UVA Darden Honors Dean Scott Beardsley with L’Orangerie Naming at The Forum Hotel
By David Buie-Moltz
Between the University of Virginia Darden School of Business and the UVA School of Law, The Forum Hotel has become a landmark on North Grounds — a place where academic life, hospitality and the natural world converge.
Recently named one of the “Top 25 Hotels in the South” by Condé Nast Traveler, The Forum is home to the newly named Scott C. Beardsley and Claire Dufournet Beardsley L’Orangerie and Terrace, which honors the Darden dean and his wife for their leadership and impact on the School and University community.
The naming was made possible through the generosity of The Melville Foundation, a member of Darden’s Principal Donors Society. Reflecting a shared admiration for natural beauty and visionary leadership, the gift celebrates the environment of learning and connection that The Forum Hotel represents.
A Space Defined by Light, Warmth and Connection
L’Orangerie is a glass-enclosed solarium surrounded by greenery and views of the Tahija Arboretum & LaCross Botanical Gardens — an inviting setting for conversation and reflection.
At the dedication, Beardsley recalled that the gardens began as a simple idea to reimagine an overlooked area of land.
“One of the ideas I had was that maybe we could turn the drainage ditch into a botanical garden,” he said, smiling. “A lot of my ideas are a little bit crazy, but I thought it would be a great way to bring Jefferson’s spirit alive — to mix architecture, nature and learning.”
He noted that Thomas Jefferson had once envisioned a botanical garden for the University — a project never realized in his lifetime. The living landscape surrounding The Forum Hotel, Beardsley said, carries forward that same impulse to link design, nature and education.
“We are right between the Law School and Darden,” he said. “It used to be that there was a big wall here. We designed it so that when you walk out of the Law School, you can come into beautiful gardens and keep going straight through to Darden. That was the idea — connecting North Grounds through these spaces, indoors and outdoors.”
A Continuing Legacy of Growth
Since 2015, Beardsley’s leadership has guided Darden through a period of extraordinary momentum. The Powered by Purpose campaign achieved $632 million in total impact, fueling investments in scholarships, faculty excellence and facilities — including The Forum Hotel and the arboretum and gardens that surround it.
Interested in supporting Darden?
Learn more about naming opportunities across the Goodwin Family Grounds in Charlottesville and the Sands Family Grounds in Rosslyn, Virginia. Explore Opportunities.
The University of Virginia Darden School of Business prepares responsible global leaders through unparalleled transformational learning experiences. Darden’s graduate degree programs (Full-Time MBA, Part-Time MBA, Executive MBA, MSBA and Ph.D.) and Executive Education & Lifelong Learning programs offered by the Darden School Foundation set the stage for a lifetime of career advancement and impact. Darden’s top-ranked faculty, renowned for teaching excellence, inspires and shapes modern business leadership worldwide through research, thought leadership and business publishing. Darden has Grounds in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the Washington, D.C., area and a global community that includes 20,000 alumni in 90 countries. Darden was established in 1955 at the University of Virginia, a top public university founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1819 in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Press Contact
Molly Mitchell
Senior Associate Director, Editorial and Media Relations
Darden School of Business
University of Virginia
MitchellM@darden.virginia.edu
