More Than Just a Pretty Lake

My mother’s cardinal rule has always been “Don’t break your dollar”. When friends asked me to go to a movie, she’d tell us to go window shopping around the mall instead. When asked to hang out at a coffee shop, she’d ask “why not just walk around downtown instead?” When invited to any sort of monetary-related event, she’d counter with “Tell them you can meet them at the park”. And that is where this story begins. We all met at something-or-other-unremarkable-name park.

Tucked between garden-style apartment complexes and just behind a hedge separating a winding side road from heavily shaded green open space, the park was the perfect meeting spot for the eight of us. My aunt, my cousins, and my grandpa all came down from Maryland and I drove up with my partner from Chantilly. My sister met us in the middle, at the park, which was only a couple of minutes on foot from her high-rise apartment. My family, scattered across the DC, Maryland, Virginia (DMV) area, generally plan our visits around a park, which allows us to meet somewhere in the middle for those reuning. Since traffic can eat up a half of a morning around here, it makes spending time together less of a weekend time vortex.The park we met at is a jigsaw piece of undeveloped land in a medium-density neighborhood. Old growth trees tower down on its 1 acre or so of space and no more than 10 parking spaces are provided for visitors. There isn’t much to do or see except some picnic tables underneath a wooden pavilion and a pair of swings idling off to a corner. Lacking the stimulation one craves when going out (especially during COVID), we decided to take a walk and explore the vicinity.

Walking closely in twos, we meandered along the side road on a narrow sidewalk past more garden style apartments, townhomes, and a small primary school, catching each other up with the novelties of our lives. The walk was slightly uncomfortable; our different gaits and conversations kept clashing together and we often had to resort to odd couplings of threes, with one person nipping at the heels of the other two and missing parts of the dialogue.

It was like that until we came across a steep set of stairs to the right of the sidewalk leading to a concealed destination. Oddly, I remember our conversations all coming to a pause as we descended the stairs single-file, hushed perhaps by the intrigue of a mysterious pathway.

Retrospectively, it's clear to see that we were led through the classic choreography of hide-and reveal that so many designers employ. And reveal it did.

My first thought as I removed my shades and blinked my eyes was “How in the world did we end up in Venice. My second thought was “No, this isn’t Venice. This is like the garden of Eden fell to earth on top of Venice and made it more woodsy”. First impressions really are worth the hype because, like an unattainable hottie you pass on the street, the knockout leaves you dizzy. I stood there, at the foot of the stairs, and slowly took it all in, stunned. You’re probably wondering where I am at this point. I’m glad you asked. Like any good designer, let me try a little hide and reveal to heighten the moment, shall we?

I don’t see much reason in editorializing a perfectly good chunk of history so I’ll let the collective knowledge of Wikipedia (confirmed by many other websites, in different bits and pieces) give a brief background to our scene.

...

“In the early days of Colonial America, the land on which Reston sits was part of the Northern Neck Proprietary, a vast grant by King Charles II to Lord Thomas Fairfax that extended from the Potomac River to the Rappahannock. The property remained in the Fairfax family until they sold it in 1852.

Carl A. Wiehle and William Dunn bought 6,449 acres in northern Fairfax County along the Washington & Old Dominion (W&OD) Railroad line in 1886, later dividing the land between them, with Wiehle retaining the acreage north of the railroad line. Wiehle envisioned founding a town on the property, including a hotel, parks, and community center, but completed only a handful of homes before his death in 1901.

Wiehle's heirs eventually sold the land, which changed hands several times before being purchased by the A. Smith Bowman family, who built a bourbon distillery on the site. By 1947, the Bowmans had acquired the former Dunn tract south of the railroad, for total holdings of over 7,000 acres. In 1961, Robert E. Simon used funds from his family's recent sale of Carnegie Hall to buy most of the land, except for 60 acres (240,000 m2) on which the Bowman distillery continued to operate until 1987.

Simon officially launched Reston on April 10, 1964 (his 50th birthday) and named the community using his initials. He laid out seven "guiding principles" that would stress quality of life and serve as the foundation for its future development. His goal was for Restonians to live, work, and play in their own community, with common grounds and scenic beauty shared equally regardless of income level, thereby building a stronger sense of community ties.The initial motto of the community, as articulated by Simon, was "Work, Play, Live" (or, as more often was memorialized onto Reston merchandise, "Live, Work, Play.")

Simon's seven principles are:

1. The town should provide a variety of leisure opportunities, including a wide range of cultural and recreational facilities as well as an environment for privacy;

2. Residents would be able to remain in the community throughout their lives, with a range of housing meeting a variety of needs and incomes;

3. The focal point of all planning would be on the importance and dignity of the individual and would take precedence for large-scale concepts;

4. Reston residents would be able to live and work in the same community;

5. Commercial, cultural, and recreational facilities would be available to residents immediately, not years later;

6. Beauty, both structural and natural, is a necessity and should be fostered; and

7. Reston should be a financial success.

Simon envisioned Reston as a model for clustered residential development, also known as conservation development, which puts a premium on the preservation of open space, landscapes, and wildlife habitats. Indeed, Reston was the first 20th-century private community in the U.S. to explicitly incorporate natural preservation in its planning (Greenbelt, Maryland, was a publicly supported community).

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A few takeaways:

1. Robert Simon came from money!

I guess it should come as no surprise that those who shape the world are those with deep pockets, but for a community built for the “common man”, I guess I didn’t suspect such a heavy-handed force to be the catalyst for this idyllic neighborhood. It's naive of me, yes, but Lake Anne specifically feels like more than big money. Then again, the reality that Reston as a whole has become its own busy, commercial, metropolis filled with mass transit and endless shopping yanks me from my fantasies and sobers me up.

1. Raising funds take power away from the Concept.

Despite having come from money, Simon found himself in need of additional funds ($15 million to be more precise) to make his plans a reality. Needless to say, development is EXPENSIVE. By inviting investors into his passion project, his vision became diluted and eventually, like Steve Jobs, he got booted out of his own company.

1. Having a crystal clear vision is imperative to long-term success.

Although Simon was forced out of the planning and development of Reston by Gulf Oil (the main investor in his business), they kept most of Simon’s employees and largely kept to Simon’s original master plan vision for Reston. This is a testament to the power of a clear, comprehensive vision for your work/design. Simon’s goal appealed to our sense of truly creating a better world in the way he painted a picture of an equitable, enjoyable, safe, and sustainable community for people of all walks of life. By having only a handful of succinct guiding principles, he simplified his vision into an attainable framework that any group of developers and designers could build upon with or without his involvement.

For more information about Lake Anne and Reston in general, feel free to visit these websites:

1. https://www.lakeanneplaza.com/

2. https://placeandsee.com/wiki/reston

3. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/wiehles-legacy-lives-on-in-reston/2012/04/03/gIQA67E3uS_story.html

4. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/a-film-tells-the-history-of-reston-the-boundary-shattering-planned-va-town/2016/03/22/6e21ef90-f036-11e5-85a6-2132cf446d0a_story.html

5. https://www.restonnow.com/2018/12/07/reston-then-and-now-lake-anne/

6. https://www.fxva.com/listing/lake-anne-village-center/2144/