Thomas Jefferson's Architectural Design
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At the end of his long career as President, diplomat, politician, political writer, inventor and architect Thomas Jefferson created a work that was the crowning achievement of his career. As an intellectual concept realized in his own architectural design, the University of Virginia is one of the greatest achievements in American architecture. Deriving his ideas for the buildings from classical architecture, Jefferson employed the ancient forms in a new manner that was suited to the times, the location, and the purposes for which he designed them. His conceptions did not, in the long run, turn out to be the influential force in architecture that might be expected -- his influence lay more in the area of principles than of style. But the University has preserved his original campus and it stands as a monument to his ideas and his talents. The central building in his complex was the library building which had a design derived from the Roman Pantheon, or Rotunda, built in the time of the Emperor Hadrian. By adjusting the proportions of his model to suit his own purposes Jefferson made an important contribution to the history of the Roman building's extensive influence and transformed its meanings for a new American setting. This important American building serves as the "symbolic and functional heart" of a university that was intended as a model of what America should and could accomplish. In looking back to the past Jefferson sought to bring what was best from that t
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r space of the "Lawn," as the entire complex was known. The other end of the rectangle was to remain open for both practical and symbolic reasons -- it was capable of being extended indefinitely as the school grew and it opened out onto the vista of the new country and its great future.
The entire conception of the architectural plan for the campus was grounded in Jefferson's idea of what a university should be. His radical conception was of "an academic village instead of a large and common den of noise, filth and fetid air [which would] afford the quiet retirement so friendly to study and lessen the dangers of fire, infection and tumult." Within this establishment the curriculum would be interdisciplinary from the start (other universities had only gradually added disciplines over time), it would be owned and operated by the state without any religious affiliation (most universities had begun as theological institutes), and would stand at "the apex of an entire system of free schools at three levels -- elementary, general, and professional."
In his designs for the pavilions Jefferson's models were less direct than his use of the Maison CarrTe in the State Capitol building. Greenbaum has noted the great extent to which
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Approximate Word count = 2188
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)
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