Seven Views of UVA
A university is like a city. At the University of Virginia, there are main thoroughfares that everyone frequents: the Lawn, the hallways of Nau Hall, the sidewalks between the Rotunda and the Corner.
And then there are places that are a little harder to access, spots that not everyone can walk into. But, with the help of these 360-degree videos, you can put yourself there.
Experience what it’s like to be in a Pegasus helicopter as it comes in for a landing at the University Medical Center. Listen to the national anthem from the infield before a baseball game at Disharoon Park. See how an engineering lab is working to make automobile collisions safer.
Click inside the videos, or just tilt your phone, to experience these interesting corners of UVA from all directions.
Want to experience the videos with your phone and a VR viewer? Open this playlist in the YouTube app. Put your phone in the viewer and enjoy!
The Rotunda
Part of the three-year Rotunda renovation, completed in 2016, aimed to restore the building to its place at the heart of University life. Students now take classes there, including the occasional lecture in the Dome Room, and the building is filled with study spots and nooks that can be accessed by the public. Two less-visited locations in the building, however, are the room directly behind the Rotunda’s iconic clock, where University Guides have been signing their names for years, and the new copper roof, where you can take in a view of Grounds that not many get a chance to see.
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In Poe’s Room
Students have lived in the Academical Village for almost 200 years, and the rooms haven’t changed much. But the room at 13 West Range is sealed off as a monument to one of the most famous students of the early University. Edgar Allan Poe was a student for only a few months in 1826. It’s not certain that this was his actual room – those records were lost in the Rotunda fire of 1895 – but oral tradition places him here. Regardless, the room serves as a reminder not only of what it might have been like for Poe, but also what it was like to live at UVA in its earliest days.
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At the Center for Applied Biomechanics
Behind the doors of UVA’s academic buildings, researchers are hard at work in laboratories, advancing the field in as many different disciplines as you can imagine. One of these labs, the School of Engineering and Applied Science’s Center for Applied Biomechanics, uses state-of-the-art technology to work on everything from safer football helmets to crash-test dummies that better predict the injuries and impacts of roll-over crashes.
During a recent visit to the lab, the 360-degree camera captured experiments that measure the complexities of human joints, tests that researchers hope will inform the creation of a foam-like material that could be used in car construction to make pedestrian crashes less damaging, and a simulation of the forces at play when a vehicle drives over an improvised explosive device.
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The National Anthem, From the Field
UVA baseball’s home recently received a set of needed upgrades and a new name: Disharoon Park. The project included a new entrance to the stadium in right field, a field-level club area on the first-base side, a new bullpen for the Cavaliers, expanded bleachers in left field and much more.
The playing field itself remains Davenport Field; experience what it’s like to line up there with the team for the national anthem before a recent game against Virginia Tech.
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Inside the Stacks at Special Collections
The Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library holds more than 16 million objects, including some of the most interesting and historically valuable items on Grounds. It’s where you’d find Thomas Jefferson’s handwritten plans for the University of Virginia, former writer-in-residence William Faulkner’s typewriter and the world’s largest collection of miniature books – more than 13,000 of them. These materials are available for scholars, students and members of the general public.
See where those record requests go when they disappear behind the desk and visit the stacks where the items are kept.
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The View from Pegasus
Founded in 1984, Pegasus Air is a program that transports critically injured or ill patients within about a 120-nautical-mile radius of the UVA Medical Center in Charlottesville via helicopter. It flies between UVA and other health care facilities or directly to patients needing assistance. The helicopter’s medical staff typically consists of a registered nurse and a critical care paramedic, and medical crew members are trained in all aspects of emergency care.
See what it’s like to take a ride inside.
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Rehearsing for the Opera
Wesley Diener, a fourth-year music major and opera singer, recently put together a fully staged production of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s opera, “Le Devin du village.” Diener, who directed and produced the opera in addition to performing, updated the source material with contemporary influences “to revive the humor and wit within,” and turned to his classmates to help with all of the performances and design.
Take a look backstage as they prepared for the show.
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