Last weekend the first year Interior Architecture students, as well as assorted other interested in design and our teachers, traveled from North Carolina to Virginia to Maryland to Pennsylvania and back- in 2 days. We began Sunday morning at 6 am, after a few sketchy give and go's from the breaks of the bus we were on the road to Monticello to visit the home of Thomas Jefferson. We pulled into the parking lot and couldn't see the house from the bus. I have been to Monticello before, but like any other important house or place, when you visit again the history seems to overwhelm you. We walked up to the visitors center and were immediately drawn to the garden and pool area in the middle of the courtyard of the area. The visitors center had a small museum and information center with quotes that appeared on the wall and letters that swam around your feet when you stepped on certain words on the floor, all referring to Thomas Jefferson quotes.
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| Clock located above outside door |
From the visitors center we took a bus to the main house. When we arrived we had to line up so that the tour guides could count groups and what not. This short downtime provided an excellent time for a few quick sketches of the interesting people around, including one woman in american flag attire that we deemed Miss America, as well as the surroundings, like the blue ridge mountain scape in which the east facade of the house faces. Our group gathered and we were greeting by a tall slender man with very circular glasses and a bow tie; he would be our tour guide. We walked up to the house and stopped outside the East Porch door. The first thing I noticed was the clock about the door, not because it was particularly noticeable, but how many people put clocks outside above their back door today? Upon learning that we could not take pictures inside, a general sound of dissapointment was heard around the group (we are the technology generation, of course).
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| Week Clock Located in Corner |
We toured the house beginning in the corridor in the back of the house where we found the next noticeable clock, which took up most of the wall and some of the wall of the floor beneath the main floor. The clock was on a larger scale though, and was used to keep track of days rather than just hours. Also interesting to know, was that the clock was not built large enough and had to be continued to the floor below so that it could fit all seven days. The hole in the floor was just the beginning of a few afterthoughts the house held, which also included slanted ceilings to accommodate dropped ceilings meeting with higher ceilings and doors.
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| South Square Room |
We moved through to the south square room, which was my favorite of all the rooms. The room looked like it could have been designed today with a vintage chic feel and fit in with design today perfectly. My favorite thing in the room were the hanging picture frames on the walls. They looked like something I could buy from Urban Outfitters and hang on my tiny apartment walls and be completely satisfied. I really enjoyed the silhouettes on the photos instead of actual photographs because they made the room more stylish in general and less about the people in the photos.
We moved through the rest of the house, observing the pink bedding on Thomas Jefferson's bed, the odd circular cut out's in the top of the wall of his side bedroom room, and the horrible yellow room located farther along in the house. We finished the house tour having learned of the thousands of books that once occupied the floors that we walked on and the string of kids that may have belonged to Thomas Jefferson via Sally Hemmings.
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| View of West Porch From Lawn |
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| UVA Mall |
We finished the house tour and moved outside where we were free to roam the grounds of Monticello and explore the gardens, the cemetary, the ground floor, and the mall in front of the West Porch. It was a beautiful day so most of the class explored and then took in the sun on the lawn of Monticello, some playing frisbee and other basking in the sunlight, all of us getting the full Monticello experience.
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| Original Dorms at UVA |
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| Mall with View of Side Buildings |
After Monticello we hit the road again and were on our way to the University of Virginia's main campus in Charlottesville, VA, which was founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1819. We went to UVA mainly to experience their courtyard first hand, which holds a lot of precedence in the Federal architecture style created and used amongst many federal building in the US. We ate at a local Irish Pub and walked in a few stores along the main drag in Charlottesville. When we found the courtyard we were amazed to see that the buildings lining the lawn were still used for dormitories, and though the dorms were small, they were quaint and full of history and stories. The dorms were originally dorms, which is why it is so interesting that they are still used as dorms today and not especially preserved for historical value. The lawn was laid out in a style strikingly similar to that of Monticello, and rightfully so, as Thomas Jefferson dabbled both hands in both sites. The mall was a very active place for students as we observed some kind of sorority-fraternity flag football game going on in the middle of the lawn. Other students were just reading or doing homework out in the sun on the beautiful day.
From UVA we moved on towards the hotel in Maryland. The hotel was old and rustic, with customized rooms, with varying wall paper and decorations in each room. It had lamp fixtures that were electric but had an old timey- oil burning feel to them. The dining room in the main house had more of a dated feel than the rooms themselves, with more old lamps on the wall and wooden tables in a dining room that looked like it may have been updated once since opening.
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| Falling Water from Walkway |
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| View of wading area from outside |
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| Falling Water from afar |
We left the hotel and went to Falling Water, the Frank Lloyd Wright House in Bear Creek Pennsylvania. Upon arriving we noticed the odd shape of the visitors center and ticket area. Sparking our interest, we divided into ten person groups to tour the house. The house was very interesting in design- even more interesting that Wright was so set on his design and what he wanted that he and the Kaufman's often argued, leaving Wright not getting to choose everything, like the kitchen decor, the kitchen table chairs, or having his own chairs all around the house. Though confusing from the outside, the house is seemingly easily navigable, and it was just fun entering every room and seeing the interesting tough Wright added to each space. My favorite thing about the house was the wading area adjacent to the living room, because really, who can walk to the river from their living room couch?
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