In 1904, a newly licensed young architect, Julia Morgan, designed North Star House to be a multi-functional structure with several objectives – impressing investors, providing an office for a working woman, and creating a home for a family.
Morgan certainly achieved those objectives. She blended the simplicity of the First Bay Tradition Arts and Crafts movement with the principles learned at L’Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, so that local materials,color, scale and even formality played significant roles and can be readily identified in North Star House.
Placement of the building was critical and included considerations of sunlight, views and functionality. In addition, the approach to the house was from an angle so that the formality of the symmetry was less noticeable, and a more informal impression was achieved.
Morgan’s goal was to design buildings that were integrated with the environment, so the exterior design had to be as inobtrusive as possible. To that end, exterior shingle siding and stone was favored by Morgan for many of her California buildings including North Star House, in order to blend with the setting and create a welcoming environment.
The lessons learned in Paris were found in spatial designs that were integrated with the other elements in the room. Doors, windows and pillars were all symmetrical in design and balanced with each other, while the interior space was arranged in a generally outward facing design. Every element balanced with the others to create an overall symmetry and composition that was pleasing to the senses.
While plaster ceilings were the standard for that era, Morgan left the support trusses and posts exposed, often encasing them in a milled enclosure that created organic design elements. To achieve the more informal characteristics needed for Arts and Crafts, Morgan utilized texture, color and shapes in the walls, pillars and beams. Local materials were utilized to blend with the outdoor environment and re-enforce the outward facing design. Walls were paneled with local materials that added a richness in color and blended with the outdoors. Structural elements such as beams, framing or trusses were left exposed instead of being hidden in walls or ceilings. Whether encased with the same local materials as the paneled walls, as at North Star House, or left natural, the result was to re-enforce informality and the connection with the outdoor environment.
Most fireplaces of that era were small, square, and tiled. Morgan’s fireplaces were of varying shapes, always faced with local materials such as stone or brick and had a design feature included. North Star House fireplaces each had a different shape and its own unique design, but every fireplace was the principle artistic element of the room. Inglenook features, including a fire side sitting area, were included in the living areas. Morgan also used built-ins for multiple uses, including keeping firewood at hand, seating, and storage. Morgan was able to use the fireplace in a large room setting as both an intimate conversation space and a backdrop for the larger events.
Large windows were not the norm of the time, but Morgan used them to create an organic connection with the environment, bringing the outdoors into the room. Morgan used fixed windows with divided lights on the upper third, thus allowing for an uninterrupted view of the outdoors while still providing architectural interest. Windows were in a symmetric design, typically closely spaced in living areas and farther spaced in bedrooms. The use of light from the outdoors and the play between inside and outside are very evident with the siting of North Star House.
Morgan designed a wide stone porch that wrapped around two sides of the house and was shaded by the sleeping porches on the second floor. The wide overhangs also re-enforced the feeling of shelter and safety at North Star House. North Star House’s porch originally provided a view over a large stone terrace, meadows, and trees into the Sacramento Valley and re-enforced the easy flow between living areas of the houses and the outdoors.
North Star House was Morgan’s first commission that required the multi-functional components. Morgan had a rare ability to effectively integrate large group needs with small group interactions. It is an attribute that is rarely found except in the most experienced architects. Inglenooks in front of fireplaces or tucked in between pillars provided quiet areas for confidential business conversations.
Morgan understood the affective values of architecture – the ability of a design to set the mood of the environment. Visitors to North Star House often comment on the almost spiritual nature of the house. Morgan’s designs enveloped visitors with a feeling of home, safety, and warmth, thus creating the perfect environment for creativity, family or just knowing that you have come home.
