ArchiTina Tour: Virginia - Historic and Contemporary Architecture, May 7 - 11, 2014

Join me on an architecture tour of Virginia covering four centuries of architecture!  I'm very excited about this trip as it combines my passions - architecture, travel and preservation - with my favorite architects - Thomas Jefferson, Frank Lloyd Wright and E. Fay Jones.  We'll be touring some fabulous sites and we'll have several outstanding special guides along the way!  I look forward to having you come along on this special journey.

FOUR CENTURIES OF ARCHITECTURE

Virginia – Historic and Contemporary Architecture (with a side trip to RTP, NC)

Wednesday, May 7, 2014                                                                                                                 L
Meet at the Norfolk, Virginia airport for departure by 10:30 am for the short trip to Virginia Beach.
	Frank Lloyd Wright’s Cooke House Our first stop will be a visit to this semicircular house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.  Maude and Andrew Cooke had a dream; to live in a house designed by the famous architect, Frank Lloyd Wright.  It was a rather long process as a rendering is dated 1953, the plans for the 3000 square foot home were delivered in 1957, construction began in 1959 just two weeks before FLW’s death, and the house was completed in 1960.  A variation of Wright's solar hemicycle designs, the Cooke House features yellow-gold brick and a copper, cantilevered roof.
Lunch in Virginia Beach
	We travel on to Raleigh, NC to visit the James B. Hunt Jr. Library, the second main library of North Carolina State University, located on the University's Centennial Campus.  The $115 million facility opened in January 2013 and is best known for its architecture and technological integration, including a large robotic book storage and retrieval system which houses most of the university's engineering, textiles, and hard sciences collections.  Norwegian design firm Snøhetta, best known for their work on the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, served as lead designer. The BookBot was one of several innovations to emerge, enabling architects to design a smaller building without sacrificing seating.  A modern design aesthetic is visible in both the building design and furnishings, as a wide variety of table and chair designs are mixed throughout the floors.  In 2013 the Library received an AIA/ALA Library Building Award.
Overnight	Hyatt Place – RDU, Morrisville, North Carolina Onsite and nearby dinner options available.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday, May 8, 2014                                                                                                                B,L
	The internationally renowned Burroughs Wellcome Building in Research Triangle Park, designed by the late Paul Rudolph, FAIA, has rarely been open for public tour during the past 30 years.  Known as the Elion-Hitchings building since 1988, honoring Nobel prize-winning chemists Gertrude Elion and George Hitchings, the futuristic, tiered structure is one of the most recognizable landmarks in RTP and is one of Rudolph’s most compelling achievements.  The building has been closed to the public for decades as pharmaceutical companies Glaxo, Glaxo Wellcome, and Glaxo Smith Kline (GSK) were actively using it as office and laboratory space.  It is now owned by United Therapeutics.
	Next we travel back into Virginia to Prestwould Plantation.  Situated on the bluffs high above the point where the Dan and Stanton Rivers converge in Southside, Virginia, it is the family house of English-born Sir Peyton Skipwith (1740-1805).  Built by slave labor in 1794 in a post-revolutionary Georgian style, Prestwould Plantation prospered to become one of the wealthiest properties in America and today remains the most complete gentry home in Virginia.  There are original stone walls and metal gates surrounding the lawn, and a huge oak tree still stands watch over the riverbanks. Many of the original outbuildings and Lady Jean's Garden remain.  Orchestrated by Dr. Julian Hudson, the former Executive Director of Prestwould, several leaders in the preservation movement have worked closely together to restore one of America's finest historic sites.  We will be privileged to have Dr. Hudson as our guide for this special visit.
Box lunch/Picnic on the grounds at Prestwould
	Moving on toward the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, we stop to visit the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford.  The memorial is remarkable for its stone arch that rises nearly forty-five feet in the air.  The structure's six components correspond, often in directly representational ways, to the planning and execution of Operation Overlord, the largest invasion in history.  Conceived by Roanoke native and D-Day veteran J. Robert Slaughter, the memorial is located in Bedford partly for symbolic reasons: the Virginia town lost nineteen of its men engaged that day, all members of Company A, 29th Infantry Division, possibly the largest per capita loss of any town in America on that day.
Overnight	Peaks of Otter Lodge, Blue Ridge Parkway, Bedford, Virginia Dinner available at Lodge Dining Room.

 

 

Friday, May 9, 2014                                                                                                                   B,L
	The Taubman Museum of Art was formerly located in Roanoke's Center in the Square, but as of November 2008 it has relocated to a new $66-million, 81,000-square-foot building designed by Los Angeles, California architect Randall Stout.  Born and raised in Tennessee, Stout is a graduate of the architecture programs at the University of Tennessee and Rice University.  Before starting his own firm, Stout worked 4 years at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and 7.5 years at Frank O. Gehry & Associates.  The new museum is named the Taubman Museum of Art, in honor of Ambassador Nicholas F. Taubman and his wife Jenny, who have been its largest donors.  We will be scheduled for an architecture tour of the museum.
	Next on the agenda is the last house which Arkansas architect Fay Jones consulted with the owners.  The implementation of the design was handled by Fay’s partner Maurice Jennings.  Built in 1999 on 9.6 acres, “Rivergate” sits high on a bluff above the James River, about eight miles from downtown Lynchburg.  The original owner, Gordon Leggett Jr, son of Gordon Leggett Sr., founder of the Leggett Department Store in downtown Lynchburg in 1927 (it was acquired by Belk in 1996).  Rivergate is refreshing, uncluttered and, of course, has views.  With its clean lines, open floor plan, ample use of glass and overhangs, the home echoes the visionary Prairie style principles of Frank Lloyd Wright.  (Unconfirmed at present time.)
Lunch in Lynchburg
	We will spend the afternoon at Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest.  Thomas Jefferson and his wife Martha inherited the Bedford County plantation known as Poplar Forest from her father in 1773.  The 4,819-acre plantation provided Jefferson with significant income and the perfect setting where he could pursue his passion for reading, writing, studying and gardening after retiring from public life.  When his presidency ended in 1809, Jefferson visited the retreat three to four times a year, staying from two weeks to two months at a time.  His visits often coincided with the seasonal responsibilities of the working plantation.  He also oversaw the ornamentation of the house and grounds, and the planting of his vegetable garden.  Family members, usually grandchildren, often joined Jefferson.  Jefferson made his last trip to Poplar Forest in 1823 when he settled his grandson, Francis Eppes, on the property.  Ill health prevented further visits. The design of Poplar Forest is highly idealistic in concept with only a few concessions to practicality – it was so perfectly suited to Jefferson alone that subsequent owners found it difficult to inhabit and altered it to suit their needs.  In 1845 a fire led the family then living at Poplar Forest to convert Jefferson’s villa into a practical farmhouse.  The property was privately owned until December 1983 when a nonprofit corporation began the rescue of the landmark for future generations.  Visitors today see the house as preservation, reconstruction and restoration are in progress. We will tour the house and have special presentations by Travis McDonald, Director of Architectural Restoration, Vince Fastabend, Architectural Restoration Supervisor and Dave Clauss, Senior Restoration Craftsman.
Overnight	Best Western Plus Crossroads Inn & Suites, Zion Crossroads, Virginia Onsite and nearby dinner options available.

 

Saturday, May 9, 2014                                                                                                                 B,L
	Today is truly Thomas Jefferson Day!  Our day begins with a visit to Jefferson’s primary home, Monticello.  Monticello is the autobiographical masterpiece of Thomas Jefferson – designed and redesigned and built and rebuilt for more than forty years, often to include design elements popular in late 18th century Europe – and its gardens were a botanic showpiece, a source of food, and an experimental laboratory of ornamental and useful plants from around the world.  The house was based on the neoclassical principles described in the books of the Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio.  It is situated on the summit of an 850-foot high peak which provides the source of its name, as “Monticello” is Italian for "little mount."  At Jefferson's direction, he was buried on the grounds.  We will be scheduled for the “Behind the Scenes” tour which includes a visit to the Dome Room.
Lunch at Michie Tavern, Charlottesville
	On to Mr. Jefferson’s University!  The University of Virginia was conceived and designed by President Thomas Jefferson, and established in 1819.  UVA's initial Board of Visitors included former Presidents Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe.  UVA is the only university campus in the United States that is designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Throughout its history, the University of Virginia has won praise for its unique Jeffersonian architecture.  In January 1895, less than a year before the Great Rotunda Fire, The New York Times said that the design of the University of Virginia "was incomparably the most ambitious and monumental architectural project that had or has yet been conceived in this century".  In the Bicentennial issue of their AIA Journal, the American Institute of Architects called it "the proudest achievement of American architecture in the past 200 years".  Jefferson's original architectural design revolves around the "Academical Village" which consists of The Lawn, a grand, terraced green space surrounded by residential and academic buildings, the gardens, The Range, and the larger University surrounding it.  The principal building of the design, The Rotunda, stands at the north end of the Lawn, and is the most recognizable symbol of the University.  It is half the height and width of the Pantheon in Rome, which was the primary inspiration for the building. Our tour will be conducted by Dr. Richard Guy Wilson, noted architectural historian, author and Commonwealth Professor and Chair, Department of Architectural History, University of Virginia.
	Thomas Jefferson Day concludes with a visit to the ruins of Barboursville, mansion of James Barbour, former U.S. Senator, U.S. Secretary of War, and Virginia Governor.  Until it burned on Christmas Day 1884, Barbour's house stood essentially as completed, c. 1822, from designs by Thomas Jefferson.  Jefferson designed the house in the then fashionable Neo-Palladian style.  Only two one-story side porches appear to have been later additions.  Though large in scale, the house contained only eight principal rooms, as the hall, drawing room, and dining room were two-story chambers.  The entrance façade featured a projecting Roman Doric tetrastyle portico which covered the recessed front wall of the entrance hall.  On the garden front, the walls of the octagonal drawing room projected into a similar portico, as at Monticello.
Overnight	Best Western Plus Crossroads Inn & Suites, Zion Crossroads, Virginia Onsite and nearby dinner options available.

 

Sunday, May 11, 2014                                                                                                      B,L
	Our last day begins with a tour of James Madison’s Montpelier.  Montpelier, located near Orange, Virginia was the plantation estate of the prominent Madison family of Virginia, including James Madison, fourth President of the United States. The manor house of Montpelier is four miles south of Orange, Virginia, and the estate currently covers nearly 2,700 acres.  In 1960, Montpelier was declared a National Historic Landmark and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966.  In 1983, the last private owner of Montpelier, Marion duPont Scott, bequeathed the estate to the National Trust for Historic Preservation.  The National Trust for Historic Preservation has owned and operated the estate since 1984 and from 2003-2008 carried out a major restoration, in order to return the mansion to its Madisonian size, design and elevation.  Extensive interior and exterior work was done during this restoration.
Lunch in route to Richmond
	One last Jeffersonian design remains on our agenda, the Virginia State Capitol.  Thomas Jefferson is credited with the overall design of the Capitol, together with French architect Charles-Louis Clérisseau.  The design was modeled after the Maison Carrée at Nîmes in southern France, an ancient Roman temple.  Jefferson had Clérisseau substitute the Ionic order over the more ornate Corinthian column designs of the prototype in France.  At the suggestion of Clérisseau, it used a variant of the Ionic order designed by Vincenzo Scamozzi, a student of Andrea Palladio.  The cornerstone was laid on August 18, 1785, with Governor Patrick Henry in attendance, prior to the completion of its design.  In 1786, a set of architectural drawings and a plaster model were sent from France to Virginia.  It was sufficiently completed for the General Assembly to meet there in October 1792.
	Our last stop is the acclaimed Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.  Highlights of the museum include its collection of Art Nouveau & Art Deco.  Begun from the core collection of furniture and decorative arts the Sydney and Frances Lewis family began assembling in 1971, today it includes Art Nouveau works by Hector Guimard, Emile Galle, Louis Majorelle, Louis Comfort Tiffany, works by the Vienna Secession and Peter Behrens, Arts & Crafts works by Charles Renee Mackintosh, Frank Lloyd Wright, Stickley, and Greene & Greene, and Parisian Art Deco pieces by Eileen Gray and Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann.  In 1947, the VMFA was given the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of some 150 jeweled objects by Peter Carl Fabergé and other Russian workshops, including the largest public collection of Fabergé eggs outside of Russia.  T[he Pratt Fabergé collection includes five Imperial Easter Eggs: the Rock Crystal Egg of 1896, the Pelican Egg of 1898, the Peter the Great Egg of 1903, the Tsarevich Egg of 1912, and the Red Cross with Imperial Portraits Egg of 1915.
Evening flights can be booked out of the Richmond airport.  We should arrive at the airport by 5:30 p.m.  Flights can be booked for 7:00 p.m. and after.