Becky

Who made the decision about Monticello’s museum-like nature? Of course Jefferson himself designed Monticello in the Palladian style, and of course work on the house continued intermittently from 1768-1809. It was virtually a lifetime’s project.

But then by 1879, Jefferson Levy was the new owner of Monticello. He restored and preserved Monticello, which had been deteriorating seriously for many years

And then the Thomas Jefferson Foundation purchased the house in 1923, had it restored, yet again, by architects. This foundation opened the building to the public.

A correspondent to the AIA Archiblog [1] recognised that buildings are changed as each generation finds new needs not being met by the existing architecture. “This house as architecture is a disaster, mishapenly proportioned, awkward, which is unsurprising given the interations it went through over the years. Monticello is a mess of a building. He (Jefferson?) can’t even resolve the facade and interior well”.

Of course I cannot compare Monticello with Government House Sydney directly. Monticello now runs as a museum, fixed in time, not as an active arm of government. But that raises another important question: what extant design features in Monticello came from Jefferson himself? Which elements belonged to Levy 100 years later? And which elements arrived in the 1920s?

[1]http://blog.aia.org/favorites/2007/02/view_larger_imagephoto_carol_m.html

Many thanks for provoking a discussion here
Helen Webberley
http://melbourneblogger.blogspot.com/