The Burial Ground for Enslaved People, Monticello, Charlottesville, Va.
RETROFIT TEAM
ARCHITECT: HGA
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT: Nelson Byrd Woltz (NBW) Landscape Architects
THE RETROFIT
The Burial Ground for Enslaved People, which is the final resting place for an estimated 40 enslaved people who lived and labored at Monticello, is the result of an intensive process that included researching historic site conditions, listening sessions with the descendant community, intensive historic research, and site and spatial analysis.
“From the very beginning of this project, HGA and Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects understood how important it was to collaborate with members of Monticello’s descendant community and to prioritize their voices,” explains Andrew Davenport, director of the Getting Word African American Oral History Project at Monticello. “The results of that close collaboration are improvements that better honor and protect the solemnity of the site. We look forward to rededicating the Burial Ground and sharing its history with all who visit Monticello.”
The Burial Ground features:
- A new pathway and landscape, offering places for introspection.
- Physical markers to and from the burial site and the nearby David M. Rubenstein Visitor Center that encourage visitors to explore the space as they begin or conclude their journey at Monticello.
- Private outdoor spaces for descendants to pay their respects.
- An enlarged landscaped, sensory buffer made possible through the removal of a minor road adjacent to the Burial Ground.
“Four decades after my first visit to Monticello as a teenager, I found myself part of a design team challenged by visionaries at the Thomas Jefferson Foundation to honor the enslaved people who had remained largely invisible over the centuries,” says Peter Cook, FAIA, design principal at HGA. “Our team’s immersive design process led to a design that pays respect to the enslaved and their descendants, provides greater visibility to the Burial Ground and helps make the Burial Ground central to the understanding of Monticello.”
“So much of our work is about daylighting the cultural history of the land,” explains Thomas Woltz, principal and owner of NBW. “I can’t imagine a better or more important example of this work than the Burial Ground at Monticello, which for too long has been obscured. This project is an example of how design can make a place feel intentional, dignified, beautiful and cared-for and can help bring daylight to this critical history of our nation.”
HGA and NBW are currently completing the design for the Contemplative Site at Monticello, which will offer a quiet place of reflection; afford an opportunity for healing; and honor the 607 enslaved men, women and children who lived and worked at Monticello.
PHOTOS: Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello