America's Favorite Architecture

#27 on the list! Give me a break. This home is only one of only five structures in the US on the United Nations World Heritage list. And it is the home of one of our founding fathers and the author of the Declaration of Independence. #27? I doubt it!

I love this peaceful place. I saw it for the first time in the 4th grade in 1955. In the years since, I've been to Monticello on many occasions and it continues to be one of my favorite places. I am disappointed that it rates only #27, but it has not been as "visible" as so many of the other buildings that one sees.

How did the UVA Lawn not make the list?

Without a doubt this should be in the top ten at least! In 1954 I chose it for a college art project to make a scale model of a famous building. The Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation supplied me with a floorplan and photos that made detail possible. It was the most successful project for the whole class and mine received an A+. I still have it well preserved today. Unfortunately I only visited the real thing once which provided my inspiration. It was June 1950 in the summer after my Freshman year in high school with my Aunt, Uncle and Mother who died 14 years ago today at age 94 and loved my Monticello. One thing that always bothered us -- When we saw it, it did not have the step-like molding at the bottom of the dome on the outside. We thought they spoiled it when they added this touch. We also liked the poplar trees that flanked the West front portico in those days. Many people don't realize they see it every day on the back of the nickel. I wish when they minted the recent temporary commerative new versions of Jefferson's face that they would have used a similar artistic new angle of Monticello on the back.

It should be on every architect's Top Ten list. Thomas Jefferson--or TJ as I like to call him--was an Architect and a President!

Have you ever seen his other "getaway" residence, Poplar Forest, outside Lynchburg? It is a wonderful Palladian octagon house with a perfect cube 22x22x22' dining room in the middle. Check it out. It is being restored by a separate group from Monticello--Friends of Poplar Forest.

Monticello is #1 on my list. I saw this building when I was 11 years old- a little more than 20 years ago- and the memory still fills me with wonder.

Monticello represents what for so many is the American dream: to have a little land of one's own to build your little house upon. We all want to live on the Nickle in one way or another.

Also, the American nightmare: Jefferson died in astonomical debt due to spending too much on it's construction over the decades.

This house as architecture is a disaster, mishapenly proportioned, awkward, which is unsurprising given the interations it went through over the years. Poplar Forest is much more succesful, and the Lawn is certainly on the shortlist for most important pieces of architecture in this country. (Of course, TJ needed a little help from Latrobe on that one.) Montecello, however, it is a mess of a building. He can't even resolve the facade and interior well. More remarkable as a failed piece of architecture (and what that says about TJ) than as an aesthetic work.