Bear essentials: bear house, Wyntoon, Calif., 1932-33 Julia Morgan, aia

Residential Architect, July, 2003 by Meghan Drueding

The work Julia Morgan did at Wyntoon, William volumes about her attention to detail and craft. As with all of her projects, she made a point of hiring artisans and construction crews whose skills she knew and respected. At Bear House, one of three guest-houses she designed for Wyntoon, the half-timber detailing recalls the romantic architecture of the Austrian and German villages she'd visited in 1931 and '32. The exterior walls are partially covered with murals of scenes from the Grimm brothers' fairy tales. Inside, the home takes on even more of a storybook aspect, with fantastically carved wood ceilings and walls and curly wrought-iron hardware. Brightly colored, handcrafted tiles line each bathroom.

Although Wyntoon wasn't exempt from the spirit of excess present in Hearst and Morgan's most famous collaboration, San Simeon, it did make use of local stone and wood from the 50,000-acre site rather than exotic, imported materials. Morgan designed several other buildings for the compound, as well as a never-built castle meant to replace one by Bernard Maybeck that had burned down in 1930. Bear House and the rest of Wyntoon now belong to the Hearst Corporation.