University of Virginia

University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia

Office of the Architect for the University of Virginia (Website)

University of Virginia Historic Preservation Framework Plan (PDF) 4MB

The University of Virginia is the only campus in the United States to have been designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The commanding centerpiece of Thomas Jefferson's Academical Village is just part of a campus that covers over 1,000 acres and includes 578 buildings. Although the university initiated a program to preserve the Academical Village in 1983, it has still to evaluate the entire campus, including the significant Beaux Arts buildings by Stanford White. Funding will enable the university to generate a preservation plan for the entire campus.

University of Virginia received a Getty grant in 2003 for $170,000 to support campus heritage planning.

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Report Summary

Purpose: The University of Virginia is the only campus in the United States to have been designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The commanding centerpiece of Thomas Jefferson's Academical Village is just one component of a campus that today covers more than 1,100 acres and includes 578 buildings. Although the university initiated a program to preserve the Academical Village in 1983, it turned its attention in this project to evaluate post-Jefferson buildings, including significant Beaux Arts buildings by Stanford White and others.

Funding enabled the university to generate a preservation plan for the campus. This plan examined the history of building and planning at the institution and it also evaluated more than 120 buildings constructed after the Jefferson era and nearly 25 landscapes in relation to design, significance, and current condition. This research formed the foundation of a framework that assigns a preservation priority to each building and to landscape, indicating their relative importance to the history and overall development of the university.

Historic Designation: World Heritage Site (UNESCO); Rotunda (National Register of Historic Places); University of Virginia Historic District (National Register of Historic Places); several university sites (HABS).

Planning Process:The university formed a team of architects, researchers, staff, and consultants to research the post-Jefferson buildings and landscapes and evaluate these sites in a methodologically consistent manner. This team developed a preservation ranking system based on each site’s relationship to the history of the university, its condition, and level of integrity. Special considerations were made for evaluating cultural landscapes.

Outcomes: Products The project resulted in the “University of Virginia Historic Preservation Framework Plan,” a report which includes an overview of the history of the university, explanation of methods, preservation guidelines, and tables of preservation priorities for the buildings and landscape that were evaluated.

Outcomes: Strategies and Goals for the Future

The University of Virginia expects that this ranking of priorities will serve as an important planning tool that can contribute to the decisions about the care and maintenance of the institution’s buildings and landscapes. It is also expected that the framework plan will provoke a critical dialogue as building renovations are planned.