Group expresses desire for traditional style
By Caroline Freeman | October 19, 2005In response to the open letter issued in September by 24 members of the University's Architecture School faculty, another group ran an advertisement in Monday's Cavalier Daily expressing its desire to preserve a traditional style of architecture at the University. The group consisted of national and international proponents of traditional architecture who believe the architectural styles found on Central Grounds, especially the Lawn, are "paramount examples of the classical tradition," and that Modernist architecture represents an intentional divergence from this traditional style of Central Grounds. "There is no place in the United States that is more meaningful for architects than the University of Virginia -- the Jeffersonian Grounds and the legacy of Jefferson," said Carroll Westfall, an architecture professor at the University of Notre Dame and a former member of the University Architecture School faculty. Westfall, who was one of the signatories of the ad, said the point of the ad was to express a concern that some building designs for the University are no longer honoring a traditional style of architecture and are instead calling for more modern styles. In an effort to overcome arguments against traditional architecture, the advertisement stated that buildings of a traditional style are able to accommodate modern-day levels of students and technology. Westfall said there are many universities that have built science labs, dormitories and libraries that blend with the traditional style while also containing the newest technology. "When the flushing toilet came in, we didn't reform the way we build buildings, so the flushing toilet would become an expression of architecture," Westfall said.
