New Plans for Chapel Wall Approved, Renovation Timelines Unclear
After three rejections and an appeal hearing, city approves a free-standing wall
By Kamron M. Spivey, ‘24
Latest chapel renovation proposal, Quinn Evans Architects, January 30, 2023
A modified fourth proposal to erect a wall in Lee Chapel, National Historic Landmark, was approved on February 6, 2023 by the Lexington Building Official, Steve Paulk. This comes over two months after the Local Board of Building Code Appeals unanimously voted to uphold Paulk’s rejection of the third proposal in November.
That rejection was based on Paulk’s view “that the proposed alterations would reduce the current safety level in the auditorium and do not meet the spirit of the [Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code].” Washington and Lee University’s appeal of that ruling faced similar disapproval by the local appeal board.
Director of Institutional History and Museums, Lynn Rainville, was absent from that November 14 hearing, leaving the appeal board members with several historic questions about the chapel that were unanswered by Principal Charles Piper of Quinn Evans Architects and their lawyer.
Ultimately, for appeal board members like Keith Holland, the decision came down to a simple question: “Does the wall increase the nonconformity or decrease the egress potential? Any time you have to put up a wall, simplistically, it does.”
Rather than appeal within 21 days to the State Building Code Technical Review Board, Washington and Lee University submitted new plans to Inspector Paulk.
Discussion resumed in early December about an “L shaped wall in front of the sculpture chamber that will not restrict means of egress,” Paulk confirmed via email.
Following a February 2 meeting, Paulk said that the university proposed “to install a free standing wall to block the sculpture chamber.”
In a subsequent email on February 6, 2023, pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Kamron Spivey last summer, Paulk provided the new plans for that freestanding wall. “The plan also includes approved new lighting in the anteroom and sculpture chamber. It also includes approved new exit signs in the mezzanine and at the main means of egress doors,” he said.
Interior plan for chapel with emphasis on the new wall, Quinn Evans Architects, January 30, 2023
Unlike the previous proposals, this wall does not limit the egress and therefore poses no notable life-safety hazard.
This new freestanding wall does not resemble the original design of the chapel, however, which had three sides and featured real stained glass windows in lieu of the wooden white frames proposed by Quinn Evans.
The new wall also does not “physically separate the auditorium from the Lee family crypt and Lee memorial sculpture” in full, as the Board of Trustees announced on June 4, 2021.
Unlike Quinn Evans’ September 2022 proposal, which featured nine of twenty plaques removed from the chapel sanctuary since 2021 on the back of the new wall, the latest proposal did not reference any plaques.
The Spectator reached out to Lynn Rainville on February 2 to clarify the plans for the remaining 17 plaques, asking, “Can you provide a list and description of those removed plaques for public access?”
On February 6, Rainville responded, “None of the plaques, portraits, or other items removed from the Chapel have been destroyed. Most of the plaques will be displayed in the chapel galleries or in the new history museum.”
The “new history museum” was removed from the W&L Master Plan last year, amid city pushback.
“The Liberty Hall Volunteers plaque will be contextualized as part of a new exhibit being planned for the Statue Chamber,” Rainville said.
The Statue Chamber, according to Quinn Evans’ latest proposal, has “ONLY LIGHTING WORK IN THIS AREA” planned.
When asked why the inscription recognizing the United Daughters of the Confederacy was covered up, Rainville replied, “The stair tread will also be historically contextualized within a forthcoming exhibition.”
W&L Museums opened two new exhibits in January: Mother Clay: The Pottery of Three Pueblo Women and Born of Fire: Contemporary Japanese Women Ceramic Artists. Both exhibits are on display in the Reeves Museum and Watson Galleries, respectively, through April 29.
The main chapel gallery, which has been closed since the COVID-19 Pandemic began, currently stores several boxes and paintings.
“[W]ork is underway on” that gallery, Rainville said. “We do not yet have a timeline on its opening.”
In November 2021, a smaller chapel exhibit took the place formerly occupied by the Lee Chapel Gift Shop.
The main chapel gallery as of February 2023, closed since March 2020