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Photo by Jennifer Byrne
University of Virginia
Location: Charlottesville, Virginia
Original Architect: Thomas Jefferson
Period: 1938 - 1958
National Historic Landmark District
Thomas Jefferson
Late in his life, Thomas Jefferson was given the opportunity to design the entire campus of the University of Virginia. In response to this challenge, Jefferson developed a unique scheme of ten two-story “Pavilions” connected by single storied colonnades that formed the facades of student rooms. These pavilions and student rooms formed an open ended rectangle whose focus was a library modeled after the Pantheon in Rome. Jefferson called his creation an “Academical Village”, because the professors lived and taught in the pavilions, which were interconnected to the student rooms.
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