Just as Thomas Jefferson did nearly 200 years ago, restoration experts for the University of Virginia's Rotunda have turned to history to bring this iconic building into the 21st Century.
Besides launching a Revolution in government, Thomas Jefferson launched a revolution in education. When founding the University, he placed at center not a church, as then the custom, but a library. However, the book collection eventually outgrew the space, and a 1970s renovation let the school's governing body, the Board of Visitors, claim nearly half the central floor.
“A main objective of this project is to get students back into the building."
That's Jody Lahendro, the restoration architect, noting that the project will push the fund-raising office across the street and designate three Rotunda rooms as classrooms.
Still, the Board of Visitors, which infamously provoked turmoil nearly three years ago while trying to oust the president, maintains its grip on the East Oval Room. And the the Rotunda's reputation for high-profile events will only be bolstered by a new underground tunnel and service elevator to whisk meals upstairs.
"We put on about a 120 events in the dome room during the year, and they require catering," says Lahendro.
The first catered event here occurred in 1824, before the building was finished, when the Marquis de Lafayette, who helped a fledgling nation win its war of independence, dined with the father of the fledgling university.
Historians suggest that former president Jefferson delayed the start of classes until the General Assembly appropriated the full cost of the Rotunda: $55,000. Today, it takes nearly three times that to carve a single column's capital. And all 16 installed after the calamitous 1895 fire-- and now crumbling-- are coming down. Like Jefferson's originals, the new capitals have been imported from Carrara, Italy, with approval from President Teresa Sullivan.
"Maintaining and renovating this is an important link to our past; it's also part of our future. We want it here not just because our grandparents saw it here but because we want our grandchildren to see it here."
Completion of the $50 million project, funded jointly by the state and by private donors, is set for July 1, 2016.
