News and notes from Reston (tm).

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Photo Pfun: A Look at the Fanciful Civic Plaza of the Comstock Wiehle Metro Development

With the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors public hearing on the Comstock Wiehle Metro development this afternoon -- unless it's been postponed, as we've heard it may have been, even though the hearing is still on today's agenda -- we've gotten a first look at Comstock's revised agreement to limit automotive access to the windswept, light-free canyon what it's calling the "Civic Plaza."

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Well then, problem solved! Comstock submitted another giant PDF of the proposal, which we've mined for some lovely drawrings of what our future signature Metro station/development might look like.

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A generic streetscape. We dig the muted pastel watercolors.

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Another street scene, done in the style of this famous example of mass transit project renderings.

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Wait a minute -- Google Earth as public art? What happened to our rad '80s artwork?

That sound you just heard was our hearts breaking a little.

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Yep, those are fanciful alright... so long as you consider "round" to be "fanciful."

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At last, a rendering of the Civic Plaza itself, complete with Times Square-like TV screen over the subway escalators. We can't tell, but maybe it's this filthy "web log" that's on display in this picture.

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Finally, that "world class" architecture we keep hearing about. Pier One's about to get one heck of an order!

Meanwhile, while all this is going on, the Reston Master Plan Task Force With the Ridiculous Acronymn is meeting again tonight, the end.

Update: The public hearing was indeed postponed, until 4:30 pm on May 25th. Rob Whitfield of the Dulles Corridor Users Group has a theory for the delay.

12 comments:

  1. Um, interesting. I'll have to read through this.

    One question though. Am I a complete idiot? I could have sworn that this was all supposed to be on the SOUTH side of the toll road, not the north. Was I under a misconception all along? Do we know if there will be any access to the metro on the south side or will South Restonites like myself who will walk to the metro need to walk all the way to Sunset Hills and then backtrack south to the track?

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  2. I have seen a drawing with a pedestrian overpass from the off-ramp area south of the Dulles Toll Road.

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  3. DVDMon--

    The Metro will be accessible from both north and south by a walkway. Comstock is just first becuz it's building over the County's parking garage that must be built by Metro opening (2013). At this point, there are no specific proposals for additional development on the south side of the Metro station...but stay tuned!

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  4. Check out Page 127 of the document - it's Ronald Reagan's Shining City on The Hill.

    Or Page 140 - it's the warp core of the Enterprise-D.

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  5. The only designs that aren't complete visual garbage are...the garbage cans!

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  6. Amongst the 'Hoods in Colvin WoodsMay 11, 2010 at 8:12 PM

    With all due respect to the architectural snobs in Reston, can someone please point out to me what "world-class architecture" currently exists here in our Mauve Candyland? Macaroni Grill? Northpoint Village Center? Compare Foods? Don't say Lake Anne, either.

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  7. Cool!!
    Check out page 80 of the PDF -- that's me on the left.

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  8. Peasant From Less Sought After South RestonMay 11, 2010 at 11:24 PM

    Examples of world-class architecture in Reston?

    Easy, BiCO...Charter Oak!

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  9. Now you're just being ornery, BiCO. Of course, Macaroni Grill isn't an example of World Class Architecture.

    But La Madeline would be.

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  10. I like how they show everyone in sunlight even though in their own document they talk of shadow 9 months of the year and artificial light during the day. I especially like how they mined pictures of "potential" designs to add to their proposal . . .of course window dressing doesn't do anything for the increased traffic specifically due to this development and how we will manage it.

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  11. Don't we already have a live example of how this is going to look like? Don't the four tall office buildings adjoining the west end of the Plaza America shopping center enclose a separate little "plaza" in a shadow-well that is about the same size as what is being proposed here? Of course, whenever I walk past there on my way to Whole Foods, that plaza is quite dead - except at 5 p.m., when all the office workers stream out in their cars.

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