Jefferson's original capitals
were carved by the Raggi boys in Carrara in Italy.
Jefferson saw them as part of the education
of the University. You learn from the architecture.
And so here they are,
on the most prominent building at the university,
it was the mind of the University. The capitals were very badly damaged in the fire.
This marble that was replaced in the early twentieth century
deteriorated very, very badly.
[Lahendro] As we began planning
for the current multi-year renovation at the Rotunda, a UNESCO World Heritage
Site, we knew we wanted to look at replacing the capitals.
Despite all out efforts to preserve them,
there was no way to keep them from still falling apart. The University then began
a long process to select the marble to be used and the contractors to carve
and install the replacement capitals.
[Guy-Wilson] And the decision was made
let's get the very best that is possible anywhere and duplicate the original Jeffersons.
[Wylie] I was walking by the Fralin Museum one day
and there's a crew out scanning one of the old capitals
to the rotunda. When I started to talk to them turned out they were from Carrara. So
I showed them my book and we talked about all these people we knew.
And I was able to go over to Carrara,
film and photograph the initial
modeling they were making.
They had taken those 3D scans and produced a quarter fragment of one of
the capitals.
[Lahendro] Not only did we have the scans,
we also sent over 3 large remnants.
And then the Pedrini carvers did a clay
mock-up of the top part that we didn't know as well.
[Wylie] So it was super fascinating to see these guys working with both
fragments of stone, photographs from the 1800's,
and trying to make a fragment that then the UVA architects and the people working
on the project would come over
and approve for them to then go to a full-scale capital.
And then that started them on their process of,
loading the blocks of marble which had come down from the quarry,
putting them into the robotic carvers. [Lahendro] Pedrini used the CNC machines
to cut out the bulk material and take it to within 10-15 percent
of the final product. Then carvers
come in and, by hand, carve that last 10 to 15 percent.
of the capital.
[Guy-Wilson] when I saw them un-crated it was very, very moving
because they are so beautifully done.
[Wylie] Finally, it was amazing to see
the capitals picked off the trucks here at UVA,
moved slowly into place, to finally being placed
on top of the columns perfectly positioned.
It was just fantastic to see this process from the beginning to the end.