The Residence (YWCA)

Julia Morgan
1929-30

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	Located in Chinatown on Nob Hill, this YWCA is around the corner from the Chinese YWCA (1930). It was designed originally as a residence for working-class women but serves today as an apartment building for low-income older people. The architectural style alludes loosely to Renaissance palazzi. The building has a strong sense of a base and top, quoins are used to demarcate the central bay, and the base (actually the piano nobile) is rusticated with the appearance of recessed joints.
The top from the front and side The tile roof recurs in Morgan's works as does the balustrade. Other decorative elements include the arched windows with decorative keystones and the cornice brackets.
The quasi-Mannerist piano nobile and one of its arched windows These tall windows indicate the public formal areas of the interior. Apartments are located on the upper floors.

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