UVA Academical Village, Charlottesville VA

For Office of the Architect, University of Virginia

Heritage Landscapes developed a thoroughly researched cultural landscape report for the 45-acre Academical Village conceived in 1800 by Thomas Jefferson, and recognized as a National Historic Landmark and World Heritage Site. Our work for a Academical Village Cultural Landscape Report Part 1, and a NPS Historic American Landscape Survey (HALS) included:

  • Obtain, catalog, study thousands of archival resources to generate UVA history
  • Illustrate Academical Village landscape evolution 1827-1860-1880-1914-1947-1981-2013
  • Corroborate cultural landscape documents with archaeological findings
  • Gain understanding of enslaved and free Black landscape contributions
  • Articulate the landscape changes shaped by water and power supply in the 1880s
  • Collaborate with UVA interns on wall heights, and campus computer modeling
  • Identify historic significance and assess integrity across landscape character areas
  • Prepare NPS HALS UVA Academical Village documentation for broad public access

This analytical report documents the intricate spaces that comprise the historic core of the University of Virginia, affirming integrity despite nearly continual change and adaptation as a functioning component of an active campus, informing future Academical Village preservation and compatible change into the future. The research findings and synthesis provide a rich source of information, and reference into the future, to honor the landscape legacy of the University of Virginia and to inform the ongoing stewardship of the Academical Village landscape. The HALS documents provide the detailed history, evolution and current landscape records for wide public access through the Library of Congress.

WORKS UVA Academical Village Cultural Landscape Report Part 1, 2013; NPS Historic American Landscape Survey (HALS) report, 2017.

 

TEAM:

Heritage Landscapes, Preservation Landscape Architects & Planners, lead with Rivanna Archaeological Services, and UVA Interns

QUOTES:

“Here was buried Thomas Jefferson of Author of the Declaration of American Independence of the statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom and Father of the University Virginia.”Jefferson chose to cite his founding of the University of Virginia as a life work to remember him by.