Rotunda, University of Virginia | |
 The Rotunda | |
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| Location | Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S. |
|---|---|
| Built | 1822–1826 |
| Architect | Thomas Jefferson;Stanford White |
| Architectural style | Early Republic,Neoclassical |
| Part of | University of Virginia Historic District (ID70000865) |
| NRHP reference No. | 66000937[1] |
| VLR No. | 002-5055 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | October 15, 1966 |
| Designated NHL | December 21, 1965[3] |
| Designated NHLDCP | November 11, 1971 |
| Designated VLR | September 9, 1969[2] |
The Rotunda is a building located onThe Lawn on the original grounds of theUniversity of Virginia.Thomas Jefferson designed it to represent the "authority of nature and power of reason" and modeled it after thePantheon inRome. Construction began in 1822 and was completed shortly after Jefferson's death in 1826. The campus of the new university was unique in that its buildings surrounded alibrary (the principal function of the Rotunda) rather than achurch, as was common at other universities in the English-speaking world. To many, the Rotunda symbolizes Jefferson's belief in the separation of church and education, and represents his lifelong dedication to education and architecture. The Rotunda was designated aNational Historic Landmark in 1966, and is part of theUniversity of Virginia Historic District, designated in 1971.
The collegiate structure, the immediate area around it, and Jefferson's nearby home atMonticello combine to form one of only six modern man-made sites in the United States to be internationally protected and preserved as aWorld Heritage Site byUNESCO (the other five are theOld City of San Juan, theSan Antonio Missions,Independence Hall, theStatue of Liberty, andthe architectural works of Frank Lloyd Wright).
The original construction cost of the Rotunda was $57,773 ($992,792 in 2006 dollars). The building stands 77 feet (23.5 m) in both height and diameter.
Jefferson's design was influenced by the architectural drawings ofAndrea Palladio and is an example ofPalladian architecture. The direct source for Jefferson's inspiration is believed to be a drawing of thePantheon in the 1721 Leoni translation of Palladio, which Jefferson owned and referred to during the building process.[4] While Jefferson used the detailed measurements of the Pantheon to guide the proportions of his Rotunda, the dimensions of his building are much smaller: the interior diameter of the Pantheon's dome is 143 feet, whereas the exterior diameter of Jefferson's dome is 77 feet, "being half that of the Pantheon and consequently one fourth in area, and one eighth in volume."[5]
B. Henry Latrobe first proposed the domed central building at the head of the Lawn in a letter to Jefferson dated July 17, 1817, and Latrobe's influence on the design of the Rotunda is substantial. Jefferson's Pavilion III also is based on a design drawing from Latrobe.[6]
Jefferson also deferred to Palladio's model for significant details of the building. In a letter toThomas Appleton, then the United States consul inLiguria, Jefferson requested pricing for "ten Corinthian capitals for columns of 32 I. diminished diam. and 8 do. half capitals of the same diam. for pilasters of 30 minutes projection from the wall, to be copied from those of the Rotunda, or Pantheon, of Rome, as represented in Palladio."[7]
During theMarquis de Lafayette'sgrand tour of the United States in 1824 and 1825, the Marquis and former PresidentJames Madison dined with Thomas Jefferson in the Dome Room of the unfinished Rotunda at the university's inaugural banquet, and Lafayette toasted Jefferson as the "Father of the University of Virginia". This moved Jefferson, and he later had the phrase inscribed on his grave. A bust of Lafayette was given to the university in 1904 by the Government ofFrance to honor the friendship between the two men. Today it stands in the North Oval Room.
The building wasconstructed with slave labor.[8]
The university was the first to offer students specialization in the field ofAstronomy, so Jefferson toyed with the idea of painting the interior of the Dome Room with images of the night sky to aid the students in their learning. He went so far as to begin designing a new mechanism with which students would be able to "float" through the air and study heavenly bodies from closer different viewpoints. They would also be equipped with a control to move the stars around theDome. The idea was eventually abandoned but would have been the firstplanetarium in the United States. TheTransit of Venus of 1882 was observed from the steps of the Rotunda, in a coordinated effort withMcCormick Observatory.
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A structure called the Annex, also known as "New Hall," was added to the north side of the Rotunda in 1853 to provide additional classroom space needed due to overcrowding.[9] (A rare photograph of the Annex may be viewed at the University of Virginia's online visual history collection.)[10]
In 1895, the Rotunda was gutted by a fire that started in the Annex.[11] University students saved what was, for them, the most important item within the Rotunda—a life-size likeness ofThomas Jefferson carved from marble that was given to the university byAlexander Galt in 1861. The students also rescued a portion of the books of the university library from the Dome Room, as well as various scientific instruments from the classrooms in the Annex.
Shortly after the fire, the university faculty recommended a program of rebuilding that called for the reconstruction of the Rotunda and the replacement of the lost classroom space of the Annex with a set of buildings at the south end of the Lawn.[12] In the new design, the wooden dome was replaced with a fireprooftile dome by theGuastavino Company of New York in 1898–1899. The Rotunda was rebuilt with a modified design byStanford White, a nationally known architect and partner in theNew York City firmMcKim, Mead, and White. Whereas Jefferson's Rotunda had three floors, White's had only two, but a larger Dome Room. The Annex was not rebuilt.
In 1976 duringAmerica's Bicentennial, White's Rotunda interior was gutted and rebuilt, at a cost of $2.4 million, to Jefferson's original design. In the Bicentennial issue of theAIA Journal, theAmerican Institute of Architects called Jefferson's Rotunda, Lawn, and nearby home atMonticello "the proudest achievement of American architecture in the past 200 years".[13]
There is a plaque, on the south side of the Rotunda, listing the names of students and graduates of the university who were killed during theCivil War. Other plaques on the south side list those killed during World War I while plaques on the north side list those killed inWorld War II and theKorean War.
Today, doctoral students defend their dissertations in the North Oval Room, and many events (including monthly dinners for residents of the Lawn) are held inside the Dome Room. Other events are held on the steps of the Rotunda, which is also the traditional starting point for studentsstreaking the Lawn.
In 2012, the university began an extensive construction project to repair and renovate the aging Rotunda.[14] The first phase of the project replaced the Rotunda's copper roof. Although the engineers were several months ahead of schedule, the roof remained as unpainted copper for the graduating class of 2013.[15] During the renovation, a nineteenth-century chemistry laboratory was found within the walls on the bottom floor featuring a chemical hearth and a sophisticated ventilation system through a series of brick tunnels.[16] The Rotunda reopened in September 2016.[17]
Buildings inspired by the Rotunda and Lawn include the expansive green spaces headed by Rotunda-like buildings built atDuke University in 1892,Johns Hopkins University in 1902, theUniversity of Illinois in 1907,Rice University in 1910, Peabody College ofVanderbilt University in 1915, the Green at theUniversity of Delaware in 1916, Killian Court atMIT in 1916 and the "Grand Auditorium" ofTsinghua University inBeijing built in 1917. Additionally,Dallas Hall atSouthern Methodist University (SMU),Hendricks Chapel atSyracuse University,Florida State University College of Law, andGrawemeyer Hall at theUniversity of Louisville were modeled after Jefferson's Rotunda. The Sterling Divinity Quadrangle atYale Divinity School (1932) was closely based on the Academical Village at the University of Virginia, but with theMarquand Chapel taking the place of the Rotunda.
Theoriginal campus at theUniversity of Alabama was modeled after Jefferson's Rotunda and Lawn. The Rotunda there, completed in 1833, also contained the university's library. However, it and most of the other public campus buildings were burned as part ofWilson's Raid during theAmerican Civil War.[18][19][8]
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)The story of slavery is basically everywhere at the old university," says Kirt Von Daacke, an assistant dean and a professor of history. "About a million bricks went into building the Rotunda. And every one of them was touched by an enslaved person.
editions:0BLxWloAaoujinN78oyz9F1.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
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