The effect of professor Valmarana's method was to ensure that we understood that architecture will not survive in a cultural void. The program continues to be popular with 42 undergraduate students vying for those 27 beds this coming summer. The Venice program, designed for graduate students, was originally the final semester-long course. Students had their graduation ceremony in Venice instead of walking down the Lawn. It has become a two-month segment of a fall semester design studio.
Students live in apartments in various parts of the city, immersed in the culture and everyday life.
They study with two U.Va. The students are led on a journey of discovery through conferences, lectures, tours and dinners in the homes of local Venetians. Upon returning to Charlottesville, they complete a design project based on concepts and ideas formulated in Venice. In 1997, the Venice program was one of three courses nationally to receive an Education Honors award by the American Institute of Architects. Although Valmarana spent his childhood summers at La Rotunda, it was only when he came to the University of Virginia and saw the Palladian influence in America that he began to view the teachings of Palladio with a different eye.