ABSTRACT
Fire is also what brought Guastavino to Charlottesville, Virginia. The Rotunda building on the University of Virginia’s campus caught fire in 1895 destroying all the interior framing and the laminated wood dome (Figure 1). Designed by Thomas Jefferson and completed in 1826, the Rotunda was the crown of Jefferson’s “Academical Village” (Wilson 1995). Based on a one-third-scale model of the Pantheon in Rome, the Rotunda was constructed out of materials found locally to the central Virginia (Figure 2). Jefferson’s original design included a laminated wood dome. The dome construction was designed based on domes by Philibert Delorme that Jefferson had seen in France. Delorme domes are constructed from thin laminates of wood, lapped and joined together to create large ribs of a dome structure. The lightweight design of the laminated wood dome and the relatively inexpensive and quick construction were among the great advantages of the system, however its susceptibility to fire was a great shortcoming. The cylindrical exterior walls that survived the fire are composed of multi-wythe masonry brick and the original interior and roof framing was all made from wood. After the fire, the architectural firm of McKim Mead and
White from New York City was selected to rebuild the Rotunda. The architects then asked Guastavino to design a non-combustible dome over the remaining brick walls.
