Category — Pavilions

The Making of Rotunda
 

by Judith Shatin

One day, in late spring 2005, I was sitting in my office, upstairs in Old Cabell Hall, looking at the flow of life on the Lawn. I had often been delighted by the feeling of life on the Lawn, and by the beautiful weather patterns above it. But this time, I suddenly saw the scene as part a movie that combined the majesty of the place with the hum of daily life. I imagined capturing images over the course of a year, and creating music from sounds harvested in and around the Rotunda, as well as from people talking about what the Rotunda meant to them. And I also imagined the film as a way of sharing this world-heritage site with people who would not have the opportunity to experience it in person.

I contacted noted filmmaker Robert Arnold, whom I had met when we were both fellows at the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center. I thought he would be the ideal collaborator because his films deal with time in such fascinating ways. He was intrigued by the idea, and we discussed capturing images from a fixed point over the course of a year. I then started investigating funding and equipment sources. Happily, the Office of Development offered to sponsor the project. Meanwhile, I identified a company, Erdman Video Systems, that makes a camera/computer system typically used for surveillance at construction sites. I loved the idea of subverting this equipment for artistic purposes!

After receiving permission to install the camera from U.Va.’s Architecutral Review Board, I arranged for the purchase of the system that would take still pictures at user-determined times, and upload the resulting images both to a computer in my office and to Arnold’s computer in Boston, where he was then Associate Professor of Film at Boston University. Tom Rappold of Building and Grounds, oversaw the installation of the system, and James A. Jokl of ITC arranged for the computer connection from the camera to the computer. Next, David Topper, Technical Director of the Virginia Center for Computer Music, helped me get the program up and running. Rusty Erdman and Chris Weaver, both of Erdman Systems, were also wonderfully helpful as we moved ahead.

The camera went up in February, 2006, approximately eight months after I first broached the idea to Robert Arnold and it stayed up for a full year. During that time I collected sounds, both in and around the Rotunda, and conducted unscripted interviews about the Rotunda. Leslie M. Comstock, the Rotunda Administrator, was very helpful, allowing me to record the resonance of the Dome Room. Dave Topper and then composition graduate student Peter Swendsen assisted with that project. Over the course of the next year I recorded multiple unscripted interviews, and found this part of the process especially inspiring. Participants ranged from students to architectural historians, Jefferson experts, a U.Va. alumnus from Charlottesville, a variety of U.Va. Professors and U.Va. President John T. Casteen III.

I created the soundworld of the music from the recordings I made. I found some of the interviews so inspiring that I included excerpts, while turning others into music by means of computer processing. I also used a number of the sounds I collected outside, including rain and lawn mowers! The techniques I had learned since founding the Virginia Center of Computer Music in 1988-89 proved invaluable for the purpose. The results range from rich low tones of the opening, to the sounds of the lawn mowers racing up the Lawn, to strong rhythmic sections.

Arnold set the camera to include views at two distances: a relative close-up, and a longer shot, encompassing the Lawn and the Rotunda. We decided to build the film around the idea of one day on the Lawn unfolding over the course of a year. The day moves from dawn to dusk as the year moves from start to finish. We spent many happy, intense hours choosing from the sequences made from 300,000+ images, which Arnold then shaped into a seamless flow. The process of creating the piece was a complex one, and and the result has gone far beyond what I imagined that day in my office.

The Detectives
Richard Guy Wilson

	John Neilson, American, d. 1827 Drawing of Pavilion I, October 1820 - March 1821 India ink, watercolor, pencil on hand-ruled paper, N-344
	Above Window detail from Pavilion II

Interview by Karol Lawson

When did you begin researching Jefferson’s plans for the University? What are the sources you study in your research?

I came to the University in 1976, and while I was vaguely interested in Jefferson and his architecture at that time I was more focused on later things. However, you stay around long enough and “they get you” and I found myself increasingly drawn to Jefferson’s creation. It is quite simply one of, if not the greatest, American design ever done. Certainly for its time it is the top, but also it has survived while at the same time changing. I was first interested in the survival story, how it changed—the work of McKim, Mead and White
for instance—but then you get pulled back to the origins. We are very lucky to have such a landmark right here in our front yard and also most of the documents and papers are here. The story of their survival is a tale in itself.

What is the most surprising fact you’ve uncovered about Jefferson’s construction of the University?

I think the most interesting and surprising element about Jefferson’s design is that yes, he asked for some help but, ultimately it was his own design and it shows his full maturity as an architect. He follows the rules of classical design and then he breaks them.

What is the most exciting document that you’ve come across in your study of the Academical Village?

There has been lots of excitement over different things, but I think the most important was the realization that the original plans were done back in 1814 and then how he changed and modified them as circumstances changed…money…site…different purpose (upgraded from an academy to a college to a university)…and then also the relationship of the different pavilions and his sources. It is a complex of buildings loaded with meanings, some explicit, others hidden.

	Colonnade view

What part of the University, what detail or view, do you think best embodies Jefferson’s vision of his Academical Village? What spot at the University should every visitor see
in person?

Well on one level you have to see all of it… and experience each part, but two of my most favorite views are walking up a colonnade with the sun coming through the columns, casting shadows and looking out across the Lawn with the trees to the other side, and the second is just walking onto the lawn from underneath or the side of the Rotunda and seeing it all spread out. I could go on.

The Detectives
Brian Cofrancesco

	Detail of John Neilson, American, d. 1827 Drawing of Pavilion VIII, October 1820 - March 1821 India ink, watercolor, pencil on hand-ruled paper, N-337, K Pl. 1, L-08-04
	Above Detail of Pavilion
	Column on Pavilion IV

Interview by Karol Lawson

In your work for Professor Wilson have you done research with Jefferson’s own plans and original documents?

I was very lucky this past fall in that I was able to take Professor Wilson’s Thomas Jefferson: Architect course while also doing work on the Academical Village exhibition, and during this course had the rare opportunity of viewing and handling Jefferson’s original drawings of the University in the Special Collections Library. As someone who has the utmost admiration for Jefferson as an architect and for his incomparable masterpiece that is the Academical Village, the experience of seeing the original relics of Jefferson’s hand was surreal and something that greatly moved me as a historian.

What is the most surprising fact you’ve learned about Jefferson’s Academical Village?

The most surprising fact I have learned about the Academical Village is that the columns are not made of concrete or stone, but of brick. Using local materials, Jefferson had the columns crafted of rounded bricks (made from clay retrieved from the area near present-day Memorial Gym) and faced with a sand and water mixture.

What is it like to be an assistant for Professor Wilson?

Working as an assistant for Professor Wilson has been an incredible experience. The opportunity to do research for the “guru” of the Academical Village himself and help prepare for this exhibition which showcases his years of research is inspiring and is a great honor. I learn more and more every day about the wealth of knowledge Professor Wilson has and how much he has accomplished as a world-renowned historian. He is very personable with all of his students and has been especially encouraging to me as a growing architectural historian. This has motivated me a great deal in my time as an assistant.

	Historic photograph of the lawn, c. 1890

How do you support his research? What are your tasks?

As Professor Wilson’s assistant for the exhibition, I do a great deal of work in the Special Collections Library locating documents, photographs, and other sources which aid in his research. I also do research outside of Special Collections for images and items to be used in his book and in the exhibition. Other tasks include cross referencing and compiling his research and preparing lists of exhibition items.

As a student you are at the University every day and as an architectural history student you know it better than most. What view of the University always catches your attention no matter how many times you see it?

My favorite view of the University is from the South—from the Cabell Hall end of the Lawn—Jefferson’s original entrance to the Academical Village. The view is absolutely spectacular, and the vantage point provides the visitor with a panorama of all ten Pavilions leading up to the crowning Rotunda, rising majestically over the central Lawn which harbors lively interaction day and night.

	Outdoor “covered” walkway; a double row of trees parallel each row of Pavilions

Even more stunning however is the experience of walking up the Lawn towards the Rotunda. I encourage all students and visitors to the University to take a walk up the Lawn, strolling not down the center or through the colonnades, but through the double row of trees which parallel each row of Pavilions. This outdoor “covered” walkway truly gives a new perspective of the Lawn and brings you closer to the excitement across the Lawn while allowing you to enjoy a peaceful stroll.

The Legacy
Architectural Influences of Thomas Jefferson’s
Academical Village

Recognized from its conception as a revolutionary plan for an institution of higher learning, the University has been emulated by countless architects both for educational institutions as well as for other architectural projects.

Share your examples of these influences here.

		Tsinghua University Beijing, China
		Trinkle Hall, University of Mary Washington, Fredricksburg VA