The Rotunda at the University
Exploring the University of Virginia's Iconic Center
Architectural Inspiration Construction Restoration v. Preservation Geometry History and Heritage Works Cited
The Rotunda was designed by Thomas Jefferson as the University of Virginia's library. It is a temple to knowledge, reason, and "the illimitable freedom of the human mind." The unique geometry, design, and history of the Rotunda embodies information; they themselves are now valuable elements in the University of Virginia Library's collection. Here, these cultural resources are examined with 21st century digital tools.
Architectural Inspiration
Nearly 300 years after Andrea Palladio designed Villa La Rotonda, Thomas Jefferson was inspired by Palladio’s architectural drawings, which he translated into a uniquely American architectural framework meant to symbolize virtue, beauty, and democracy to the people.
Jefferson owned several copies of Andrea Palladio’s I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura and considered it his "Bible" for beautiful and correct architecture, loaning copies to workmen as they worked on the University of Virginia’s Academical Village. He modeled his first design for his Monticello home after Palladio’s Villa Cornaro. He proposed a design for the President’s House in Washington, DC, based on Palladio’s Villa La Rotonda, the first nonreligious building with a domed roof. Jefferson subsequently included domes in his extensive renovation of Monticello, his Poplar Forest retreat, and most notably, in the University of Virginia’s Rotunda, inspired by Palladio’s drawings of the Pantheon in Rome and his own Villa La Rotonda in Vicenza.
Left: South Elevation of the Rotunda. Center: Plan for the Dome Room of the Rotunda. Right: Section of the Rotunda. 1819, Jefferson Papers.
Construction
Jefferson’s Rotunda was designed as the University of Virginia’s library. The building is a modified, half-scale interpretation of the Pantheon in Rome influenced by Palladian design. While historic precedent called for a church at the center of a college campus, Jefferson intentionally placed the library, a temple to knowledge representing “the authority of nature and the power of reason,” at the center of the Academical Village.
Though his original plan for the University was only a collection of Pavilions and student quarters with no centerpiece, Jefferson quickly adopted the concept of a domed central building at the suggestion of architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe. Jefferson acknowledges Palladian influence in his plans for the Academical Village in a letter to his friend Thomas Appleton, March 16, 1821. The Rotunda was still under construction when Jefferson died in 1826. Before his death, Jefferson dined with the Marquis de Lafayette in what would become the Dome Room, open to the stars.
Jefferson, Thomas. Letter to Benjamin Henry Latrobe, June 12, 1817. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson Digital Edition. University of Virginia Press, Rotunda, Charlottesville, VA.
Restoration V. Preservation
The Rotunda has been continually modified and changed throughout its history. The original plan included two south wings that contained gymnasia. In 1841, these were enclosed to create classroom space for the growing student body. In 1854, construction of the Rotunda Annex was completed. Robert Mills, architectural protege of Jefferson, designed this 100 foot protrusion from the north facade of the Rotunda to add 10,000 square feet of additional classroom, laboratory, and auditorium space. Jefferson’s grandson warned that such a large structure was not only at odds with the spirit of his grandfather’s masterpiece, but that its size posed a significant fire risk. That fear became a reality when an electrical fire began in the Annex, on October 27, 1895, quickly spreading to and completely destroying all but the brick walls of Rotunda.
Architect Stanford White of the prominent Beaux Arts firm McKim, Meade, and White was eventually hired to rebuild the Rotunda in 1896. White was intimidated by the project; he said to a friend “I've seen his plans...they're wonderful and I'm scared to death. I only hope I can do it right”. Drastic changes were made, that, according to White, would have been made by Jefferson himself had he possessed the technological ability; the library room was now a full two stories in height, open from entrance-level up to the new fireproof dome, built from clay tile designed by Rafael Guastavino. Rather than rebuild the Annex, Cabell, Cocke, and Rauss halls were added at the south end of the Lawn.
Rotunda South Elevation. McKim, Mead & White, Presentation Drawings, 1896.
In 1938, the University obtained a federal Public Works Administration grant to renovate the Rotunda. Stanislaw Makielski served as architect and Fiske Kimball as a consultant on Jefferson. Through this $136,373 project, the wings were converted into offices, and the south wing’s ground-level covered passage was created. Furthermore, the terrace’s cast-stone balustrades and the sandstone steps on the south of the Rotunda were replaced with marble.
In the 1950s, a growing movement sought to restore Jefferson’s original vision, and remove some of White’s changes. In 1965, the federal government named the Rotunda a National Historic Landmark. A committee began the planning process to completely restore the building. The committee hired Richmond architects Ballou and Justice to carry out the work. In 1972, the University finally obtained the funds for the project. The McKim, Mead and White interior was removed, the oculus replaced to honor the simplicity of the original, the original three story structure was restored to Jefferson’s original design which maintained more of its Palladian influence.
In 2016, the Rotunda again underwent massive renovations, preserving the recreated Jefferson interior, stabilizing the foundation with a new concrete basement containing a modern climate control system, installing a new copper roof, and importing new hand-carved Corinthian capitals from Carrara, Italy.
Geometry
History and Heritage
This project examines a selection of architectural works by Jefferson and Palladio using 3D laser scanning technology. Digital tools take on particular significance in the context of Jefferson, for the use of these tools underscores the value that Jefferson placed on enlightenment thought and data collection. Jefferson adapted Palladian architecture as a means through which to express enlightenment ideals of truth, reason, and learning, and as a symbol of democracy. Jefferson’s only published book, Notes on the State of Virginia, exemplifies the practice of data collection and the absolute importance in the study of one’s surroundings. The digital technologies implemented in our project are an extension of Jefferson’s original enlightenment goals and serve as a continuation of these ideals. Laser scanning functions as a contemporary approach to data collection, capturing billions of points of data with a precision unachievable and unimaginable in Jefferson’s time. By studying buildings with minute precision, we draw closer to Jefferson’s ideals and achieve a more complete understanding of the authority of nature and the power of reason.
The legacy of Palladio and Jefferson remains relevant for the creation of new knowledge and the study of the physical world.
Works Cited
Grizzard Jr., Frank Edgar. "Documentary History of the Construction of the Buildings at the University of Virginia, 1817-1828." PhD diss., University of Virginia, 1996.
Jefferson, Thomas. Letter to Benjamin Henry Latrobe, June 12, 1817. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson Digital Edition. University of Virginia Press, Rotunda, Charlottesville, VA.
Jefferson, Thomas. Letter to Thomas Appleton, March 16, 1821.
McKim, Mead & White. Presentation Drawings: Rotunda South Elevation and Rotunda Section. 1896. Photograph. https://explore.lib.virginia.edu/exhibits/show/rotunda/postfire/blueprints.
Plan for the Dome Room of the Rotunda, 1819, pricking, scoring, iron-gall ink, pencil on laid paper engraved with coordinate lines, 12 1/4 x 8 5/8. N-331. Jefferson Papers.
Section of the Rotunda, 1819, pricking, iron-gall ink on laid paper engraved with coordinate lines, 8 3/4 x 8 3/4. N-329. Jefferson Papers.
South Elevation of the Rotunda, 1819, pricking, scoring, iron-gall ink, pencil on laid paper engraved with coordinate lines, 8 3/4 x 8 3/4. N 328. Jefferson Papers.
Wilson, Richard Guy. "Arise And Build!": a Centennial Commemoration of the 1895 Rotunda Fire : the Keepsake of an Exhibit On View In the Tracy W. McGregor Room, Alderman Library, University of Virginia, October 6, 1995 to January 6, 1996: With an Essay by Richard Guy Wilson, Commonwealth Professor of Architectural History. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Library, Department of Special Collections, 1995.
Wilson, Richard Guy. Thomas Jefferson's Academical Village: The Creation of an Architectural Masterpiece. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 2009.