Have you ever read The Invention of Brownstone Brooklyn? There was an interesting phenomenon where early Yuppies (like 50s and 60s early) invented a kind of collective fantasy for the history of the Brooklyn neighborhoods they were "rehabbing". They sort of thought that Brooklyn brownstones were like Manhattan brownstones -- the homes of individual grand families in the sort of Edith Wharton way. In reality, most of them were built as multi family homes that the Yuppies bought, kicked the tenants out of and turned into one-family homes. But they were so taken in by their own pretensions they completely renamed the neighborhoods and rewrote civic histories. So it doesn't surprise me that Robert Simon was much more willing to see change in the town he helped found than the people who have moved there since.
You can see a similar phenomenon in Silver Spring, which was largely built and still partially owned by the Lee Development Group, which was founded by two brothers of the Maryland Lees, a branch of the Virginia Lees -- as in Richard Henry and Robert E. Lee. They inherited the property around the eponymous springs, I understand, from Francis Preston Blair (who built the Blair House in Washington, DC). Their whole interest and now the interest of the company they founded, was to profit from real estate development, not live up to some suburban gentry fantasy.
and the townhouses nearby (where I live!) were bold at the time, too. people here weren’t used to that kind of density in suburbia, either, especially not in the middle of nowhere, as Reston really was.
they put Bob Simon on that Lake Anne bench for a reason! the kind of radical thinker we need more of 60 years later.
I lived *and worked* in Reston in the mid 1980s, pre-metro-stops. In a shared-rental townhouse, not the denser “centers”. It *was* good for walking (woodland trails). I even walked to work through the golf course occasionally. So it was not *just* a “bedroom community”. But it was pretty boring.
I first learned about Reston in 1969 from an article about it as a planned city. The concept was news enough (and digestible enough) for the Weekly Reader, which the teachers in our Tidewater, Virginia school would pass out to us sixth and seventh graders. A bird's eye photo in the article showed Reston situated in what appeared to be the middle of nowhere. I think we read about Brasilia around the same time.
When my wife and I lived in Reston, my friends and we were always happy to report a Robert Simon siting. (He was tall with a distinct goatee.) We loved the fact that he was sort of "Citizen Simon" (despite "Reston" being formed from his initials) and active in community debates, insisting (from what we could tell) on no more of a say than the rest of us had. His positions came across as thoughtful, and his flexibility seemed to communicate that he had a living community in mind and not just a utopia reinforced by something like high modernist urban planning (Brasilia).
There is no style of architecture that grates on my eyes more than those high-rises with identical balconies on every floor. They're not even nice from the inside, the concrete ceilings defeating all purposes of having outdoor space.
I don’t mind the way they look, but I’m not sure how much use they get. On a trip last year I sat in one balcony and looked across the street at a similar building, with maybe 100 balconies on the side facing me. Not a single one was in use, and this on a pleasant evening. It was the same with some neighboring towers.
Thanks for posting this. Somehow I always miss Reston when I think about New Towns. I read about Reston in my naive urbanist days and my context-dependent brain failed me. New Towns would make interesting case studies.
Have you ever read The Invention of Brownstone Brooklyn? There was an interesting phenomenon where early Yuppies (like 50s and 60s early) invented a kind of collective fantasy for the history of the Brooklyn neighborhoods they were "rehabbing". They sort of thought that Brooklyn brownstones were like Manhattan brownstones -- the homes of individual grand families in the sort of Edith Wharton way. In reality, most of them were built as multi family homes that the Yuppies bought, kicked the tenants out of and turned into one-family homes. But they were so taken in by their own pretensions they completely renamed the neighborhoods and rewrote civic histories. So it doesn't surprise me that Robert Simon was much more willing to see change in the town he helped found than the people who have moved there since.
You can see a similar phenomenon in Silver Spring, which was largely built and still partially owned by the Lee Development Group, which was founded by two brothers of the Maryland Lees, a branch of the Virginia Lees -- as in Richard Henry and Robert E. Lee. They inherited the property around the eponymous springs, I understand, from Francis Preston Blair (who built the Blair House in Washington, DC). Their whole interest and now the interest of the company they founded, was to profit from real estate development, not live up to some suburban gentry fantasy.
and the townhouses nearby (where I live!) were bold at the time, too. people here weren’t used to that kind of density in suburbia, either, especially not in the middle of nowhere, as Reston really was.
they put Bob Simon on that Lake Anne bench for a reason! the kind of radical thinker we need more of 60 years later.
I lived *and worked* in Reston in the mid 1980s, pre-metro-stops. In a shared-rental townhouse, not the denser “centers”. It *was* good for walking (woodland trails). I even walked to work through the golf course occasionally. So it was not *just* a “bedroom community”. But it was pretty boring.
I first learned about Reston in 1969 from an article about it as a planned city. The concept was news enough (and digestible enough) for the Weekly Reader, which the teachers in our Tidewater, Virginia school would pass out to us sixth and seventh graders. A bird's eye photo in the article showed Reston situated in what appeared to be the middle of nowhere. I think we read about Brasilia around the same time.
When my wife and I lived in Reston, my friends and we were always happy to report a Robert Simon siting. (He was tall with a distinct goatee.) We loved the fact that he was sort of "Citizen Simon" (despite "Reston" being formed from his initials) and active in community debates, insisting (from what we could tell) on no more of a say than the rest of us had. His positions came across as thoughtful, and his flexibility seemed to communicate that he had a living community in mind and not just a utopia reinforced by something like high modernist urban planning (Brasilia).
There is no style of architecture that grates on my eyes more than those high-rises with identical balconies on every floor. They're not even nice from the inside, the concrete ceilings defeating all purposes of having outdoor space.
I don’t mind the way they look, but I’m not sure how much use they get. On a trip last year I sat in one balcony and looked across the street at a similar building, with maybe 100 balconies on the side facing me. Not a single one was in use, and this on a pleasant evening. It was the same with some neighboring towers.
Yep. Not pleasant to look at, not pleasant to be on either. Their only real use case would be for a charcoal grill, but those are banned.
Thanks for posting this. Somehow I always miss Reston when I think about New Towns. I read about Reston in my naive urbanist days and my context-dependent brain failed me. New Towns would make interesting case studies.
The big thing that does not come across in pictures is how green and lush the place is