Tile Heaven at Hearst Castle

About Hearst Castle & Its Tiles
Media gazillionaire William Randolph Hearst built himself a glamorous mansion and recreation complex above the tiny town of San Simeon on the California coast. From 1919 onwards, architect Julia Morgan worked closely with him for 20 years, building and rebuilding, to accommodate his enormous collection of art. The complex is executed in kind of a California Craftsman style, which gave the opportunity for lots of tile work. And oh, the tiles. So many tiles. Big, little, traditional, glamorous, mosaics, relief tiles, cuerda seca tiles. It is said that Ms. Morgan designed each tile exclusively for the complex.


Touring the castle
After Hearst passed away, the Hearst family donated the mansion and the art collection to the state, and it is open for tours. Though I had lived in California for many years, I had never gone on a tour. We happened to be close by while visiting friends last month, so we finally got to do the tourist thing and go on the tour. I must admit I wasn't impressed by the architecture of the castle itself. It has the feel of an old world castle, for sure. But as far as the architecture, it is apparent that the rooms were designed around Hearst's collection of monumentally scaled Renaissance artworks. Long lines of choir stalls, giant tapestries, and elaborately carved wooden ceiling coffers dominate the interiors completely. Our tour group did not go to the private areas of the main house. I imagine that the most interesting parts of the house are the parts that aren't built around the art, and genuinely reflect the design skills of Julia Morgan and the style of the time. That would probably be the kitchen and the bathrooms.... an excellent place for tile spotting in Craftsman-era buildings. So that's high on my list for the next tour.


The Neptune Pool
The crowning jewel of the Hearst complex is the Neptune pool. In my architectural opinion it is perfectly sited, perfectly proportioned, and perfectly articulated. Oh wow, is it jaw-droppingly gorgeous. The pool also represents an amazing feat of civil engineering. Ms. Morgan engineered a water system for the Hearst complex and the town of San Simeon. It is a gravity-fed, sand-filtered system whose source is a spring on a peak above the complex. The water system has a storage capacity of 1.5 million gallons. It is still in operation today, feeding the complex, the pools, the town of San Simeon, and the visitors center. Now that's quality engineering.