Gertrude Comfort Morrow (February 13, 1888 – October 10, 1983) was an American architect who frequently collaborated with her husband, Irving Morrow.
Early life and education
Morrow was born Gertrude E. Comfort in San Francisco, California, and attended Alameda High School in the East Bay. She went on to get her B.A. in architecture from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1913 and her master's degree a year later.[3] While still a student, she was "crowned" for her contribution to the design of a poster for the 1913 Partheneia performance, "The Awakening of Everymaid." She also won a competition to design a coat of arms for the Gamma Phi Beta sorority, and her design is still in use by the sorority today.[4]
Architectural career
After leaving the university, Gertrude worked in the office of Henry Gutterson.[5] After she was issued her Architectural License by the state of California in 1916, she opened her own office in 1917 in downtown San Francisco and worked under her maiden name for several years. When her former employer was called into war camp service, he asked Gertrude to handle his duties as the Supervising Architect of St. Francis Wood, which was an emerging residential district. She designed about ten homes in this district, which were traditional in style.[6] During World War I, for example, she was the supervising architect for the development of St. Francis Woods, a middle-class enclave in San Francisco where Ida McCain also built some houses.[7] Other projects of hers include the Women's Athletic Club in Oakland, California, and the music building at the Monrovian Seminary and College for Women in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.[8]
In 1920, she married architect Irving F. Morrow, after which she used Gertrude Comfort Morrow as her professional name. In 1922 the Morrows' daughter was born, and around this time the couple set up the firm Morrow & Morrow and collaborated on many architectural projects between 1925 and 1940, in both San Francisco and the East Bay. The most famous of the projects they worked on together between 1930 and 1937 was the design of the geometrically stylized Art Deco towers, walkways, railings, and lighting of the Golden Gate Bridge, as well as its famous International Orange paint scheme.[9] Although Irving Morrow is usually given sole credit for these features of the bridge design, the Morrows' daughter stated that her mother had had a hand in it. In addition, there is at least one letter from Irving Morrow discussing Morrow & Morrow's design ideas for the bridge in which the pronouns 'we', 'us', and 'our' are used throughout.[6] Another joint project was the modernist Alameda-Contra Costa County Building for the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition at Treasure Island. In the early 1930s, the Morrows designed an International Style house in the Forest Hill area for San Francisco State College professor Olive Cowell (stepmother of composer Henry Cowell) that is cited as the first truly modern house in San Francisco.[6] This house was an exception, however, as most of the houses Morrow & Morrow built were more conventional.
Gertrude closed Morrow & Morrow and retired from architecture when Irving died in 1952, turning her efforts in other directions. She became an award-winning ballroom dancer, and she also painted landscapes in watercolor. She died in Tucson, Arizona, at the age of 95.[8] Her papers are part of the Irving F. and Gertrude Comfort Morrow Collection at UC Berkeley, which includes photographs and drawings of her work, together with various other documents and records.
Partial list of buildings
70 Santa Monica, San Francisco
30 San Leandro Way, San Francisco
1651 Portola, San Francisco (torn down)
See also
List of California women architects
Irving Foster Morrow (September 22, 1884 – October 28, 1952) was an American architect best known for designing the Golden Gate Bridge.
Early life
He was born and raised in Oakland, California, the son of Susie (née Kirkman) and James Alexander Morrow, who was the president of a metal works in Oakland. Morrow was a lifelong resident of the Bay Area.[1]
Morrow graduated from the newly founded University of California, Berkeley architecture program in 1906. He then attended the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1908 until 1911. He moved back to Oakland and began practicing architecture in San Francisco and Oakland. He designed houses, banks, theatres, hotels, schools, and commercial buildings. He married Gertrude Comfort Morrow, a fellow architect and UC Berkeley graduate. He worked with Gertrude and architect William I. Garren, and with them designed the Alameda-Contra Costa County Building for the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition.[2] Morrow and his associates also designed the rectory and guest house of the Mission San Juan Bautista.
Design of the Golden Gate Bridge
Plaque of the major contributors to the Golden Gate Bridge
Morrow was hired in 1930 by Joseph Strauss to design the Golden Gate Bridge. Morrow collaborated with Strauss with the design, sketching his ideas in charcoal. Morrow romanticized the bridge long before he was hired to work on it, writing in 1919 that "The narrow strait is caressed by breezes from the blue bay throughout the long golden afternoon, but perhaps it is loveliest at the cool end of the day when, for a few breathless moments, faint afterglows transfigure the gray line of hills."[3]
It was also Morrow that decided the bridge should be painted international orange. At first, Morrow's suggestion was deemed by the bridge authorities as ludicrous, as it was thought no paint could withstand the salty weather. Morrow found such a paint, and the bridge authorities relented.
Morrow wrote the Report on Color and Lighting to Chief Engineer, Joseph B. Strauss, on April 6, 1935. In his report, he selected low pressure sodium vapor lamps with an amber glow and the most modern available in 1937. In 1972, the lights were replaced with high-pressure sodium vapor lamps.[4][5][6][7][8][9][10]
Other work
Morrow was a member of the American Institute of Architects and the American Society of Landscape Architects, an editor of Pacific Coast Architecture, and a contributor to the Architectural Record and various other periodicals. He served as chairman on the Section on Architecture of the Commonwealth Club of California, and director of the American Historical Building Survey.[11]
Interest in Music
Morrow was an avid supporter of new music.[12] He performed in concerts presented by Lou Harrison and John Cage.[13] With his wife, Gertrude Comfort Morrow, he designed the Cowell House, commissioned by Olive Cowell and lived in by her and her son, composer Henry Cowell. The Cowell's hosted many concerts at the house in the 1930s.[14] Morrow also designed a series of soundproof listening rooms for the Record Rental Library.[12]
partheneia
English
Etymology
From Ancient Greek παρθένειᾰ (parthéneia, “songs sung by a chorus of maidens”).
Pronunciation
IPA(key): /pɑː(ɹ)θəˈniːə/, /-ˈnaɪə/, /-ˈneɪə/
Noun
partheneia pl (normally plural, singular partheneion)
Greek lyric poems sung by choruses of maidens at festivals.
(The addition of quotations indicative of this usage is being sought:)
Anagrams
heparinate
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California),[14][15] is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant university and the founding campus of the University of California system. Its fourteen colleges and schools offer over 350 degree programs and enroll some 31,800 undergraduate and 13,200 graduate students.[8][16][17] Berkeley ranks among the world's top universities.[18]
A founding member of the Association of American Universities, Berkeley hosts many leading research institutes dedicated to science, engineering, and mathematics.[19] The university founded and maintains close relationships with three national laboratories at Berkeley, Livermore and Los Alamos,[20] and has played a prominent role in many scientific advances, from the Manhattan Project and the discovery of 16 chemical elements to breakthroughs in computer science and genomics.[21] Berkeley is also known for political activism and the Free Speech Movement of the 1960s.[22]
Berkeley's athletic teams, which compete as the California Golden Bears primarily in the Pac-12 Conference, have won 107 national championships, and its students and alumni have won 223 Olympic medals (including 121 gold medals).[23][24]
Among its alumni, faculty and researchers, Berkeley has more Nobel laureates (107),[25][26] Turing Award winners (25), Fields Medalists (14), and Wolf Prize winners (30) than any other public university in the nation; it is affiliated with 34 Pulitzer Prizes, 19 Academy Awards, and more MacArthur "Genius Grants" (108) and National Medals of Science (68) than any other public institution. The university has produced seven heads of state or government; six chief justices, including Chief Justice of the United States Earl Warren;[27] 22 cabinet-level officials; 11 governors; and 25 living billionaires.[28] It is also a leading producer of Fulbright Scholars, MacArthur Fellows, and Marshall Scholars.[29] Berkeley alumni, widely recognized for their entrepreneurship, have founded numerous notable companies, including Apple, Tesla, Intel, eBay, SoftBank, AIG, and Morgan Stanley.[30]