CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA. -- The Thomas Jefferson Foundation has begun construction of a new visitor center at Monticello. Designed to provide a wide array of new and enhanced educational, exhibition, service, dining, and shopping features in one location, the 42,000-square-foot Thomas Jefferson Visitor Center and Smith History Center will rise at the site of Monticello's longstanding Ticket Office.

This new gateway to Monticello will serve, orient, and educate our guests both in ways that we have long desired and in ways that we have only recently imagined, said Daniel P. Jordan, president of the nonprofit foundation that owns and operates Monticello. We are sure it will enhance every visitor's experience.

Designed by Ayers/Saint/Gross, Architects + Planners, of Baltimore, the Thomas Jefferson Visitor Center and Smith History Center will be composed of five pavilions around a central courtyard. Intended to blend into the landscape, the three-level center will be built of natural materials such as fieldstone, brick, and cedar, and will include green roofs and other environmentally friendly elements.

The five main components of the facility will be:

? A reception pavilion, the area for ticket sales, visitor information, and a regional tourism bureau.

? A two-story exhibition pavilion, with spaces for both permanent and changing exhibitions.

? The two-story Smith History Center, with facilities for Monticello's education programs -- including three multipurpose classrooms and the Griffin Discovery Room, a hands-on activity center -- on the lower level and an orientation theater on the courtyard level.

? A caf? building, offering enhanced food and beverage service with indoor and outdoor seating.

? A retail pavilion, housing a museum shop and a garden shop with indoor and outdoor spaces.

The complex also will feature a freestanding, all-weather education pavilion, to be situated a short distance away and connected by a woodland path.

Preliminary site work began earlier this year. Monticello's ticketing operations will be moved to a nearby temporary structure on or about Jan. 5. Demolition of the Ticket Office is scheduled to begin around Jan. 11, and excavation for the new structure is to start the week of Jan. 22.

The center itself is scheduled to be completed in late 2008, with related work extending into 2009.

Barton Malow Company, a national firm with an office in Charlottesville, is the building contractor. The landscape architect is Michael Vergason Landscape Architects, Ltd., of Arlington.

The cost of the project has been set at $53 million, of which $10 million is for endowment.