Visitors Center & Smith Education Center

Thomas Jefferson Foundation

Charlottesville, VA, United States

This visitor and education center welcomes 450,000 annual visitors to Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, the only house in America on the elite World Heritage List of the United Nations. The 42,000 SF complex is sited below Jefferson’s mountaintop home, and its three levels are nestled into the steeply sloping site to preserve the existing topography and historic views. The five pavilions of the visitor center house a ticketing lobby, a theater, a café, exhibition spaces, classrooms, and a gift shop. These spaces are arranged around a planted courtyard to minimize conditioned space and provide natural light. A hands-on Discovery Room features family-friendly exhibits related to Jefferson’s inventions.