Welcome to the Cultural Landscape of Birdwood, a course website created by UVA School of Architecture students in the summers of 2016, 2017, and 2018. Birdwood was a plantation to the west of Charlottesville with a manor house built by William Garth in the late 1820s. Birdwood Manor is owned by the University of Virginia Foundation. The Birdwood Plantation acreage is now part of the Birdwood Golf Course.

 

Students in this intensive summer field course explore the historical landscapes of Birdwood at a range of scales, from the production landscape of the plantation worked by the enslaved to the manor house, formal gardens, and architectural details. On this website you can explore the in-depth student study of landscape features across this range of scales in the "Site and Interpretation" section. You may also explore the "Tools and Methods" used by students in their research and view the "Daily Reports" detailing their work.