Editor’s note: This article is a humor column.
Following an announcement that the Trump administration will be withdrawing from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO announced plans Friday to revoke the University’s status as a World Heritage Site. However, upon reading the announcement, the reason cited was not Trump’s withdrawal but rather the construction of Subtext’s 12-story housing project, VERVE.
Historically, the UNESCO title recognized the University as a landmark with outstanding universal value, although it has less recognition outside of the east coast of the United States. With this shocking annulment, the University will lose its place amongst hundreds of renowned properties like the Statue of Liberty in New York City, the Pyramids of Giza and the Raising Cane’s on the Corner with its own security team.
The United States withdrawing from UNESCO is not an unprecedented move, as the Trump administration made the same decision in 2018, but students and administrators — and notably not Charlottesville residents — are fighting back against the delisting.
Adjacent to the University’s Central Grounds, the high-rise VERVE complex will have irreversible effects on the architectural aesthetic of the Academical Village, UNESCO argued in their press release. As architecture becomes increasingly contemporary to maximize cost-efficiency for affordable housing projects, and therefore increasingly ugly, UNESCO is firm in its decision to protect the historical value of its landmarks.
Further, as aesthetics affect attracting future University students, some current students have also rightfully expressed their fear that the VERVE will open up the possibility of Grounds developing into a bleak campus.
“Allowing real estate companies to draw up such brutal plans for Charlottesville will eventually transform Grounds into a real eyesore,” second-year College student Stu D. Body said. “At that point, we would finally be on the same level as Virginia Tech.”
However, some have accused UNESCO of symbolic retaliation against the University for bowing to political pressure from the Trump Administration. Following former president Jim Ryan’s controversial resignation, the University is the first site UNESCO has announced plans to delist, a coincidence some find non-coincidental.
UNESCO dismisses the claims that they were trying to appease the Trump administration.
“The idea that UNESCO is concerned with the internal affairs of the University of Virginia is preposterous,” UNESCO Director-General Brick Enmortar said. “Our responsibility is to preserve the aesthetic sanctity of all World Heritage Sites, and VERVE’s sheer ugliness completely undermines that.”
Charlottesville officials signed off on VERVE in 2023, and it was later announced by the company Subtext at the end of 2024. The skyscraper-esque design has potential to address the lack of housing within the area for the large portion of students who struggle during the on-Grounds housing process. Developers found that the real estate market revolved around this vulnerable student population who decided early-on that they would rather live in an eyesore than share a room in a Lambeth double.
However, as construction began speculation persisted about the lack of consultation with the community. Some conspiracy theorists went so far as to point out that if the letters in VERVE are rearranged, with the Es and an R and V dropped as well as UA added, “UVA” was spelled out — a common abbreviation for the University.
“The University is aware of the backlash against its expansion,” long-time city resident Alby Marlow said. “It would be no surprise to us if VERVE was just a facade with red brick and white columns.”
It wasn’t until the announcement of UNESCO’s removal of the World Heritage title that all individuals started to realize the potential harm of the apartment complex. Students have already begun preparing to have one less UNESCO title to flaunt about when they give a tour to their friends and family.
Director-General Brick Enmortar denied the possibility of such a plan.
“UNESCO was never in cahoots with the University to override the city of Charlottesville’s autonomy,” he said.
However, Enmortar marked the delisting as a sad day for architectural integrity.
“Every time another skinny building with too many windows gets greenlit for construction, an ancient column sculptor rolls in his grave.”
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