Hey Guys, I figured I would snap a few pictures of Reston Town Center in Reston, Virginia. Reston is a suburb of Washington D.C. For you familiar with RTC the red brick and green glass buildings are the SoMa buildings under construction. I will post a picture I took in April to give you an idea of the progress. Hope you enjoy.
April Construction of SoMa:
Now the recent photos:
Sorry, This is a finger in my shot as I was waving off a stupid security guard who said I wasn't allowed to take photos of the building without permission from management:
I remember when Reston was being developed as a planned city way back when. It was kind of out in the boonies back then. It sure has grown up in the last 10 years. Nice pics VA. Look forward to more tours of NO VA.
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The DC region seems to be the nation's capital of "neo-urban town centers"... and while they're less offensive than the sprawl default that takes place everywhere else... they always come across quite lifeless and sterile to me... there's a lot of elements in place... but there's just something missing
thanks for the pics. i wondered what it looked like at street level as i drove by on the way to dulles this weekend.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Evergrey
The DC region seems to be the nation's capital of "neo-urban town centers"... and while they're less offensive than the sprawl default that takes place everywhere else... they always come across quite lifeless and sterile to me... there's a lot of elements in place... but there's just something missing
after staying in Arlington (Rosslyn and Ballston) i've gotta disagree. both are great modern areas (kind of like La Defense/Canary Wharf and Midtown Atlanta combined.)
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What's in Arlington isn't "neo-urban town centers". What's in Arlington is genuine urbanity that just happens to be new.
Anyway, Reston Town Center *is* sterile, and they didn't at all do a good job of integrating it with the surrounding fabric (which is sprawl now but could theoretically be redeveloped over time). It's definitely a suburbanite's vision of a downtown. But all things considered it's done pretty well for itself. It's a huge step above the vast majority of these town center projects, so many of which are little more than roofless malls with townhouse subdivisions nearby. The fact that it doesn't have Metro access is both a major weakness and a major point of interest - they got it done despite not having Metro.
That's a suburb?! For a suburban downtown, that's pretty freakin incredible. I wish we built em like this in Canada.
Funny enough, I saw a video about Reston in one of my Planning classes the other day. One of America's original suburbs apparently. Very strange layout and it was out in the boonies. You had to canoe across a pond to get to the "village center". It was full of ugly 1950s townhouses. The emphasis seemed to be on its natural setting, golf courses, and playgrounds for children. It tried to be anti-urban at the time. I can't even believe it's the same place. WOW!
Reston looks pretty nice. A lot of those buildings look like stuff going up in Harbor East in Baltimore. It would've been nice if there were historic structures sprinkled here and there, but of course that's not really possible in a new city like this.
As far as being sterile, this is expected. A structure's character is built over time. We'll see if these buildings have character 40 or 50 years from now.
Thanks for the comments guys. I noticed a lot of comments about the place being sterile. I think that perception comes from the fact that construction of the town center began in 1990. All of the buildings are fairly new and of similar styles. I think one of the major factors that gives a city or town character is the not so good parts of town, or rundown buildings, dingy bars, little squeezed in shops. As Reston wasn't even conceptualized as a planned community until 1964, there hasn't been time for this. The Reston planning committee is very stringent and uptight, so I don't think we'll be seeing anything like that soon.
A metro station is going to be built right across the toll road with access to Reston Town Center if plans stop getting delayed by funding. This will add a lot to the area. I believe KSI is also planning to build three more 20+ story condominium towers on the other side of the small park.
Here is a picture of lake anne (not taken by me), which was the first part of the planned community. The tower is hideous but the lower buildings and surrounding area are really nice. I'll try to get out there and snap some photos soon.
A little side note. I was going to buy a sweet condo on the top floor of the Heron building, the tower, until I found out that the condo fees for that building are over $800 per month. Huge ripoff.
Alot of stuff has been going on in Reston since the last time I was there. What I really liked about it was the nice streets with lots of trees and big old houses.
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