How can contemporary architects improve on one of the most revered works of American architecture?
That's the challenge facing a Baltimore firm hired to design additions to Monticello, the neoclassical plantation home Thomas Jefferson designed for himself in Charlottesville, Va.
Ayers Saint Gross of Baltimore was selected over more than 20 national firms that vied to design the Monticello Visitors Center and Administrative Offices for the property's owner, the nonprofit Thomas Jefferson Foundation.
Foundation president Daniel P. Jordan describes the assignment as "the most ambitious building project at Monticello since Jefferson walked the grounds."
Architect Adam Gross, who is leading the design team, said it's an honor to be working on such a prestigious project.
"This is the most consuming project I've ever worked on," he said. "There's a very powerful connection between the landscape and the building."
Constructed beginning in 1769, Monticello has been described as the autobiographical masterpiece of Thomas Jefferson, who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809 and also was an educator, diplomat and one of the leading architects of his time.
Jefferson's family moved into the north wing in 1772 and construction was finished in 1784. The house was enlarged from 1796 to 1809, and Jefferson died there on July 4, 1826, exactly 50 years after signing the Declaration of Independence.
Today, the house and grounds draw more than 500,000 people a year, making it one of the most visited house museums in the country. Loosely translated, "Monticello" means "little mountain," a reference to the 2,000- acre tract on which the house sits. It contains 43 rooms and is the only house in America on the elite World Heritage List of the United Nations.
The project involves removing modern intrusions from the Monticello mountaintop, where the house is, while providing visitors and staff members with improved and expanded facilities.
"It will help make the mountaintop more authentic, enhance our visitors program and educational outreach, and provide a much-needed consolidated facility for the staff," Jordan said.
A large part of the assignment is "to remove the 20th and 21st centuries from the mountaintop," Gross said. "The goal is to get it back as much as possible to the way it was in Jefferson's time."
