Julia Morgan in 1904 became the first licensed female architect in California. Her great patron was newspaper plutocrat William Randolph Hearst, for whom she designed the grand Herald-Examiner building in downtown L.A. and the gaudy argument for tax reform known as Hearst Castle.
Hearst’s mother, Phoebe, also steered work Morgan’s way. When the Young Women’s Christian Association needed an architect, she recommended Morgan, who went on to design more than 30 YWCAs, five of them in Southern California.
The last of those, from 1929, is in Riverside. The stately Italianate building occupies half a block on a largely historic stretch of Mission Inn Avenue. It was a Y, with gym and swimming pool, for 38 years. With both those features removed, it’s been used as an art center for some 57 years and counting as the Riverside Art Museum.
An exhibit at RAM, titled “3425 Mission Inn Avenue,” the museum’s street address, explores the history of the building. It’s a meta exhibit, RAM’s version of a coffee table book about coffee tables.
But then, it’s a site of cultural significance to the community, stretching back 95 years. Drew Oberjuerge, executive director of RAM, hears about that significance all the time from people, who tell her “My high school swim class was here” or “I got married here.”
“We just wanted to tell the story of the building,” Oberjuerge says.
This rendering by architect Julia Morgan depicts the facade of her YWCA in Riverside, which opened in 1929. This copy of the drawing is among the elements of “3425 Mission Inn Avenue,” an exhibit at the Riverside Art Museum on the building’s past, present and future. (Photo by David Allen, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
I’ve been inside numerous times and wrote about its history in 2022, the 150th anniversary of Morgan’s birth. So I’m part of the target audience for this exhibit, which is in place through Oct. 26. I checked it out a couple of weeks ago, joined by Oberjuerge.
It’s got historic photos, copies of blueprints and renderings. The text charts Morgan’s life and career — she died in 1957 after designing some 700 buildings in California — and the building’s social uses over nearly a century. Most of this was shown in an earlier iteration at RAM in 2012.
Morgan’s YWCAs used a similar floor plan to save money while adding unique touches. Her Riverside design sports smooth stucco walls, arches, colonnades, balconies and wrought iron, meant to evoke the California missions.
You’d think that approach would have endeared the architect to Frank Miller, owner of the Mission Inn a couple of blocks away, but no. He didn’t appreciate her plans for a comparatively modern facade and tried to get the YWCA to drop Morgan and conform to his vision for downtown. But the women prevailed.
The exhibit also boasts newly commissioned photography by Sofia Valiente of architectural details. Glimpses of the future are also included, in the form of a wish list of building upgrades and renderings to match.
The Riverside Art Museum’s Stephanie Pozuelos crosses its atrium. It was originally an open courtyard until a glass roof was installed as the building was converted from a YWCA into an art center. (Photo by David Allen, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
RAM hired Page & Turnbull, the firm that successfully renovated the 1960s public library building into The Cheech, to evaluate what the building needs. (Spoiler alert: Not a swimming pool.)
Much of the work would be the sort of unseen stuff that nevertheless is crucial: new electrical, mechanical, plumbing and information technology systems, better acoustics and gallery lighting, more storage, improved ADA access, new heating and air conditioning.
“The HVAC that you’re listening to now,” Oberjuerge jokes of the gallery’s background hum, “was installed in the ’90s.”
With better humidity and temperature control, she says, the museum could get more art on loan from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
In addition, Page & Turnbull suggested interior changes that would open up all four sides of the atrium, create more gallery space and relocate the reception desk.
The estimate for all this is $10.5 million. The first phase, the HVAC only, would cost $2.2 million and money is actively being sought via grants, foundations and donations.
The exterior of the Riverside Art Museum faces Mission Inn Avenue. Originally a YWCA, the building was designed by Julia Morgan, the state’s first licensed female architect, and is said to be among the best-preserved examples of the many YWCAs she created. (Photo by David Allen, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
“We know that’s going to be a multiyear process,” Oberjuerge says of the full slate, “but it’s good to have a vision for where you’re going.”
She adds, chuckling: “If any of your readers have deep pockets…”
If I know you readers, your pockets mostly have lint. But it never hurts to ask. Maybe some modern-day Hearst is out there.
More RAM
The Inland Empire Film Festival took place in San Bernardino in April, courtesy of the Garcia Center for the Arts. Now 18 of the short films are playing at RAM on video monitors mounted in three alcoves along a hallway.
“Each alcove has a loop of film that runs about an hour,” says Jorge Heredia, the Garcia’s executive director. That’s a total of three hours of film.
We were talking June 28, as the monitors were being installed. Screenings were due to start the next day and will continue through Aug. 11.
“This is like the Riverside edition of the film festival,” Heredia says. If it debuted in San Bernardino and then migrated to Riverside, it truly is an Inland Empire Film Festival.
More HVAC
The air conditioning at Riverside’s Cellar Door Books was out for two weeks, leading the store to close early on uncomfortably hot days. But on Wednesday, the store announced on social media that cool air was flowing again — while its sense of humor flowed on as usual.
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“You have to rejoin your gym for your sauna fix,” the post cautioned its customers, “as Cellar Door will no longer be offering that service.”
brIEfly
At the Rolling Stones concert Wednesday at SoFi Stadium, after singing “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” Mick Jagger offered a real-life example: “We first came 60 years ago to seek fame and fortune in Hollywood. What we got was our first gig in San Bernardino. But it was great.” That was a reference to the British band’s U.S. debut, a June 5, 1964 concert at Swing Auditorium. He remembers!
David Allen writes Sunday, Wednesday and Friday, remember? Email dallen@scng.com, phone 909-483-9339, like davidallencolumnist on Facebook and follow @davidallen909 on X.
