University of Virginia Library

Typical Pavillion

Jefferson's specifications for the "typical pavilion," eventually built as Pavilion VII,
exemplifies his propensity for mathematical detail and provides a glimpse into how
Jefferson arrived at a cost estimate for constructing the college. Noting that the walls of the
pavilion were 116 feet "running measure," Jefferson calculated that the cellar, "2. bricks
thick, 10 f. high," required 20 bricks to a square foot, or 22,840 single bricks. The pavilion's
upper walls, "23. f. high 1½ brick thick. 18. bricks to a square foot," needed 48,024 bricks.
Add to those sums 4,752 bricks for the chimney and 1,134 for the 6 pilasters, and to build
the average pavilion would require 81,750 bricks. As for the pavilion's twenty adjacent
dormitories, "each Chamber has 36. f. wall, running measure. if 10. f. high & 1 brick thick,"
104,920 bricks were called for, counting those necessary for "one half of the chimney (one
chimney serving 2. chambers)," and 2 pilasters each. Another 6,508 bricks were needed for
the typical pavilion's "necessary Appendix, passage Etc. (61. f. runng measure, 9. f. high. 1.
brick thick)"; therefore 192,248 bricks were required to build a pavilion and its 20 adjacent
dormitories.

The Philadelphia model of making rough estimates for the costs of brick dwelling houses
finished in a plain way, Jefferson observed, set the "Carpenter's work equal to the cost of the
brick walls, and the Carpenter's materials and the ironmongery equal also to the cost of the
brickwalls but in the present case the carpenter's materials, (timber) will either be given or
cost very little, and the ironmongery will be little." At "10. D. the thousand," the brickwork
for 81,750 bricks came to $817.50. Carpenter's work cost another $817.50, and carpenter's
materials and ironmongery, at half that, came to $408.75. Jefferson's rough estimate, based
on this model, for the total cost of a single "typical pavilion" and its "Appendix" was
$2,179.70, and the 20 "chambers" or dormitory rooms was $2,623.60, a total of $4,831.45.

The estimate above is made on the supposition that each Professor, with his pupils (suppose
20) shall have a separate Pavilion of 26. by 34. f. outside, & 24. by 32. f. inside measure: in
which the ground-floor (of 12. f. pitch clear) is to be the schoolroom, and 2. rooms above
(10. 13. f. pitch clear) and a kitchen & cellar below (7. f. pitch clear) for the use of the
Professor. on each side of the Pavilion are to be 10. chambers, 10. by 12. f. in the clear & 8.
f. pitch clear a fireplace in each, for the students. the whole to communicate by a colonnade
of 8. f. width in the clear. the pilasters, of brick to be generally 5½ f. apart from center to
center.

The kitchen will be 24. by 14. on the back of the building adjacent to the chimney, with 2
windows looking back. the cellar 24. by 10. also, on the front side, with 2. windows looking
into the colonnade. the Pavilions fronting South should have their stair-case on the East;
those fronting East or West should have the stairs at the North end of the building, that the
windows may open to the plesanter views.

Back-yards, gardens, stables, horselots Etc. to be in the grounds adjacnt to the South, on the
whole.[25]

Jefferson made a number of changes after he began in earnest in 1817 to design the college,
such as the reduction in the number of "chambers," or dormitories, between the pavilions,
the introduction of the east and west ranges made up of dining hotels and more dormitories,
and the incorporation in the design of a principal large building on the square's north end.
Jefferson's specifications for the preliminary studies prepared for the Albemarle Academy
trustees in 1814 show, however, that the general architectural outline for his academical
community was fixed firmly in his mind well before the Virginia General Assembly
designated the Central College as one of the schools in its state system in late 1816.