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January 27, 2006 -- Conceptual sketches for phase one
of the South Lawn project were presented to the Board of
Visitors Buildings and Grounds Committee meeting on Jan.
20. The most ambitious construction undertaking on U.Va.’s
Central Grounds in nearly a century, the South Lawn Project
will yield new buildings that will strengthen the school’s
academic core and reinforce the atmosphere of community
that characterizes the U.Va. undergraduate experience.
It will feature new classrooms with state-of-the-art technology,
gathering areas, flexible workspaces and faculty offices
organized to foster collaboration.
Phase one of the South Lawn project involves new classroom
buildings to be built just south of Jefferson Park Avenue
with a wide terrace spanning the road and connecting the
new construction to the New Cabell Hall vicinity. Architect
for the University David Neuman presented to the board
committee the phase one conceptual plans, drawn by Moore
Ruble Yudell Architects & Planners of Santa Monica,
Calif.
Two features of previous South Lawn concept drawings — a
terrace in line with the long axis of the Lawn, and restoring
the view south from the Lawn — were the starting
points for the current conceptual drawings.
Neuman noted that the South Lawn area is an incredibly
difficult site, because it is divided by a major road,
contains rock outcroppings and a buried stream, and slopes
steeply with an 80-foot change in elevation.
During his presentation, Neuman passed out his newly written “University
of Virginia Design Guide,” which makes use of numerous
pictures and sketches of buildings and sites around Grounds
to illustrate various design themes found in the University’s
architecture. The guide was created “to inform and
inspire architects and others interested on how to best
contribute to the continuing architectural legacy of this
University” (from the foreword).
Neuman plans to “work and rework” the South
Lawn concept drawings to refine the subtle nuances. This
is a process that Jefferson employed in his own designing,
Neuman said, as is evidenced in the founder’s correspondence
with U.S. Capitol architects William Thornton and Benjamin
Henry Latrobe. Neuman contrasted the ‘working and
reworking’ design approach with a more linear design
process.
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