 | Board of Visitors minutes May 24, 1991 |  |
ATTACHMENT A = Vision Statement
A VISION STATEMENT FOR THE PLANNING AND DESIGN OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS
Submitted to Ms. Elizabeth D. Morie, Chair Buildings and Grounds Committee Board of Visitors University of Virginia Mr. Edward E. Elson, Rector
The following is a draft proposal of a Vision Statement for the Planning and Design of the University of Virginia Buildings and Grounds. This proposal is based on recent discussions to seek ways to improve the architectural character of the University, its buildings and grounds, and reflects the views of faculty representatives who served on the Subcommittee on the Environment of the Provost's Ten Year Academic Plan Committee as well as members of the faculty of the School of Architecture and members of the Architectural Advisory Committee.
The following statement expresses the basic intention of the Vision Statement:
"There is one distinct goal: to restore the Founder's vision of the reciprocity between the academic and the physical plan of the University. Mr. Jefferson's vision for the University was based on the premise that the principles guiding the physical design and character of the institution are the same as those affecting its academic undertakings.
What can be said of the physical elements can also be said of the academic components - the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. And the composition is reworked as new circumstances and opportunities arise, but always according to criteria of rationality and clarity of purpose. When the parts fit together and create a recognizable whole, they form a university setting that is designed to enhance the academic experience.
Recommendations
1. An administrative apparatus should be established that would assure that all decisions taken about the physical setting and facilities of the University be understood to stand in a reciprocal relationship to all decisions taken about its academic plan. The appointment of a University architect is one means of implementing
2. The dispersion of the University should be reversed and its concentration around the central Grounds be restored.
3. A set of planning principles and design parameters that will ensure a coherent, effective, and unified University environment should be adopted."
(Quoted from "The Environment" portion of the Subcommittee Reports: Highlights of the Ten Year Academic Plan issued March 7, 1991 to the Board of Visitors from the Office of the Provost).
Discussion
Mr. Jefferson based his vision on the premise that the principles guiding the physical design and character of the University are the same as those affecting its academic undertakings. These principles produced a physical and academic program that were in a reciprocal relationship to one another. It is valued now as it was then as a remarkable arrangement of buildings and grounds supporting clear academic intentions. The rotunda, the pavilions, the hotels, the ranges, the alleys, gardens, lawn, and terraces fit together to function efficiently and provide an inspiring setting. Each of these elements has a role to play in the overall scheme of things. It is not a collection of individual buildings. It is a composition, an ensemble, of buildings and the spaces between, all of them completely interdependent.
As it is with the physical setting so too is it with the academic scheme: Schools, degree programs, academic departments, research programs, courses, and tutorials; the class rooms, student residences, libraries, research laboratories, studios, and athletic fields; the faculty appointments, administrative officers, and staff--all these are brought into a thoughtfully composed unity to serve the purposes, both largest and most various, of the university.
What can be said of the physical elements can also be said of the academic components: The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Both the academic ensemble and the ensemble of facilities are composed of discrete units capable of being justified by citing the contribution each one makes to the purpose of the whole. And the composition is contrived, revised, and reworked as new circumstances and opportunities arise, but always according to criteria of rationality and clarity of purpose.
All the parts fit together and create a recognizable whole, and they form a university setting which is clearly designed to enhance the academic experience, to stimulate study and thought and research and collegiality, to foster the exchange of ideas and the discovery, protection, and dissemination of new knowledge.
ONE GOAL and three objectives
The GOAL of the University as it continues to administer and alter the University's physical environment should be this:
To restore the Founder's vision of the reciprocity between the academic and the physical plan of the University.
From this flows the following OBJECTIVES
OBJECTIVE 1. To establish the administrative apparatus required to assure that all decisions taken about the physical setting and facilities of the University be understood to stand in a reciprocal relationship to all decisions taken about its academic plan.
There are several MEANS for reaching this objective.
A. One of these, probably the most important one, is to establish a single, central point or office at which all decisions concerning the physical alteration to the land, the grounds, and the existing buildings and all new construction are made. That function might best be responsible directly to the President's Office where the President has the advice of The Architect for the University of Virginia. This is a new office staffed by a person who is one of the most prominent and skillful people in the nation acting through the President or his designee as a consultant to the University, (not unlike Legal Counsel). All physical changes would be monitored through this point.
B. Another is to include in the ongoing master plan efforts for the University detailed scenarios for the various "precincts" and parts of the Grounds; (these would be similar to the Carr's Hill Precinct Study prepared in 1989-90). This planning procedure would provide a vehicle for clarifying the academic purpose of the University and its parts by seeing the physical effect of certain academic (and other) decisions, and the academic ramifications of decisions concerning the physical environment.
C. As a further way to facilitate the process of resolving the relationship between the physical and the academic, University staff would be responsible for preparing a detailed, constantly amended scale model and base drawings of the master plan and precinct studies in an easily accessible location (such as a ward room for planning and design activity).
OBJECTIVE 2. To reverse the dispersion of the University across a larger countryside and restore its concentration around the central grounds.
There are several MEANS for reaching this objective.
A. Work it out so that over time, academic programs and professional schools are integral elements of the Central Grounds--the recognized setting of the University.
B. Use student residences as a way of filling in areas within the University Grounds. (This would not be the only way new student residences would be added to the Grounds.)
C. Recognize that the central Grounds can accommodate a significant increase in the amount of buildings as long as careful attention is paid to the shape and character of the spaces between buildings. An interdependency of buildings and open space similar to that which exists in the academical village is essential throughout the University.
D. Think of parts of the University's landholdings that are not presently built upon not as open land but as natural sanctuaries, some of them needing the care of foresters, some the care of arborists, and so on, and all of the land as an asset serving a useful and important purpose rather than as a reserve for future construction.
OBJECTIVE 3. Adopt a set of planning principles and design parameters which will ensure a coherent, effective and unified University environment.
Any project must be formulated with these principles as its basis and be subject to review according to them. Examples of the kinds of principles which might be adopted are:
1. a clear separation of the parts into discrete units;
2. a clear representation of the functional role each part plays;
3. a hierarchical distinction between the parts revealing which are more important and which are less important in fulfilling the purpose of the whole;
4. an appearance for each part that allows it to be distinct while also allowing it to appear as a part of the larger whole to which it belongs;
5. a clear geometric scheme controlling the disposition of the parts and their relationships to one another and to the whole;
6. a clear gradation of spaces and uses ranging from public to private;
7. a clear demarcation between what belongs to it and what does not;
8. and, finally, residences dominate and establish the primary character of the place.
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To satisfy these objectives would be to restore one of the most important legacies of the University of Virginia, namely, its ability to illustrate the unity between the University's purpose, the curricular structure governing the academic lives of its members, and the physical setting. These had all been laid down by the Founder and can be extended and adapted to new circumstances as the University and the world in which it exists change.
Revised 1/30/91
Revised for Buildings and Grounds Committee, Board of Visitors, 4/2/91
Corrected 5/16/91
Submitted by Harry Porter, Chair, Environment Subcommittee and Chair, Architectural Advisory Committee.
| Board of Visitors minutes May 24, 1991 | |