While many students at this school will turn the big 2-0 during their stay here, a silent friend in our midst is inching closer to the big 2-0-0.
From a distance, the Academical Village looks pristine and white, but up close, its age starts to show through. Just a simple walk through the colonnades reveals the challenges that University architects and Grounds maintenance staff members face every day.
The house that Jefferson built
Peeling white paint is one of the biggest eyesores of the Academical Village. Almost every year, the colonnades get a fresh coat. The average column on the Lawn has a dozen or more layers of paint.
"I always know that graduation is coming because in early May, painters are covering the Lawn with another layer of white paint," University Landscape Architect Mary Hughes said.
Several conditions cause the peeling on the columns to worsen. Normal wear-and-tear caused by students brushing against the colonnade causes paint to wear thin. Often, students use the architecture on the Lawn more creatively.
Hughes said she has heard of instances in which the columns were goals for games of Frisbee golf.
Eventually, the problem of peeling paint will have to be dealt with more thoroughly.
The Office of the University Architect said it is considering a long-term project to permanently fix the peeling problem.
According to Brian Hogg, the University's senior historic preservation planner, weather conditions such as wind and rain cause paint to peel off. This peeling occurs both along the colonnades and the Pavilion balconies.
"Water is not a building's best friend," Hogg said.
Water also can cause more severe damages such as the rotting of wood on Pavilion balconies. While the surfaces may be kept up to visually pleasing standards, the undersides of the balconies are easier to pass over.
The University also is working on a long-term project to renovate all the Lawn and Range rooms. A good portion of the Lawn rooms already have been renovated. Plaques in some of the rooms indicate which donors made the renovations possible.
Serpentine troubles
The serpentine walls are constant sources of concern for the Architect's Office. Only one brick thick, they were designed to stand in their curved forms without assistance. Over the years, however, the natural deterioration of the brick and weather conditions have resulted in the formation of flaws in the walls.
Recently, a part of the serpentine wall on the north side of the Pavilion I garden crumbled. While the top and bottom of the wall stayed intact, the mid-section must be replaced by sturdier brick.
Although the brick walls may seem a sea of red from the distance, their colors vary at closer range. Whites and greens of different hues paint the walls. Ivy, moss and other plant life are responsible for the greens, and various chalk residues from mortar are responsible for the whites, Hughes said.
Bricks emit various colors of chalk because the extensive patchwork done on them often involves mortars of different makeup, she said. The different mortars, when combined with each other and combined with the original brick, result in chemical reactions which create a spectrum of colors.
While the moss is not of great concern, the ivy enveloping some of the garden walls can threaten the original architecture, Hughes added. Grounds maintenance must keep the vines in check so that they do not weigh down the brick or influence its movement against its natural boundaries.
The grass is greener
The actual ground beneath Jefferson's Lawn, while much older than the University itself, has undergone sufficient stress since it became a "lawn" in the conventional sense.
Every year, the University conducts major ceremonies on the Lawn such as Convocation, the Lighting of the Lawn, and Graduation. What students may not realize, however, is that their foot traffic has to be made up for by Grounds maintenance crews every year.
In rare situations, such as a recent rainy Graduation Day or a snowy Lighting of the Lawn, heavy foot traffic and precipitation occur simultaneously. This causes extra problems for the landscaping staff.
When the Lawn soaks up water and the dirt gets compressed, planting seeds becomes more difficult, Hughes said.
Hogg said the University must maintain a delicate balance between the preservation of the Lawn and its necessary use by students.
In addition, the University must plant new seeds every year as the grass on the Lawn annually dies out. This is an especially difficult challenge as planting happens in nice-weather days when visitors and students are most likely to use the Lawn.
The use of the Lawn, however, follows a cyclical pattern annually and has not worsened dramatically over the past decade, Hughes said.
A look into the future
The University has completed several major architectural projects on or near the Lawn in recent years.
Pavilion VII went through an interior overhaul several years ago, the statues on and around the Lawn were entirely cleaned a couple years ago and the garden behind Pavilion III was fully restored to its original plans just last year.
There are also several major landscaping projects in the works for the Academical Village. On the north side of the Rotunda, light utilities will be placed underground so that overhanging wires will no longer block the view of the Rotunda.
The University's upcoming fundraising goal is to raise an endowment which will accumulate interest to pay for the ongoing renovations, said Naomi Brooks, associate director of development for historic preservation.
Seldom visited by University students, the gardens are undergoing a revitalization process all their own.
Brooks said she thinks more students should take advantage of the gardens, stressing that they are entirely public land.
She said the University has a tentative schedule to restore the gardens to their original forms.
"We want to raise $5 million to pay for the ongoing maintenance of the 10 Pavilion gardens," Brooks said.
Hughes said there was an ongoing general concern within the Landscaping Office about the maintenance of the Pavilion gardens.
"The gardens are 50 years old now and have not had significant renovation," Hughes said.
In a systematic fashion, the gardens behind all of the Pavilions will be repaired. This will occur simultaneously with the room renovation project, both of which are slated to begin in the next couple years.
While there is no formal plan for a full-scale Pavilion renovation project, the Architect's Office will continue to monitor trouble spots.
Plans are in store for the Rotunda as well. According to Hogg, a comprehensive study of the Rotunda may begin this summer.
While Hogg acknowledged that there is some visible deterioration of the buildings, he insisted that the buildings are structurally sound.
"There are no crises," Hogg said.
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