How a UVA Darden Executive Program Alumnus Helped Bring the Rotunda to Taipei

The last time the United States celebrated a milestone birthday, the occasion helped send one of the University of Virginia’s most recognizable landmarks halfway around the world.

During a 1976 visit to the United States for the Bicentennial, Dr. Tin-Shin Lin, founding president of Tatung University in Taiwan, learned of the Rotunda’s celebrated place in American architecture.

At the time, UVA’s Jeffersonian Grounds had received more mentions than any other nominee in an American Institute of Architects survey of the country’s proudest architectural achievements. The Rotunda’s restoration had also been named the nation’s top preservation priority for the Bicentennial.

Lin saw more than a dome and columns. He saw a model for his own university in Taipei.

Fifteen years later, a Tatung leader bound for The Executive Program at the UVA Darden School of Business helped set that inspiration in motion.

From Charlottesville to Taipei

By 1991, Lin was ready to bring something of the Rotunda to Tatung University. He asked David Shan-Juh Chang (TEP ’91) and a Tatung architect, I-Chang Huang, to visit UVA and study the building more closely.

The trip coincided with Chang’s participation in The Executive Program. He joined a group of Tatung Company executives for an intensive period of residential study at Darden.

From left, Tatung University architect I-Chang Huang, UVA architect James Murray Howard and David Shan-Juh Chang (TEP ’91) during their 1991 visit to UVA. (Image courtesy of David Shan-Juh Chang.)

During the visit, Chang and Huang met with James Murray Howard, who served for two decades as architect for UVA’s historic buildings and grounds.

Howard shared the Rotunda blueprints with the visitors, who carried the plans back across the Pacific.

A few years later, a Rotunda-inspired building rose on Tatung University’s campus.

Construction of Shan-Chih Hall began in 1993, on the centennial of the birth of Lin’s father, Shan-Chih Lin, and was completed in 1998. The elder Lin founded the enterprise that became Tatung Company and later committed much of his wealth to education.

The building erected in his honor bears an unmistakable resemblance to UVA’s Rotunda. But Tatung gave the familiar form new meaning.

The university says the dome symbolizes the sacred and solemn spirit of education. Its six pillars represent principles linking the university and Tatung Company: “Superior Performance, Reliable Quality, Punctual Delivery, Responsive Service, Dedicated Marketing and Run Surplus.”

A Chance Meeting

For decades, Darden’s role in the story remained a little-known piece of UVA lore.

It resurfaced only recently, by chance.

From left, Steve Mull, David Shan-Juh Chang (TEP ’91) and Justin O’Jack at Tatung University in Taipei. (Photo courtesy of Justin O’Jack.)

While visiting Taipei, Justin O’Jack, chief representative for UVA’s Pacific Asia Office, and Steve Mull, UVA’s vice provost for global affairs, realized Tatung University was a short walk from their hotel.

O’Jack had heard stories about its Rotunda-inspired building for years. The two set out to see it for themselves.

They entered without arranging a tour. Inside, a man noticed O’Jack’s UVA polo shirt and introduced himself.

It was Chang, now secretary-general of the Tatung University Board.

A Darden Legacy in Stone

Participants in The Executive Program gather on the steps of the Rotunda in 1991. (Image courtesy of David Shan-Juh Chang.)

The Executive Program did not originate Lin’s vision. But it brought Chang to Charlottesville at the moment that vision could become a set of plans.

Now, as the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, Shan-Chih Hall stands as a reminder that the effects of education can travel farther — and take more tangible form — than anyone expects.

Thirty-five years after Chang’s summer at Darden, a chance encounter in Taipei proved just that.