When Robert E. Simon Jr., Reston’s founder, began to plan for his new town, he had a lot of big ideas, but one was the defining principle: This new town would be a place where residents could live, work, and play, all within their neighborhood. It was one of the first planned communities in the country, an example of intentional design and placemaking.
Sixty years later, while there is debate about the amount of growth Reston has seen, it would be hard to deny that Simon’s vision is a reality. At Lake Anne Plaza, the Reston Farmers Market is a huge weekend draw, as is the annual Cardboard Boat Regatta, Pride Festival, and outdoor dining that overlooks the water. The community’s 55 miles of paved pathways host residents on their daily walks and runs and teens on their way to local shopping centers when school lets out for the day. Walker Nature Center is a resource for kids and wildlife lovers and is home to a Halloween Trail that’s become a tradition for many families. Pools across Reston are packed with enthusiastic swim teams on summer mornings and offer residents a place to cool off and relax. Reston Town Center brims with people enjoying its shops, summer concert series, and holiday parade.
And those are only the live and play portions. Reston is also home to offices for major businesses, such as Google, Leidos, and Freddie Mac. From its beginnings, Reston has represented a balance of cutting-edge urban development and close-knit community that is still in play today.
Storied Past
When Simon visited Northern Virginia from New York, he saw potential in “the natural beauty of the area” and its proximity to both Washington, DC, and Dulles International Airport, which was under construction at the time, according to Alex Campbell, executive director of the Reston Museum.
“He recognized that this area would develop into the hub that it is today, Campbell says.
Simon purchased the 6,750 acres of farmland in 1961 and hired designers Whittlesey & Conklin to begin work on a master plan for what this place could be.
“Uppermost in my mind was to create a community. We should use this opportunity to create more than just another suburban subdivision, Simon said in the book In His Own Words by Kristina S. Alcorn.
While mixed-use zoning is common today, it was relatively new at the time. The norm in the 20th century involved zoning that separated housing, retail, and commercial areas, putting a greater dependence on cars. Reston received approval from Fairfax County for Residential Planned Community zoning. That allowed residential buildings, commercial spaces, and recreation centers to exist in the same spaces.
“When Reston started, it was very cutting-edge,” says Larry Butler, the now-retired COO of the Reston Association, the homeowners association for the unincorporated community.
Reston would have a variety of housing — there would be more townhomes and apartments than was typical in Fairfax County, and there would be housing available for residents of a range of incomes.
It would be walkable, with plenty of natural resources and recreational opportunities. It would be an open community, when much of Virginia remained segregated.
A Close-Knit Community
Lake Anne Village Center (now called Lake Anne Plaza) was the first section of Reston to open. Simon ensured that amenities like a golf course, trails, and a library were ready at the start. New residents wouldn’t have to wait to have the lifestyle Simon promised.
Over time, the community has grown — in 2022, the latest data available, over 68,000 people lived in Reston, and Fairfax County estimates that that number will grow to 75,000 by 2027 — but it maintains the community atmosphere that Simon desired.
The parks, recreational facilities, and other public amenities are run by the Reston Association. Today, RA operates 1,350 acres of open space, including four human-made lakes, paved pathways, 700 acres of forest, 15 pools, and a wide variety of summer camps and other programs.
“I do think this is the best place in the world to live” says Radhika Murari, who has lived in Reston since 1991. “And it’s because of the community feeling and the green spaces, and everyone looks out for each other.”
A Booming Town Center
Reston Town Center was an essential part of the master plan — Simon wanted it to be a prosperous “dense urban core” like Georgetown, he said in In His Own Words.
It took some time to come to fruition. Simon went back to New York in 1967 and didn’t return to Reston until 1993, where he lived until his death in 2015 at age 101.
When it came time to begin work on Reston Town Center, leadership had passed from Simon to Gulf Oil and then to Mobil Oil. The Reston Land Corp., a subsidiary of Mobil, took on the task of creating this central community hub with the help of planners.
“[Simon] envisioned a mixed-use center, that we developed as being an open-air, not a covered mall type of thing,” says Jim Cleveland, the former president of the Reston Land Corp. “So, we basically saw his concept, obviously, we developed it according to the needs of the time.”
The first stage of Reston Town Center opened in 1990 with retail space, a movie theater, a restaurant, and a hotel.
“We were mixed-use before mixed-use was in vogue,” says Robert Goudie, the executive director of the Reston Town Center Association. “Creating mixed-use — where there was residential, there was commercial, there was retail, all in close proximity to one another — created this very walkable environment.”
Over the years and through different phases of leadership (most of RTC is now owned by Boston Properties), new sections were added with more office space, retail, and expanded residential space.
But growth and change didn’t come without opposition. RTC faced some backlash when it announced in 2016 that it would implement paid parking for visitors and employees. Many community members disapproved, and a petition on change.org gathered over 9,000 signatures in opposition to the parking fees. Several stores and restaurants closed, which critics and some business owners attributed to the parking rules. Boston Properties kept the requirement for parking fees in place, but today it doesn’t charge for garage parking for the first hour or after 5 p.m. on weeknights, or on weekends.
The battle left a bitter taste for some residents, but several new restaurants have opened recently, and the town center is usually buzzing with activity. On warm days, people can be found sitting around the fountain or gathering at a central pavilion to play games or lounge in Adirondack chairs. During the winter, that pavilion serves as a busy ice skating rink and is the backdrop for the annual holiday parade and tree lighting on the day after Thanksgiving.
“The concept that we laid out so many years ago is still as valid today as it was then,” Cleveland says.
Keeping Open Space
Residents over the years have been and continue to be focused on making sure Reston doesn’t lose its charm or sense of community, and that green space is preserved.
For example, when residents heard in 2012 that the owners of one of Reston’s golf courses wanted to develop the land, they formed Rescue Reston, a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting those green spaces.
The courses are privately owned but were written into the master plan to be used as “open space.” According to Connie Hartke, president of Recue Reston and a director of the Reston Citizens Association, they provide a good resource for wildlife, green space, and, of course, a chance to golf. (It was one of the amenities first on Simon’s list, after all.)
“Keeping them on as good, environmental golf courses is the best thing we can do for our wildlife in this urban setting,” Hartke says.
Between 2012 and 2022, there have been three attempts to change the Fairfax Comprehensive Plan for Reston to allow development between the two golf courses. Each one has been shot down. “Both golf courses are still owned by developers. They are just lying in wait for an opportunity,” Hartke says. “They lay in wait, and we are prepared.”
Growth (and Growing Pains)
The introduction of Metro’s Silver Line increased accessibility between Reston and Washington, DC, first with the Wiehle-Reston East station, which opened in 2014, and most recently with the Reston Town Center station, which opened as part of the Silver Line extension in late 2022. Both have brought more construction to the area.
Changes in zoning rules made it so mixed-use development, including residential space, would be allowed along the Dulles Toll Road, centered around the Metro.
Fairfax County began talks around 2015 to create a large new development called Reston Town Center North, which is now underway. The site is being developed adjacent to RTC with plans to hold a 3.5-acre central green, the Reston Regional Library, and the Embry Rucker Community Shelter, in addition to residential, office, and retail space.
Boston Properties launched a plan to expand Reston Town Center, beginning around 2018. Two office buildings opened as part of that plan in 2021, and the next phase includes Skymark, which will be the tallest residential building in the DC area. Skymark is expected to open in 2025.
There continues to be development around the Wiehle-Reston East station in the area known as Reston Station, where Comstock is building a JW Marriott luxury hotel. The area will include condominiums, restaurants, and event spaces.
Some Restonians worry that many of the new residential developments in the Dulles corridor are not part of the Reston Association, Butler says. They fear not being part of RA could lead to a strain on resources and create a disconnect with the community’s values.
“You have people move in, who are not association members, who are using those facilities, the pathways, some of the parks, pavilions, and things like that. And so it is an additional strain because it’s more people on what is essentially a limited resource or limited facility base,” Butler says, adding that its led to a push to get those developments to join RA.
“The founding principle of Reston is inclusivity,” resident Murari says, something that’s represented in the diverse types of housing and shared community resources. “And part of what were losing is that the people who have newly discovered Reston have yet to embrace the mindset of, ‘These are resources that should be shared among all of us, regardless of our current finances.'”
Looking Ahead
These are problems that community members, volunteers, and county officials are working through as Reston expands, Hartke says. “It’s not just, ‘Can the roads handle the traffic?’ — even if every person doesn’t own a car, there’s still the police, the fire, the schools, that kind of infrastructure. … You have to keep that balance. It’s a work in progress.”
The efforts include a new version of Fairfax County’s Comprehensive Plan for Reston that passed in 2023. It aims to provide guidance on issues like balancing new and existing development, affordable housing, community health, and preservation of Reston’s open space.
“Restonians are very particular about the kind of development they want,” Campbell says. “It’s a difficult compromise, in the fact that Reston history, in and of itself, is really the history of development. When Simon came here, it was farmland, and it was developed. But I think there’s definitely a push to make sure that what’s being developed here is going to serve the community.”
Feature image courtesy Reston Museum
This story originally ran in ourAprilissue. For more stories like this,subscribeto Northern Virginia Magazine.
