Archinect - News

A new documentary explores the process behind UVA's Memorial to Enslaved Laborers for the first time

2022-11-07T17:42:00-05:00

A new documentary from local filmmaker Erik Duda exploring the process and impact of the University of Virginia’s Memorial to Enslaved Laborers has been released, providing insights into the creation of one of the most important public monuments in America since the opening of Maya Lin's Vietnam Veterans Memorial in 1982.

Titled The Lives Between the Lines, Duda’s documentary was included as part of this year’s Virginia Film Festival and offers a look into the implementation, design, and eventual construction of the monument, which, unfortunately, had to open in a subdued ceremony last year owing to health concerns related to the pandemic.

Previously on Archinect: A decade in the making, UVA’s Memorial to Enslaved Laborers begins to take shape

The memorial was first commissioned in 2013 as part of the UVA President’s Commission on Slavery and the University, which eventually led to the formation of a Community Engagement Committee comprised of descendants of the enslaved communities ...

Assessing the built legacy of America's slave auction sites

2020-02-13T18:52:00-05:00

The latest installment of The New York Times' 1619 Project takes a look at the largely erased built legacy of slavery in America. The article visits a collection of sites that had to be uncovered more or less through original research, as little documentation and few historical markers exist with regards to these places.

Writer Anne C. Bailey and photographer Dannielle Bowman take a look at what remains of this sordid legacy. In the article, Bailey writes, "After the Civil War, most former auction sites quietly blended into the main streets of today. Except for the occasional marker or museum, there was no record of the horror of separation suffered by many black families."

Enslaved people owned by Thomas Jefferson were sold on the steps of Monticello to help pay off the ex-president's debts following his death in 1826. Image courtesy of Wikimedia user David Broad.

Bailey adds, "The sales took place all over the growing nation — in taverns, town squares and train stations, on riverb...

University of Virginia's Rotunda transformed into a planetarium, sharing Thomas Jefferson's original vision for the building

2019-11-08T18:22:00-05:00

Neal Curtis, Samuel Lemley and Madeline Zehnder conducted some keen literary sleuthing to discover Thomas Jefferson’s original intentions for the Dome Room, and then harnessed modern digital technology to bring the planetarium to life in a way that the University’s founder could not have imagined. “The concave ceiling of the Rotunda,” Jefferson wrote in 1819, “is proposed to be painted sky-blue and spangled with gilt stars in their position and magnitude copied exactly.”

While planning the early stages of the University of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson envisioned a fantastical planetarium for the school's historic Rotunda. In 2019, that vision has been achieved as the Rotunda Planetarium, thanks to three Ph.D students from the school's English department, and a grant from the Jefferson Trust.

In addition to the temporary digital-projection installation, there is a related exhibition — which features books, specimens, and artifacts from the Rotunda’s early history — that is on view through February 18.

Slavery and liberty: A new exhibit explores the Thomas Jefferson paradox

2019-10-23T13:07:00-04:00

The Chrysler Museum of Art on the University of Virginia campus will put on an exhibit entitled "Thomas Jefferson, Architect: Palladian Models, Democratic Principles, and the Conflict of Ideals."

It looks at the Jefferson's influences and ideas around architecture, including displays of models based on his designs, reports Associated Press (AP). On the one hand, Jefferson was a man who sought to create architecture that symbolized "liberty and democracy," but on the other, he used enslaved Americans to construct the very same structures designed to embody these ideals.

"They helped build everything from Virginia's Statehouse—a precursor to the Capital Building in Washington—to the University of Virginia and Jefferson's home of Monticello," writes AP, speaking of Jefferson's use of slave labor.

The exhibit opens this Saturday. It "juxtaposes Jefferson's visions with the realities of slavery." The exhibition catalogue, Thomas Jefferson, Architect, includes contributions from Guido ...

AIA distinguishes 2015 Thomas Jefferson Award + Collaborative Achievement honorees

2015-02-24T16:54:00-05:00

The AIA recently announced the 2015 recipients of their annual Thomas Jefferson Award and the Institute Honors for Collaborative Achievement winners. The honorable achievement awards distinguish significant contributions and lasting influence in the architecture profession as well as the community.

Out of three categories in the Thomas Jefferson Award, the jury selected winners only for Category Two and Category Three this year. University campus architect Thomas E. Lollini, FAIA won in Category Two, which recognizes public-sector architects that manage or produce top-quality design. More info here.

The Category Three award highlights a public official or other individuals for raising the public's awareness and/or support of design excellence. Thomas Luebke, FAIA, who serves as the Secretary of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, was selected. The AIA awarded Luebke for his enduring advocacy of historic preservation and adaptive reuse and his long-term architectural contributions throug...

Toyo Ito to receive 2014 Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Architecture

2014-03-17T15:03:00-04:00

Renowned Japanese architect Toyo Ito was recently named the recipient of the 2014 Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Architecture. Hosted by the University of Virginia (UVA) School of Architecture, the annual award recognizes achievements in fields that Thomas Jefferson -- the 3rd U.S. president, author of the Declaration of Independence, and founder of UVA -- excelled in and highly regarded.

Ito will formally receive the medal on Friday, April 11, instead of the traditional date of Jefferson's birthday on April 13. He will also be speaking in a translated public talk at 3:30 p.m. in the UVA Old Cabell Hall Auditorium.

Here's more info about Toyo Ito:

"After studying architecture at the University of Tokyo, Ito worked in the office of prominent Japanese architect Kiyonori Kikutake until founding his own Tokyo-based office, Urban Robot, in 1971, later renamed Toyo Ito & Associates. Ito’s practice has completed a wide range of projects, from small-scale housing to seminal public works,...

American Icons: Monticello

2012-02-17T14:46:00-05:00

Monticello is home renovation run amok. Thomas Jefferson was as passionate about building his house as he was about founding the United States; he designed Monticello to the fraction of an inch and never stopped changing it. Yet Monticello was also a plantation worked by slaves, some of them Jefferson’s own children. Today his white and black descendants still battle over who can be buried at Monticello. It was trashed by college students, saved by a Jewish family, and celebrated by FDR.