![]() ![]() The McDonalds’ initial designs of a restored Rotunda eliminated the upper floor, extending the Dome Room up from the main floor and eliminating the oval rooms on the main floor. Despite efforts to halt the flames’ advance by dynamiting the portico connecting the annex to the Rotunda, the fire spread and students and faculty rushed to salvage books and artworks.įollowing the fire, a succession of architects were brought in, the first being McDonald Brothers architects of Louisville, Kentucky. The blaze apparently started in the annex’s upper northwest corner. Faulty wiring was blamed for a fire on Octothat destroyed the annex and the Rotunda. In 1886, repairs were authorized for the annex, but the leaking oculus was deemed not urgent.Įlectric lights were installed in University buildings in 1888 and extensive repairs were made around the expanding Grounds in 1890 – but not to the Rotunda. The roof issues continued after the war, and the annex was also in need of repair, but only minor work was performed in the postwar years. The Civil War and its financial drag on the University slowed the project, and leaks in the roof and around the oculus persisted. In 1859, the roof needed repair again, and a cupola added in 1840 was removed. Unfortunately, the tanks leaked, damaging interior and exterior walls, loosening plaster, defacing ceilings, and damaging library books. Water from nearby streams was pumped into the tanks and gravity-fed to the Academical Village. In 1854, in an effort to solve the University’s need for water for firefighting and for use by residents of the Grounds, civil engineer Charles Ellet devised a scheme to put two 7,000-gallon tanks in cavities of the bricks that supported the dome. ![]() This annex housed classroom and laboratory space, as well as an auditorium. The next big change occurred from 1851 to 1854, when a four-story wing with a basement that extended perpendicularly from the north side of the Rotunda was added. In 1841, in response to the increased enrollment at the University, the two south wings were enclosed to create classroom space. In Jefferson’s original design, there were two south wings of the Rotunda that contained covered exercise yards referred to as gymnasia. A leaking dome proved problematic from the start. Jefferson presented his plans for the Rotunda to the Board of Visitors in 1821, and it was still under construction, plagued by delays and problems, when Jefferson died in 1826.Ĭonstruction took several more years, and the steps leading to the south portico were not built until 1832. Modeled after the Pantheon in Rome, it was designed to house the library and be flanked on either side by faculty pavilions, interspersed with student rooms. The University of Virginia’s Rotunda has seemingly been a work-in-progress from the beginning.ĭesigned by the University’s founder, Thomas Jefferson, the Rotunda is the centerpiece of the Academical Village.
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