Keller Williams Reston, Virginia is Part of Northern Virginia’s Hottest Areas
June 24th, 2007 Categories: Entertainment & Lifestyle, Keller Williams, Reston
Below is a synopsis of what Wikipedia says about Reston Virginia. There is an abundance of history and while I am affiliated with Keller Williams Arlington- I undoubtedly support the growth associated with Reston Virginia too. To learn more feel free to contact me!
“Reston was conceived as a planned community by Robert E. Simon. Founded on April 20, 1964, Simon’s 50th birthday, and named for his initials, it was the first modern postwar planned community in America, sparking a revival of the new town concept. Simon’s family had recently sold Carnegie Hall, and Simon used the funds to create Reston. Simon hired Conklin + Rossant as master planners to incorporate higher density housing to conserve open space, as well as mixed use areas for industry, business, recreation, education, and housing.
The first section of the community to be built, Lake Anne Plaza, was designed by James Rossant (who studied under Walter Gropius at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design) to emulate the Italian coastal town of Portofino. Lake Anne village was designed with modern architectural themes that extend to a nearby elementary school, a gasoline station, and two churches. Lake Anne also has an art gallery, several restaurants, the Reston Historic Trust Museum, shops, and a senior citizens’ fellowship house. All are local businesses, as there are no chain stores or restaurants allowed in Lake Anne. Close by are the cubist townhouses at Hickory Cluster that were designed by the noted modernist architect, Charles M. Goodman, in the International Style. Other sections of the town, such as Hunters Woods, South Lakes, and North Point, were developed later, each with a neighborhood shopping center and supermarket.”
Hickory Cluster townhouses, Reston, Virginia, designed by Charles M. Goodman, circa 1964. A variety of residential architectural styles can be found in Reston.The careful planning and zoning within Reston allows for common grounds, several parks, large swathes of wooded areas with picturesque streams (called runs in Northern Virginia), wild flower meadows, two golf courses, nearly 20 public swimming pools, bridle paths, a bike path, four lakes, tennis courts, and extensive foot pathways. These pathways, combined with bridges and tunnels, help to separate pedestrians from vehicular traffic and increase safety at certain street crossings. Reston was built in wooded areas of oak, maple, sycamore, and Virginia pine.
The growth and development of Reston has been monitored by newspaper articles, national magazines, and scholarly journals on architecture and land use. In 1967 the First Lady of the United States, Mrs. Lyndon Johnson, came to Reston to take a walking tour along its pathways, as part of her interest in beautification projects. Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin have visited Reston elementary schools that were named in their honor. The Washington Post featured a road trip to Reston in January 2006 and a relatively new website “Beyond DC” has a page devoted to Reston with almost 150 photos.
Reston is the location for a regional government center serving citizens in the northern part of Fairfax County. The Reston Regional Library, Reston Hospital Center, and a modern homeless shelter are located nearby. The Reston police station is also the office headquarters of the locally elected supervisor of the Hunter Mill District within the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors.
The Paramount Condominiums, a residential building at the Reston Town Center.Reston experienced increasing traffic congestion as it grew in the late 1970s and early 1980s. This was a time when Reston’s population was growing but the Dulles Toll Road had not been built. Commuter traffic between Reston and Washington created serious traffic congestion on the roads that connected Reston to Washington DC. In 1984 the toll road opened and in 1986 the West Falls Church Washington Metro station opened. Most recently the Fairfax County Parkway, a major north-south artery, was opened.
Reston is one of just a handful of communities in the U.S. that has been designated a backyard wildlife habitat community. Usually this designation is for single homes.
Reston has grown to a point where it now fits the definition of an edge city. While Reston takes on the statistical properties of an edge city, its tightly controlled design averted several problems they typically face, such as hostile pedestrian situations and lack of mass transit. Many of the homes in Reston were designed to be medium density, which again is atypical of an edge city. In other ways it is a textbook example, with a majority of medium rise office buildings, and some citizens opposed to the expansion of its high density core.
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