YWCA

Julia Morgan
1921

Boutelle explains that "Pasadena, in the throes of expansion, planned a City Beautiful center. Here was to stand a YWCA building that would emphasize the city's care for minimum-wage women who needed shelter and amenities. Mary (Mrs. David E.) Gamble, of 4 Westmoreland Place (the most celebrated of Greene and Greene houses), was chairman of the YWCA building committee, which commissioned a structure that would fit well with plans for a civic center" (106).
	Distant view Occupying an entire city block, this large YWCA is designed in three sections. The central section is three stories while the sections on each side have two stories.
The central facade This is a symmetrical and logical building with the tall second-story windows repeating the doors of the first floor. Morgan often used decorative iron balconies and decorative brackets. (See also the side window below.)
A front and side window The front windows are similar to those at the Emanu-el Sisterhood Residence, designed at about the same time. Here the border design also uses stylized triglyphs.
One of the side sections (from the front and from the side)

Work Cited: Boutelle, Sara Holmes. Julia Morgan Architect. Revised and updated edition. New York: Abbeville Press, 1995.


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