The YWCA must have been quite pleased with the work that Morgan built for its
various local organizations because in 1919, she was invited to come to New York
permanently advise the National YWCA on their national building program, an endeavor
which must have looked to the YMCA Building Bureau as a precedent. Morgan declined
in order to stay close to her family. Although she did become an enduring member on the
National YWCA board, Morgan continued to take on commissions along the West Coast
from the YWCA.
In 1920, the Hollywood YWCA asked Morgan to design residences to
accommodate the large influx of women arriving in the city in pursuit of careers in
entertainment and business. Morgan’s Mediterranean design, finished in 1926, was well-
suited for both the client and its location in an urban area in southern California. After
completion of the Honolulu YWCA in 1927, Morgan continued to work on several more
commissions for the Association including buildings in Riverside and again in San
Francisco. Her Riverside building is different from her other structures in that it is not a
single massive building, but is rather a complex composed of smaller blocks. It continues
an Italian motif, with a concrete structure and a Mediterranean tile roof. Morgan also
designed The Residence YWCA in San Francisco in the later 1920’s. The building was
designed to adjoin her Chinese YWCA, designed while The Residence was under
construction, and features a large, brick and tile structure that rises straight up from
street-level. Views from the Residence looked out towards the Chinese YWCA and San
Francisco’s Chinatown.

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 One of Morgan’s best examples of adapting her building to different cultural
identities is the Chinese YWCA in San Francisco. The façade looks quite unlike any of
her other buildings, designed with a Chinese motif using brick and imported Chinese
tiles. The interior organization is one of smaller blocks, including a gymnasium, garden,
and other facilities that combine together to make the complex as a whole. Similarly,
Morgan adapts her buildings to reflect Japanese culture in the Japanese YWCA in another
part of San Francisco.
In continuing to work on commissions presented by female clients, Morgan
worked on the Berkeley Women’s City Club in the early 1930’s, a building quite similar
to the YWCAs that she had previously worked on. The tall, castle-like six-story structure
housed many of the some features as her YWCAs, including dining rooms and
recreational spaces, but also requested a beauty parlor and tearoom. Like the Honolulu
YWCA and others, the pool was a central feature of the Berkeley City Club, occupying
almost the entire length of the east wing. Morgan paid close attention to the details of the
building, designing many of the interior elements including the furnishings, lights, and
even dishes. Even the dressing rooms for the pool were considered to be well ahead of
their time in terms of treatment and decoration. While the pool is not open to the sky,
there is ample light from large windows that run its length. Additionally, the East and
West Courts of the building are completely open, offering two separate and differently
sized spaces for gathering.

The Honolulu YWCA

Of the many YWCAs that
Julia Morgan was commissioned to
design in the early 20th Century, only
a few remain for their original
purpose to this day.20 Of these,
including the YWCA in Oakland, the
YWCA Metropolitan Headquarters
in Honolulu is one of Morgan’s most
unique designs, but also has many of
the characteristics of her other
YWCA projects. According to
Operations Manager Keny Miyoshi, Exterior, Honolulu YWCA
Laniakea (as the Downtown
Honolulu YWCA is known) remained one of Morgan’s eight favorite buildings21 of the
more than 700 she designed, and the Honolulu YWCA was recognized in 1978 by the
National Register of Historic Places.
Built in 1927 in Honolulu, the YWCA on 1024 Richards street is located just
across from the park surrounding Iolani Palace, the only palace in the United States, and
one of the most ornate and traditionally designed buildings in Hawaii. In addition to her
taste in the Beaux-Arts tradition of classical architecture, and her already lengthy
affiliation with YWCA’s by the mid 1920’s, Morgan was also familiar with architecture in
Hawaii, having already completed several projects on the island of Oahu. Morgan first
20
Julia Morgan, Architect. p. 107.
21
Power House 75. Honolulu Star Bulletin, June 18, 2002.

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worked for the YWCA in Hawaii on a commission to remodel a Waikiki beach house
belonging to the Atherton Family to be used as a center for young women. Later, while
carrying out a renovation of Fernhurst Homestead as a memorial to the daughter of the
Atherton family, Morgan began work on a design for the new YWCA administration
building in Honolulu.
Julia Morgan was not the only female to lead the project for the Honolulu YWCA.
In addition to her as the principal Architect, the YWCA also chose female landscaper
Catherine Jones Richards. Richards was already well known in Hawaii for having
designed the extensive landscaping of the Honolulu Academy of Arts and the National
Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Punchbowl Crater. Together, they created the first
significant structure in Hawaii designed solely by women22. While this was most likely
not new to Morgan, it was a somewhat new idea for Hawaii. Morgan placed Edward
Hussey as her architectural representative with Bjarne Dahl, one of her office engineers,
as his assistant in Hawaii. Much of the Honolulu YWCA was constructed via reports
mailed weekly by Hussey to Morgan in San Francisco, along with film of the
construction and annotated floor plans.

22
Holoholo Honolulu – Honolulu YWCA. Honolulu Star Bulletin, April 4, 2004.

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Plan, Honolulu YWCA 1926

The exterior of the Honolulu YWCA is designed in the traditional Beaux-Arts

style with a symmetrical façade and traditional detailing. The façade itself is notable for
its division into three major parts, separated both by setbacks in the planes themselves as
well as heavy quoinage to delineate the three sections. These three sections explain to
passersby that the building itself is divided into three sections in plan and interior
organization. The building’s design is not one typical of downtown Honolulu. Dahl,
upon seeing the plans and being told the building was to be in the center of the city,
remarked that “the drawings look like it would be out in the country somewhere” and that

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 this “delighted [Morgan], and she said that was the impression she wanted to convey.”23
Morgan’s design provides an oasis in the center of the city, a retreat for the women who
work and visit its facilities from the busy city right outside the walls.
Upon entering the Honolulu YWCA, after passing through the main doorway
flanked by columns and pilasters, a visitor enters the lobby of the main building,
Elizabeth Fuller Memorial Hall (named for a local girl who died while touring with
Hawaiian performers in India). From there, she would enter the lower portion of the
double height loggia that connects the two larger buildings that make up the whole
structure. To the left would be an unexpected courtyard, completely open to three stories,
providing another aspect of the building’s character as an oasis retreat within the city. To
the right, flanking the loggia, is a 60’x30’ swimming pool, tucked within the center of the
structure. To the rear of the building, as one enters, is the cafeteria and game room.
Despite the fact that the rooms are not arranged in a literal semi-circle around the
reception area, Morgan handles the plan in such a way that from the main desk, one has
sight-lines to a variety of rooms – the entrance, the swimming pool, the court, the library,
and the offices.
Many of the programmatic concerns
of a YWCA, which Morgan was no doubt
very familiar with by this time, are
contained within the Honolulu YWCA.
Included among these are the typical
recreational facilities. However, the
Honolulu YWCA differs in large part from
Morgan’s other designs in that it has no
residential facilities. This YWCA was
designed as an administrative and
recreational facility only, with no
permanent or temporary boarding units.
The second floor is a community room and
other common spaces, with the third floor
consisting of educational department
quarters and administrative offices. But
Morgan’s design still keeps the “livable”
quality of the building present, with many
of the common spaces spilling out onto
balconies that overlook the courtyard or
the swimming pool at the center of the
structures. The other elements of a typical
YWCA remain, with the residential
facilities being the only major part missing
from this design.

Courtyard, Loggia, and Pool; Honolulu YWCA

23
Julia Morgan, Architect. pp. 108-109.

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 Door Detail, Honolulu YWCA

The pool of the Honolulu YWCA deserves special mention as it probably

demonstrates Morgan’s best handling of this common programmatic element. Unlike
other designs, including some of her own, the pool of the Honolulu YWCA is not hidden
away, or tucked within the structure. Rather, in this building, the pool is one of the
central features of the building as a whole, occupying the entire void space between the
two major buildings. Morgan’s skillful handling of the pool design celebrates the
“modern freedom of young women to learn to swim.”24 In addition to being out in the
open, balconies around both the second and third floors open outwards and look down
into the pool. In addition its athletic purposes, Morgan uses the pool in a tradition similar
to Mediterranean and Islamic architecture by using water as a central aesthetic element.
By doing this, the pool is not just something in addition to the building, but is rather a key

Interior, Chapel of the Chimes

element of the
structure as a whole,
adding much to the
atmosphere within the
Terracotta Detail, Oakland YWCA Door Detail, Honolulu YWCA building.
Morgan was
well-known for the attention to detail she showed in design; her architectural design of
the Honolulu YWCA is no different. As with the Oakland YWCA, she pays special
24
Julia Morgan, Architect, p.112.

13
attention to detailing the building with elements specific to the local region. In particular,
the main doors of the Honolulu YWCA are made of teakwood, a traditional material used
in many buildings across Hawaii. Within the door panels themselves are carved reliefs of
plumeria, hibiscus, and orchid flowers that locals would easily recognize as being very
much a part of the Hawaiian landscape. Within the building itself, Morgan carefully
crafted the ironwork of the balconies and fences to cast decorative shadows throughout
the day, adding another element of detail on top of that which was already built. A local
editorial commented that “interesting arches, distinctly ‘Morgan’ in design, are a feature
of the entire building.”25 Morgan had used decorative arches in many of her other
structures, including the Chapel of the Chimes in Oakland and the Berkeley Women’s
Club pool. Arches abound within the Honolulu structure, flanking the sides of the loggia,
and surrounding walkways, and the upper balconies. In addition to local references,
Morgan added other flowers, lion heads, and her trademark “M,” placed high on a tower,
to the building’s detailing.
Material considerations for were a large concern for Morgan in her buildings and
she pays equal attention to them in the Honolulu YWCA. Morgan insisted on using only
clean, well-graded beach sand, crushed blue lava, and required that all new steel, and no
scrap, be used for the reinforcement of the building’s concrete. The building is made
almost entirely of steel girders and reinforced concrete, adding to its solid look and
helping perhaps protect the building from the local termites that often wreak havoc on
older wood buildings in many parts of Hawaii.
Morgan describes her mastery of the materials in a letter to the YWCA in New
York,
The Honolulu Building is usually frank and sincere architecturally. There is
practically no false work or furring in the building – the girders, beams, great arches,
openings of all types, being the structural concrete, sometimes plastered upon, sometimes
not, always the form used expressing (or trying to) a given more or less decorative
quality.26
At the time that Julia Morgan was practicing, rising women’s networks established an
organization specifically tailored to address new social concerns. In their responding to
these issues, the YWCA implemented local facilities that were welcoming and respected
the dignity of young women alone in cities, while at the same were functional and
efficient. From Julia Morgan’s many YWCA designs, it is clear that she was able to
adapt specific programmatic concerns with a mastery of materials and details as well as
working within a new philosophy of women’s place in society. As a designer, Morgan
was sensitive both to the concerns of the YWCA commissioning donors, as well as to the
needs of the young women using the Association’s facilities. In the attention to detail that
Morgan sought in each design, she provided the YWCA with unique approaches to each
local organization. Julia Morgan elevated YWCA building design from simply a
pragmatic problem to an aesthetic and social statement addressing women’s new
freedoms and needs in society.

Bibliography
Boutelle, Sara Holmes. Julia Morgan, Architect.
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