Another Friday, Another Long Line for a Massively Hyped, Ultimately Unsatisfying Consumer Experience To Momentarily Distract From Soul Crushing Existential Anguish (aka Lottery Fever!)

Confidential Restonian Operative "The Paper Army" shares this exciting photo of consumers residents lined up to purchase fancy new iPads. No, wait, that was two Fridays ago. This time people are indirectly subsidizing cash-strapped Virginia schools through their embrace of state-sanctioned gambling in the form of lottery tickets purchased from the Old Reston Avenue 7-11, all in the vain hopes of hitting a half-billion dollar jackpot and finally being able to leave behind aging earth-toned homes with illegal red mulch in the yard and the traffic-clogged Toll Road and the decent-paying but vaguely dull job strapping bombs to dolphins "consulting" for the government and the occasional night out at a midscale chain dining emporium in our (for now) Triffid-free simulacrum of an authentic urban experience, finally throwing it all away and moving to a private island where they can paint their new mansions with the fancy car elevator whatever freaking color they want to, maybe hiring the local ununionized tradesmen to apply a shockingly new color of paint to the virgin rainforest wood exterior of the polo barn every week just because they can, before retiring for a relaxing money fight in the indoor jai alai arena.

Or alternately: Microwaved beef burritos!

Will Carnivorous Triffids Invade Reston Town Center Under The Guise of 'Public Art'? (No, Probably Not)

Please to be enjoying this scale rendering of a fancy new sculpture, awash in "bright primrose yellow," that will be placed along Reston Parkway in front of the Hyatt as the Initiative for Public Art-Reston (IPAR)'s second major public art installation.

We're all for public art, and we like the idea of standing motionless with our arms at our sides, almost like cutouts as we contemplate the 19-foot-tall structure in order to complete the effect suggested by the scale model. It'll be a nice, eye-catching diversion from the overly sterile, sanitized feel of Reston's fake gritty downtown. But still, the sculpture looks... oddly familiar.

Still not ringing a bell? You obviously haven't been watching enough late-night movies.

We, for one, welcome our future carnivorous plant overlords, and hope they enjoy shopping at the Gap and the other midscale retail options availed by their new home before they bring an end to humanity as we know it.

All joking aside, this piece of work will fit nicely into Reston's legacy of confounding statuary. And we mean that in a good way.

Rumor: Will Tall Oaks Shopping Center Become Home to Hans und Franz?

After demonstrating its ability to repel tornadoes, 7-11s, and international grocery stores, The benighted Tall Oaks Stucco Wasteland Shopping Center may soon have a new anchor tenant, the first since Compare Foods closed way back in ought-eleven.

Confidential Restonian Operatives tell us in not-so-hushed tones that Gold's Gym is apparently soon to announce that it will occupy the village center's anchor location. Which makes sense, given it was most recently home to "Susie de Los Santos," whom we'll admit appeared to have rather good muscle tone. And some of our fellow Restonians sure do seem to enjoy lifting heavy objects.

Before you strap on that mid-80s Loverboy headband, always remember and never forget: earlier rumors had claimed that Dollar General was eyeing the same spot, though Herndon ultimately wound up winning that highly desirable consumer demographic with its own upscale emporium. And before that, there was a frantic letter-writing effort to convince Bloom to set up shop. Neither came to fruition, but who knows? Maybe the third time's the charm.

The Nine Best Parts of the Great Purple Sage Cluster Meeting Pepper Spraying of Ought-12, In No Particular Order

The entire sordid tale of a North Reston cluster meeting gone very, very bad is a must-read. Here are a few snippets from the Patch article to whet your appetites.

9. "Illegal use of gas" is a felony. (The police should set up checkpoints outside of On the Border.)

8. "You can't always get people on a board to agree, but you can get them to agree to disagree and come to a compromise."

7. (no relation to the Virginia congressman with the same name)

6. The animals he was trapping were feral cats who were causing property damage and health risks to the neighborhood.

5. The couple - who can often be seen around Reston with their trained parakeet, Cody, who shows off his skills by donning a Superman cape and riding around in a remote-control Jeep - did neighborly things.

4. "I believe that the most interesting part of this story is how our board sat silently, enabling such escalation to occur."

3. Reston Association says that the Purple Sage incident was the first time a cluster meeting resulted in violence and criminal charges. RA CEO Milton Matthews says that RA does not get involved in internal affairs of individual clusters as they are under their own governance.

2. Even with his resignation, the residents voted him out anyway, 31-3.

1. "The neighborhood smells like cat pee."

Something New To Worry About: Escaped Dragons

Twitter Operative "Emily" posted this photo of a sign near Steeplechase Drive's intersection with Personal Injury Lawyers Road. Now we know what happened to all the aliens and zombies -- the dragon ate them all.

"Normal Reston behavior," the Twitter Operative said. We have to say we agree.

With API Closing, An Original Reston Office Building Could Go On the Market

The American Press Institute is closing down today as part of a merger with the Newspaper Association of America Foundation -- which itself was once headquartered next door. So much for Reston's legendary Newspaper Row.

Apparently, it's not clear what will become of API's awesome modernist Bauhaus building on Sunrise Valley Drive, which is one of Reston's original office buildings. But we'd like to step in and offer to keep it functioning as a site dedicated to journamalism -- or at least "web logging," which is the next best thing.

Ladies and gentlemen, we give you the future Restonian World Headquarters.

We could put our "data center" (a Commodore 64 with a 1200 baud modem on an Ikea shelving unit) in that concretey thing on the left. Hey, given the architectural style, it's either that, or it becomes a backup for Dr. Evil's lair.

To be fair, he does have the better computer setup.

On The YouTubes: RA Board Candidates Speak As Bemused Leviathans Watch

From the YouTubes machine, please to be enjoying this footage of last week's candidates forum, the photos of the giant-headed leviathans who will truly rule us all watching in the background. They're always watching.

Part II is below:



Always remember and never forget: Voting closes on March 30.

Kicking the Can: Fairfax Supervisors Defer Decisions on Fairway Apartments, Silver Line Phase 2

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors have deferred action on two major projects affecting Reston, the Fairway Apartments redevelopment proposal and Phase 2 of Metro's Silver Line.

The Fairway Apartments proposal, which finally won DRB approval last month after developer JBG agreed to more significant changes to its plans for the 804-unit development, was put on ice after Supervisor Cathy Hudgins asked for more time to get information on workforce housing provisions from the developer.

After a public hearing Tuesday on the proposal to redevelop Fairway Apartments, Hunter Mill Supervisor Cathy Hudgins asked the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors to defer decision pending further review of the developer's plan for workforce housing.

The issue will come before the Board of Supervisors again on April 10, after Hudgins can speak with developer JBG. JBG's current plan includes that 12 percent of the proposed 804 units be devoted to affordable and workforce housing.

Because the redevelopment is not a rezoning, JBG is not required to provide a certain level of workforce housing.

And, as you may recall, they initially didn't, so some added scrutiny is probably not the worst idea in the world. Hudgins said that ensuring workforce housing is important to ensure that "people will be able to continue to live in Lake Anne with the same commitment that was made in the beginning of Reston."

As for Phase 2 of the Silver Line, the county board decided to defer a vote after two hours of public speakers spoke to both the need for the second phase of the project and the likelihood of onerous Toll Road rate hikes to fund it.

"Rail is necessary for the long-term economic health and development of Fairfax County," said Mark Ingrao of the Greater Reston Chamber of Commerce. "It is our responsibility as a community to finish what we started."

Hanley also supported Fairfax County's involvement. "Historically, this has been the most popular transportation project in the region," she said. "This board and previous boards have voted a number of times to keep the train on track to Dulles, and I hope tonight you will do it again ... All of Fairfax County will benefit."

But many residents who live in the Dulles corridor are concerned about drastic toll increases to the Dulles Toll Road, disagreeing with current plans to have vehicle tolls shoulder more than 50 percent of the Phase II cost. According to a Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority (MWAA) report, a one-way trip could increase from $2.25 to $4.50 in a year, and to $6.75 by 2018.

Terry Maynard of the Reston 2020 committee called the current funding format "grossly unfair," urging the board to put any decisions on hold until a better funding scheme can be found.

"To do otherwise is imprudent, impractical and unjust,” he said.

Tammi Petrine, also with Reston 2020, agreed.

"The use of wildly excessive Toll Road revenues to fund Metrorail construction is unjustified and risky," she said.

Both projects will come back to the Board on April 10.

Metro Fiasco: Could the Silver Line Be Slowed Down By Smut?

Our Facebook BFFs at the Reston Association shared this exciting photo of actual tracks being laid right up to the Wiehle Avenue Metro station, forever dashing our hopes that the high retaining walls meant that the Silver Line might be repurposed into the world's most expensive log flume. But still very exciting! Meanwhile, as Fairfax County holds public hearings on whether Wiehle will become a permanent parking lot Phase 2 of the Silver Line, our BBFs at Reston2020 have a few things to say about projected increases in Toll Road fares.

But the greatest threat to the Silver Line might not come from cash-strapped local governments or quarter-hoarding motorists. Instead, a purveyor of a "couples boutique" has had it up to here with disruptions to his thriving business in cosmopolitan, walkable Tysons Corner.

John Kenney, owner of the MVC Couples Boutique, said a 33-foot driveway is at the heart of a heated dispute between him and officials behind the Dulles Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority project.

"For three years now, we've dealt with Metro just bullying us around and taking advantage of our parking lot," Kenney said.

Kenney alleges his business is taking a serious hit because of construction crews blocking nearly half of the drive to his doorstep, a portion of pavement he said is "private." Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority officials disagree.

Since the walls went up, employees have called police to try and have the crews removed for trespassing, but those efforts were fruitless.

Kenney said he has a court order from 1981 stating the driveway is private, but Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority say they have a right to use it while construction is underway. Both sides say they plan to let their lawyers handle it.

We have a humble suggestion of our own. We know a relatively traffic-free spot far from the maddening crowds and construction of Tysons that just might be perfect for an establishment of that ilk, the end.

Flashback Monday: The Tornado of Ought-Eleven

Hey, remember that time last April when an honest-to-goodness tornado whipped through Reston, felling trees in a telltale straight line but otherwise doing very little damage? So does Fairfax County, which posted a Where Are They Now? sort of reminiscence to its "web site," complete with this map:

“The tornado began in a parking lot along Sunset Hills Road where small limbs were snapped from a hardwood tree and a large limb was snapped from a softwood tree. It crossed Sunset Hills Road and entered the Hidden Creek Country Club golf course where it intensified and uprooted or snapped several hardwood and softwood trees. The tornado weakened slightly as it crossed North Shore Drive and Wedge Road where a few trees were snapped or uprooted. A few homes appeared to suffer minor damage from fallen trees. As it crossed Wiehle Avenue, the tornado intensified again snapping or uprooting numerous trees adjacent to Tall Oaks Village Center before weakening rapidly.”

Actually, it's amazing how few buildings were in the tornado's path -- though if you look off Wiehle Avenue nearly a year later, you can still see the felled trees, right where the tornado left them. (We'll spare everyone the joke about the immeasurable amount of improvements that would have happened had the twister veered to the right and struck the then-as-now empty grocery store in the Tall Oaks Shopping Center, the end.)

Here Is Your Obligatory Photo of People Lined Up for the Newest Apple Consumer Product, in Reston

At considerable personal risk, Twitter Hero "Smoke" surreptitiously snapped this dramatic photo of the line in front of the Apple Store at Reston Town Center as people queued up to be the first to experience what we full-time semioticians and part-time "web loggers" like to call "personal brand sublimation," as their personal consumer identities become at once melded with -- and defined by -- a product that serves as much as a tribal signifier and a totem of the Creative Class as a tool that facilitates hurling manic-depressive avians at unprocessed pork products. The good news? If they can help push Apple stock above the $700 mark, we'll be able to afford to repaint the front of Restonian World Headquarters the appropriate shade of Cracked-n-Peeling Mauve(tm). So consume, teeming consumer masses, consume!

BTW, after hundreds of hours of "user experience testing," we can confirm that this "web log" looks just as awful on the fancy new Retina display as on lesser monitors and screens, the end.

Indecision 2012: No Jack Kennedy Moment, 9-9-9 Plans Surface During RA Candidates Forum

Please to be enjoying this fancy photo of last night's RA Candidates Forum from our Facebook BFFs at the Reston Association. Democracy can be photogenic!

During last night's forum, the candidates discussed everything from assessment costs and indoor tennis to services for senior citizens and the DRB itself. As always, we were busy with our candystriping work yesterday evening, but our BFFs at Patch covered the event. No one would commit to not raising RA assessments in the future, which is, you know, the grownup way of looking at the issue. (Our hope that someone would champion a 9-9-9 plan, with $9 assessments, $9 cluster dues, and 9 finable violations from the DRB to make up the difference will sadly have to wait another year.) There was no "you're no Jack Kennedy" moment, since this wasn't technically a debate, but this gets close:

Oh, yeah. They did. We almost forgot!

Meanwhile, the Reston citizenry property owners have responded with a stirring outpouring of democracy:

We were waiting to see what happened at this forum before voting, so we're guessing that the virtual turnout has now skyrocketed to 4.499 percent. Always remember and never forget -- the deadline to vote is at the end of the month.

Subversive Graffiti Calls into Question Subjectivity of Experience, Makes Young Children Giggle

Confidential Restonian Operative "The Paper Army" shares this horrifying image of graffiti on what's universally known as the Home Depot Playground in North Reston. Not since the early work of Banksy, or perhaps the season 2 finale of Who's the Boss?, have we seen such an overt and compelling challenge to our subjective interpretation of the world around us. Magritte may have famously said "ceci n'est pas un pipe," but here we are asked to cast aside our revulsion towards the waste byproducts of our very existences to confront the authenticity of the written word. In today's 24/7 microblogging Twitter-fueled MTV video games media landscape, who can we trust, and what really is "bird poop"? We may never know for sure.

Shorter version: Punks.

On the YouTubes: You Could Worry About Metro's Impact on Traffic, Or You Could Check Out the Silver Line's SHINY NEW SILVER CARS

If you have young children in the house, drag them away from the teevee and sit them in front of this fancy YouTubes video of the new rail cars to be used on the Silver Line. It's kind of like Thomas the Tank Engine, only with incomprehensible static and smoke instead of cute faces and British accents!

We get to walk through a model of the Metro Car of the Future, complete with good "back support" on the seats, assuming you'll get one. Lookit! Computerized signs that show "what restaurants are in the area" as you pull into a station. Cheesecake Factory Macaroni Grill, here we come! Gawk in awe at the operator console -- maybe we're old, but the controls look uncannily like the old Defender game. And speaking of the 80s, Metro's penchant for rad 80s art is here, too, albeit in muted colors our fellow Restonians will approve of:

Nice!

Meanwhile, the folks at the Washington Post have figured out that not everyone's thrilled about the imminent arrival of the Silver Line, in part because toll hikes might will push drivers onto local roads.

Dulles Toll Road rates are expected to rise sharply over the next few years. Tolls for a one-way trip that now costs $2.25 could increase to $4.50 as early as next year, according to a consultant’s report for the Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority, which operates the toll road and is supervising construction of the Silver Line. By 2018, tolls for that one-way trip could rise to $6.75.

The increased rates could drive down the number of trips from roughly 100 million a year to 75 million during that period, according to the report. Some residents say those drivers could end up on Route 7, Route 66, Route 50 and other secondary roads, such as Beulah Road and Georgetown Pike.

Terry Maynard, a Reston Citizens Association board member, said, “The big arterial roads are jammed at rush hour right now, and things are only likely to get worse.”

Our BFFs at Reston 2020, in fact, just released a fancy "fact sheet" detailing the fact that as many as 9,800 more cheapskates vehicles will ply Reston's streets as soon as next year. Officials at VDOT, however, aren't as worried:

Officials at the Virginia Department of Transportation, however, aren’t as worried.

See? Told you!

Hari Sripathi, the agency’s regional operations director, said drivers won’t abandon the toll road — even with higher rates — immediately.

“People are not going to flood the secondary roads overnight,” he said.

Transportation planners said they will make changes to signals or turn lanes if secondary roads are becoming clogged. There are plans to enlarge part of Route 7 from Reston Parkway to Tysons Corner from four lanes to six, he said, which could help handle some additional traffic.

“Not everybody is going to use the arterial streets,” he said. “Some are going to leave their cars and use rail. Some are going to change their travel time or use carpools so that will spread the traffic.”

Or, as the Post helpfully points out, Fairfax and Loudoun could still back out of plans to fund Phase 2 of the Silver Line expansion, in which case the number of additional cars will be irrelevant because traffic in Reston will be utterly gridlocked by all the Loudoun cut-through commuters circling the parking garage in perpetuity in hopes of snagging an available space. We may have to reinstate our long-retired "Keep Clapping" mantra.

So there's that. Hey, did we mention the new Silver Line seats will have better back support?

Flashback Monday: A Very Modern Major Mid-Century Model

Please to be enjoying these models of some Mid-Century Modern architecture, better known as the Goodman Houses that made up what would become known as Hickory Cluster. Here's the breathtaking marketing copy from back in Reston's Bronze Age:

Charles M. Goodman Associates, A.I.A., is the prominent architect of the First Village hillside cluster. Groups of town- houses have been arranged around intricately paved terraces,which in turn are leveled into a wooded hilltop. The Goodman Houses overlook the Village Center and Lake Anne. Sharp changes in roofline, varying sizes, and contrasting textures accented by vivid colors contribute to a townhouse setting of great beauty. A variety of designs and facilities include 2, 3 and 4 bedrooms, rooftop terraces, balconies, playrooms, private studies, family rooms and recreation rooms. There is underground garage parking or carports for some models, large parking areas for others. Landscaped pedestrian paths, completely free of traffic, lead to shops in the Village Center, schools and recreation facilities. The Goodman Houses are an ideal application of contemporary townhouse design to a naturally wooded site.

Not so sure about the "vivid colors," unless you consider brick and beige vivid, and the underground garage parking didn't work out so well -- it was demolished in the early oughts. But otherwise, Goodman's approach was replicated in many of Reston's later clusters, where the townhouses often were built with the same varied sizes and roofline changes (check out the "skinnies" in Waterview Cluster to see that concept taken to a particularly narrow extreme.) It's also nice to see that these townhouses continue to inspire what might be the most attractive examples of new development proposed for Reston.

Like a Black Fly in Your Chardonnay: RA's Dogwood Pool Delays Due To Someone Else's Review Process

Here's the latest on the Dogwood Pool renovations, which have been pushed back to a mid-summer reopening.

Reston Association had hoped that renovations, which had been slated to start in December 201, would be completed in time to open with the rest of the pools by Memorial Day weekend 2012. But it is now March, and the renovations have not yet started.

"Much of the latest delay is with Fairfax County's review process," said RA Parks and Recreation Director Larry Butler. "We have had some back and forth with the County Attorney's office on some easement language, which is one of the last items we need to get final sign-off on the site plan. After the site plan is signed-off, we can then submit for our entrance permit from VDOT to start the work."

In other words, RA's project has been delayed by arbitrary disputes over wording and language in someone else's review process?

There are no words. Just mid-90s faux-alternative vaguely edgy Canadian pop-rock:

Reston Memorial Garden Moves Forward

In just the past few weeks, we've seen firsthand the terrible consequences of not having an appropriate place to mourn our departed loved ones in Reston. Now, the Initiative for Public Art - Reston (IPAR) is moving forward with plans to "request expressions of interest and statements of qualifications and experience from consultants who are qualified to guide a citizen-based committee in the process and development of a program for a memorial garden as more fully described below."

As cited in the book entitled "Open Spaces, Sacred Places" by Tom Stoner and Carolyn Rapp which documents several existing memorial gardens, "The space might be considered to be 'sacred,' but in an inclusive way, not in the sense of religion or belief, but as a connection, a feeling that makes (one) sure that there is something more powerful going on than what can be seen, something stronger than the five senses."

Reston contains miles of pathways conducive to contemplation. Within these areas there are many benches and trees memorializing loved ones. However, as conceived, the proposed garden will become the missing centerpiece of this diffusely evolving pattern. It can be a concentrated memorial compressed into a vest-pocket urban oasis in an area recognized as a "center" by all residents of Reston.

While a specific location for the memorial garden has not been selected, an IPAR committee has apparently made a number of suggestions.

And it's (seriously) a good idea! If we were any good at filling out RFPs, we'd be busy strapping bombs to dolphins enjoying the spoils of a lucrative government contract. But we can still point people to our earlier design suggestions for a Reston memorial garden, and throw in a few extras for good measure:

Field of Bollards.

Remembrance of Brutalism, aka The Sun Boat, Shipwrecked.

Memorial Swatchbook of Color Palettes Lost and Forgotten.

You're welcome.

Ron Paul: The New King of Reston (Bits of it, Anyway)

All hail conquering king Ron Paul, who won two Reston precincts and tied with Mitt Romney in a third in yesterday's Republican presidential primary.

Soon those of us who live in Golf Course Island, near Terraset Elementary (soon to be renamed the Ayn Rand Freeschooling Emporium), and in Tall Oaks (once the rEVOLution liberates our brothers and sisters in that tied-up precinct) will conduct all commerce using gold dubloons -- a process which will be made much easier once the free market builds the long-awaited Soapstone bridge uniting Reston's two Paulian fiefdoms, the end.

Indecision 2012: Moving Pictures

It's a Super Tuesday indeed, as voting officially begins for the three open seats on the Reston Association Board of Directors, uniformed federal agents begin delivering the official ballots to our homes, and this fancy YouTube video of candidate statements "drops" (to use political insider speak). Be sure to stick around until the end for Andy Sigle's dulcet-toned explanation of which information on the voting ballot to avoid defacing. You'll never guess!

If you don't break into fever sweats at the sight of the TERRIFYING GIANT BIRD seemingly perched over the shoulders of the candidates in the backdrop of this video, you can also read the candidates' official statements or the interviews done by our BFFs at Patch, or plan on attending a candidates forum at RA Headquarters at 7pm next Wednesday, March 14. Ballots are due at the end of the month, so read up -- and choose wisely.

Flashback Monday: Reston's Once and Future Sister Cities

Not to be confused with its doppelgangers in England, Scotland, Ireland, Maryland, and Canada, or even the Anti-Reston, our beloved earth-toned community once had a "sister city" in Kenya.

Reston's Sister City was Nyeri, Kenya. Nyeri is a town of about 120,000 people that resides in the shadow of Mount Kenya. It's a former provincial capital, and as a result is home to a lot of government employees. (Just like us!) Lord Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts, is buried in Nyeri. They grow a lot of coffee and tea in Nyeri, some of which we may well drink right here. And Nyeri is noted for the lively entertainment of its pubs. (How the scene in a Nyerian pub compares to, say, Jackson's on a warm night is undetermined.)

Please to be enjoying this postcard from Nyeri:

The similarity to our own Sheraton -- arguably the Second Most Famous Hotel in the World -- is uncanny, isn't it?

And here's our sister city's fake downtown vibrant urban core. We're assuming the vacant storefront on the left will soon be occupied by a frozen yogurt store.

Reston and Nyeri became sister cities in 1984, thanks to RCA and a now-defunct group called Reston Black Focus. Along with several education-themed exchanges, RCA raised $50,000 to build a special education facility in Nyeri (no word on whether it included indoor tennis courts). The sister city affiliation was discontinued in the early 1990s, but in the "web log" post we linked to above, RCA president Colin Mills asked if there were any thoughts on where our next sister city might be. Happy to help!

How about Milton Keynes, England? We can't let our neighbors in Herndon have all the fun with British sister cities, after all, and it's another fancy "new city in a forest," or something like that.

Or maybe Fordlândia, Brazil? Sure it wasn't the most successful planned community, especially after the riots, but like us, it has some picturesque ruins to enjoy.

This one might be a bit controversial, but how about Pyongyang, North Korea? Sister city partnerships are all about exchanging information, and we could learn a thing or two from them as we plan to build our own awesome mauvescraper.

You're welcome.

Reston's Tallest Building Impresses Washington Post, Worries Others

Lookit this fancy mauvescraper reaching to the sky! That's basically the tack the Washington Post "news paper" took on the long-standing proposal for a 23-story mixed use office building that would replace the existing Town Center Office Building on Reston Parkway, ignoring concerns raised by two Reston groups who say the project is too big for a location too far away from the future Reston Town Center Metro station.

Though the overall project still requires review by the Reston Association of homeowners and the Fairfax County Planning Commission, RTC already has approval for a 418,000-square-foot office and retail building. Richard Whealen, managing partner of the ownership group, said the building’s distinctiveness should set it apart from other offices nearby, some starving for tenants.

“Despite the fact that office vacancies are relatively high along the Dulles Toll Road corridor, the time is right for a high-end office tower in Reston,” Whealen said in a press release.

The plans have attracted increased attention because of the property’s prominent location on Reston Parkway at Bowman Towne Drive, where Fairfax County planners have called for a signature office structure. The building’s design, by Reston-based Polleo Group, is more contemporary than many other Reston buildings.

Polleo has designed residential projects such as the mixed-use Spectrum development in Reston and Kennedy Row, a multifamily residential project on East Capitol Street in the District.

It's not bad looking, and we definitely find it encouraging that the same design firm is apparently working on the surrounding Macaroni Grill-razing Spectrum redevelopment. In a perfect world, both designs will integrate with each other for some awesome bollardy goodness and sidewalks and whatnot.

The first five floors would consist of retail and parking, with offices on the 18 stories above. On the sixth floor, the developers plan an outdoor 38,000-square-foot terrace (and green roof) that they envision featuring outdoor seating from a restaurant on that floor.

“Hopefully these features will attract a high-end restaurant that could have both indoor and outdoor seating with a striking view of the Reston Town Center and surrounding properties,” Whealen said.

** cough cough cough Macaroni Grill cough cough **

Whealen and his partners have not announced any financing or tenants for the building or a firm construction timeline, although RTC holds termination options for many of the leases in the existing building, giving the company flexibility to begin demolition.

That could be a challenge, given the region's slowing demand for commercial space. Developers like to talk about attracting a global headquarters, but Accenture's decision to move from Reston to smaller space on a former car lot in Arlington suggests that grandiose trophy headquarters buildings may not be the wave of the future. Soon, CEOs could be sharing a windowless cube with their one remaining non-outsourced worker ("Earl," the guy who changes the light bulbs and can knock loose stuck candy bars in the snack machine in the breakroom). Then there are the homegrown companies like LightSquared... which at the moment doesn't need a lot of office space... or a corner office for its CEO. Um, oops.

Joking aside, we believe a shiny building like this probably would attract a big-name tenant. But what would that do to proposed development closer to the Metro station? That's one of the arguments that the Alliance of Reston Clusters and Homeowners (ARCH) is making in urging the county to "insist that this application be reshaped to reflect a better residential: office balance for the site."

We are very concerned that locating a major employment center more than a half-mile from the transit station will siphon office demand away from the immediate station area...[and] disincent owners of existing office buildings to... replace them with higher-density buildings that include significant residential space to better balance those parcels.

Our BFFs at Reston 2020 go so far to call it "the wrong building in the wrong place."

Some argue that this site was originally envisioned as a “gateway” to Town Center. With the advent of Metro, which will be at the center of the new Town Center, this is an antiquated concept.

Which makes sense in a way, given that the project was essentially approved back in 1978, before the idea of the Silver Line was a gleam in anyone's eye. Let's just hope that the resulting trophy building doesn't become a white elephant that impedes growth elsewhere in Reston.

Update: A Confidential Restonian Operative reminds us that "rail to Dulles" has always been in the plans. It seems a lot more real now than it probably did in 1978 -- notwithstanding the continuing efforts of the usual suspects from keeping it from making it anywhere past Wiehle.