Thomas Jefferson's Legacy

Thomas Jefferson the third president of the United States was born in Shadwell Virginia in 1743. He attended the college of William and Mary but received no formal training in architecture. Essentially self-taught, he assembled an impressive library of art and architecture which included several copies of Palladio’s Quattro Libri. Overtime, Jefferson acquired an intense appreciation of Palladio’s architectural theories based on their connection to ancient Rome (Howard, 2003). Recognizing the powerful political connotations inherent in ancient Roman structures, Jefferson designed many of his civic buildings in a Neo Roman style. When he was acting as a minister of France in 1784 to 1789, Jefferson studied architectural heritage of France gaining

Architecture had an immediate appeal to Jefferson probing methodical nature. Jefferson took every advantage of every opportunity to study architecture through his books and travels to the north east. In 1776 he and John Adams travelled north stopping at Annapolis, Philadelphia and New York. He was impressed by the beautiful houses of Annapolis but the public buildings were of deplorable design according to him (Cogliano, 2008). The architectural surrounding of Virginia into which Thomas Jefferson was born did not inspire him and the earliest comments on architecture are found in his notes on the state of Virginia. When Jefferson first laid plans in designing his own home at Monticello, he had become a devoted Palladian. His later drawings are those of a highly skilled draftsman and his scaled drawings are of a quality not found among his 18th century American counterparts. The drawings supplemented with written documents identified his sources and provided instructions for his work men. The precursor for modern working drawings and

This practices started by Jefferson is still used by American architects. Jefferson architecture was based upon his Republican ideas. His political attitudes led him in a search for a style, which would link the political independence of the new America with an appropriate architecture. He realized that that the legacy of all great empires was epitomized through their architectural monuments. Jefferson visionary search for this ideal led him to tour the south of France to study the ancient Roman ruins. Of particular was the ruin of the Maison Carree at Nimes, which he described as the most beautiful and precious morsel of architecture left to us by antiquity. This ruin influenced his design for the state capital of