building the american landscape - Univerza v Novi Gorici

construction, deriving from the balloon frame, and subsequently materials, such as
stone and bricks were added to the unusual use in civil construction of iron
structures. America acknowledged the stimuli from overseas and then rapidly
adopted or avoided the imported fashions. The problem of seeking a paternity for
American architecture is evident in the very original layout of the campus of the
University of Virginia, designed by Jefferson in 1817 [Figures 93‐98]. The project did
not create the layout for one single building, but rather it followed a layout set in a
U shape [Figure 93], in which ten different shaped pavilions follow one another on
slightly sloping ground. A large lawn [Figure 94] lies at the heart of the academic
village, bordered on its shorter side by the library, The Rotunda (1822‐1826) [Figure
96] , and on the other two sides by a series of classroom pavilions connected by a
sort of high level path between the colonnades [Figure 97‐98]. The classical and
Neo‐Palladian style used is the least important aspect of the wonderful organisation
of the landscape. The ground floor of the various pavilions, where student
dormitories were located, had a colonnade to create a space for mediation between
the buildings and nature, whereas at the back there was a succession of private
gardens, which placed nature in the centre of the design. The space in which to
socialise was the lawn, whereas the gardens behind acted as elements in which to
study. They all differed from one another, as did the architecture of the pavilions
themselves, to reflect a hypothetical subdivision of knowledge [Figure 95]. The
same ground plan design was to be used by Wright in his project for the Como
Orchard Summer Colony 210 (1909) [Figure 99], a similar, only partially completed
experiment in Wright’s production. If we compare the general perspective and the
plan published in the catalogue of the Wasmuth edition, we can immediately
210 This project consisted in a Master plan, a Club‐house and Inn, Cottages and the manager’s office.
Developed for vacation of University of Chicago Professors, the project was implemented by Wright
with Marion Mahoney, William Eugene Drummond and Walter Burley Griffin (husband of Mahoney
and landscape architect). Indeed, Wright worked only a few months on the project because he went
to Europe and the office was entrusted to the hands of Herman von Holst, expert businessman and
friend of Wright, but a mediocre architect. There are some studies on this project but no researcher
has pointed out the analogy with the Jefferson’s project. See WRIGHT, Frank Lloyd, Ausgefuhrte
Bauten un Entwurfe von Frank Lloyd Wright, Berlin, Ernst Wasmuth, 1910 (see: plate XLVI and plate
XLVII); the article by HILDEBRAND, Grant and BOSWORTH, Thomas, “The Last Cottage of Wright's
Como Orchards Complex”, published in the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol.
41, No. 4 (Dec., 1982), pp. 325‐327; the essay by CIUCCI, Giorgio “La città nell’ideologia agraria e
Frank Lloyd Wirght” published in CIUCCI, Giorgio, DAL CO, Francesco, MANIERI ELIA, Mario, TAFURI,
Manfredo, La città americana dalla guerra civile al New Deal, Laterza, Bari, 1973
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