Pavilion X is having its columns stripped of white paint and restored to Jefferson’s design: sandstone colored. My understanding is that’s the plan for the whole of grounds. Some alumni’s heads will explode when they learn about this.
3 thoughts on “UVA Eliminating White Paint from Lawn Building’s Columns”
Comments are closed.
What a shameful thing UVa is doing. Destroying nearly two centuries of improvements to go back to ground zero. Anyone familiar with the Rotunda as it was in the 1960s before they removed Stanford White’s improvements know how much better that building was when the main floor reached to the dome. This is more of the same sort of meddling by unimaginative restoration elitists.
If they want to go back to a TJ ideal that’s worth restoring, tear down old and new Cabell halls and return the unbroken vista looking south off the Rotunda’s south portico. Jefferson had a beautiful idea there and later management destroyed it.
To see how incredible that view used to be, and why TJ wanted to preserve it, get on the Rotunda roof and check it out.
The view south looked very different 200 years ago. Many fewer trees than now, for one thing.
I took a quick picture of the work being done this afternoon. Apparently, during some of the work in the attic, a newspaper from the 1850s was found. Pretty neat!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeanninepc99/3676507247/