University of Virginia - The Grounds (Campus)

The Grounds (Campus)

Throughout its history, the University of Virginia has won praise for its unique Jeffersonian architecture. In January 1895, less than a year before the Great Rotunda Fire, The New York Times said that the design of the University of Virginia "was incomparably the most ambitious and monumental architectural project that had or has yet been conceived in this century". In the United States Bicentennial issue of their AIA Journal, the American Institute of Architects called it "the proudest achievement of American architecture in the past 200 years". Today, the University of Virginia remains an architectural landmark and popular tourist destination.

Jefferson's original architectural design revolves around the "Academical Village", and that name remains in use today to describe both the specific area of The Lawn, a grand, terraced green space surrounded by residential and academic buildings, the gardens, The Range, and the larger University surrounding it. The principal building of the design, The Rotunda (RotundaCam), stands at the north end of the Lawn, and is the most recognizable symbol of the University. It is half the height and width of the Pantheon in Rome, which was the primary inspiration for the building. The Lawn and the Rotunda were the model for many similar designs of "centralized green areas" at universities across the country.

Most notably designed by inspiration of the Rotunda and Lawn are the expansive green spaces headed by Rotunda-like buildings built at Duke University in 1892, Johns Hopkins University in 1902, Rice University in 1910, Dallas Hall, the central building at Southern Methodist University (1912), Peabody College of Vanderbilt University in 1915, the Green at the University of Delaware in 1916, Killian Court at MIT in 1916 (which was coincidentally founded by William Barton Rogers, who immediately prior to founding MIT was a Natural Philosophy professor at the University of Virginia for 19 years), the "Grand Auditorium" of Tsinghua University in Beijing built in 1917, the campus of Yale Divinity School (the Sterling Quad, 1932), and, indeed, the new grounds of the University's own Darden School of Business (designed by Robert A.M. Stern).

Flanking both sides of the Rotunda and extending down the length of the Lawn are ten Pavilions interspersed with student rooms. Each has its own classical architectural style, as well as its own walled garden separated by Jeffersonian Serpentine walls. These walls are called "serpentine" because they run a sinusoidal course, one that lends strength to the wall and allows for the wall to be only one brick thick, one of many innovations by which Jefferson attempted to combine aesthetics with utility. Frank E. Grizzard, Jr., a former scholar at the University, has written the definitive book on the original academic buildings at the University.

Jefferson financed the building of the University through personal loans from James Monroe and General John Hartwell Cocke, II. Monroe, Cocke, and Jefferson each put up 1/3 of the money to procure the land and build the initial buildings. Gen. Cocke was a General in the War of 1812, a local plantation owner, and friend of Thomas Jefferson. He owned Bremo Plantation, located southwest of Charlottesville near where Bremo Bluff, VA is today. These loans were never repaid by Jefferson.

On October 27, 1895, the Rotunda burned to a shell because of an electrical fire that started in the Rotunda Annex, a long multi-story structure built in 1853 to house additional classrooms. The electrical fire was no doubt assisted by the unfortunate help of overzealous faculty member William "Reddy" Echols, who attempted to save it by throwing roughly 100 pounds (45 kg) of dynamite into the main fire in the hopes that the blast would separate the burning Annex from Mr. Jefferson's own Rotunda. His last-ditch effort ultimately failed. (Perhaps ironically, one of the University's main honors student programs is named for him.) University officials swiftly approached celebrity architect Stanford White to rebuild the Rotunda. White took the charge further, disregarding Mr. Jefferson's design and redesigning the Rotunda interior – making it two floors instead of three, adding three buildings to the foot of the Lawn, and designing a President's House. He did omit rebuilding the Rotunda Annex, the remnants of which were used as fill and to create part of the modern-day Rotunda's northern-facing plaza. The classes formerly occupying the Annex were now moved to the South Lawn in White's new buildings.

Although undoubtedly useful to the University in providing additional classroom space, and not unattractive, if pedestrian in comparison to the Jeffersonian Pavilions, the White buildings have the effect of closing off the sweeping perspective, as originally conceived by Jefferson, down the Lawn across open countryside toward the distant mountains. The White buildings at the foot of the Lawn effectively create a huge "quadrangle", albeit one far grander than any traditional college quadrangle at the University of Cambridge or University of Oxford.

In concert with the United States Bicentennial in 1976, Stanford White's changes to the Rotunda were removed and the building was returned to Jefferson's original design. Renovated according to original sketches and historical photographs, a three-story Rotunda opened on Jefferson's birthday, April 13, 1976.

Though student enrollment has grown well beyond the original Lawn facilities, the University further distinguishes itself by extending the original Academical Village ideal with two exclusively First-Year (freshman) living areas: The Old Dorms (Bonnycastle, Dabney, Echols, Emmet, Hancock, Humphreys, Kent, Lefevre, Metcalf, Page), located on McCormick Road, and The New Dorms (Cauthen, Courtenay, Dunglison, Dunnington, Fitzhugh, Kellogg, Balz-Doby, Watson-Webb, Woody), adjacent to Scott Stadium, both situated wholly on Grounds and considered integral to establishing peer discourse. The common bonding experience proves such a fixture to the University experience, students often identify themselves by individual "Old" or "New" dormitory. First-Year living areas also include Hereford College, International Residential College, and Brown College at Monroe Hill.

In 2001, John Kluge donated 7,378 acres (29.86 km2) of additional lands to the University. Kluge desired the core of the land to be developed by the University, and the surrounding land to be sold to fund an endowment supporting the core. A large part of the gift was soon sold to musician Dave Matthews, of the Dave Matthews Band, to be utilized in an organic farming project. It is unknown what the University will do with its "core" portion of the land.

The Virginia Department of Transportation maintains the roads through the University grounds as State Route 302.

The University, together with Jefferson's home at Monticello, is a World Heritage Site, one of only three modern sites so listed in the 50 states, the others being the Statue of Liberty and Independence Hall. It was the first collegiate campus worldwide to be awarded the designation.