Ladies and Gentlemen, the Coolest Bathtub in Reston

Our BFFs at the Reston Museum posted some fancy Facebook photos as a sneak peek of the 2012 Reston Home Tour, but we didn't get any further than this one. All the homes are stunning, as usual, but in this, we've found a veritable Xanadu for Zen aficionados of pharmaceutical commercials, the end.

Caddyshackpocalypse Now: A United Front, and Signs, Signs, Everywhere Signs

Hey, development golf fans! Let's hit the links, and see what's been doin' with everyone's favorite Tournament of Pain in South Reston. This week, the Reston Citizens Association joined the growing chorus of organizations opposed to the potential redevelopment of Reston National Golf Course, writing in a resolution with more whereases than a Ron Paul delegate trying to get recognized in Tampa that "use of the [land] for any purpose other than open space dedicated to parks, recreation, and/or nature is an existential threat to Reston's longstanding vision."

Well, great. What could potentially be more important in the long run is that it sounds like RCA, the Reston Association, and the Association of Reston Clusters and Homeowners (ARCH) may present a unified front against any redevelopment proposal -- which would be a first. RCA President Colin Mills writes in a fancy "web log" post:

In recent weeks, RCA has reached out to RA and the Association of Reston Clusters and Homeowners to discuss the possibility of joint efforts. Our collaboration was inspired by other matters, but once the seriousness and urgency of the golf course issue became clear, we realized that we should join forces on this as well, to protect the integrity of Reston's Master Plan and our vision for the community.

Our joint effort is still in the planning stages, but rest assured you'll be hearing about it very soon. We'll definitely have a presence at the BZA hearing in October, and we'll be keeping the public informed on this issue as well. We will also reach out to Rescue Reston, to discuss how we can aid their efforts.

I'm very inspired by this; it's the first time I can remember that our three organizations are joining forces for a common goal. As I said in my post on working together, we speak much more effectively for Reston when we can speak with one voice. And I think Restonians will be happy to know that we're putting aside turf battles to stand up for our citizens on this important issue.

Our collaboration will send a clear message: We're here, we're watching, and we're united for the best interests of Reston.

One good thing about a existential threat: It tends to get people to do the right thing, at least once all other options are exhausted.

Mills also addressed comments by Supervisor Cathy Hudgins that there's nothing to worry about, as all this is routine.

Perhaps she's right. Perhaps the Board of Zoning Appeals will uphold the decision that the golf course must be open space unless a plan amendment is filed. Perhaps the golf course owners will accept this and stand down. And perhaps we'll all be able to relax and go home.

Maybe. But this doesn't exactly feel routine to us in the community. There seem to be a lot of land-use lawyers involved for a routine inquiry. If the Board of Zoning Appeals upholds the open space designation, the golf course owners might be planning a legal challenge. (Or at least threatening one as an intimidation maneuver.) If that's the case, we in the community will need to be ready for that challenge.

Either way, we'd be better off to get geared up for a fight and discover it's a false alarm, rather than assuming that there's no cause for alarm until it's too late to act.

Meanwhile, our BFFs at Rescue Reston are preparing signs like this:

Visit their fancy "web site" for more details.

Now, the part with the jokes:


Spaulding, get your foot off the boat!

Update: And now for something completely different, a fancy YouTubes video of John Lovaas interviewing Rescue Reston's John Pinkman, in which we learn Reston National is the closest public golf course to the White House. Huh.

On the YouTubes: Another Hellish Glimpse of Our Transit-Oriented Future

Confidential Restonian Twitter Operative "Jon" used a cheap iPhone app sophisticated computer modeling to simulate the future demolition of the beloved Macaroni Grill, which will happen whenever things move forward with the surrounding Reston Spectrum redevelopment.

There are no words, only fancy YouTubes videos.

Flashback Monday: South Reston: The Brochure: The Unnecessary Colon

See, it's not just this "web log" that overuses colons; it's clearly something in the water. But who wouldn't want to live in a town that "helps its people cope with the problems of living in times like these?" Not overly verbose promotional brochure copywriters, that's for sure!

Years before Star Wars would dazzle audiences, Reston marketers mastered the long expository text scroll.

Here's a lovely charcoal rendering of the Sawyers Townhouses, which featured "electric kitchens" and wall-to-wall carpeting. They were touted as being "conveniently located across the street from the Reston South Golf Course," but we've already ridden that nostalgia train.

Lookit, it's Shadowood Condominiums, touted as being within walking distance of the Pony Barn.

And here's Southgate Condominiums, which according to this drawing were conveniently located near a gaping maw in the earth, from which the Sleestaks would emerge at night the golf course, the end.

In Reston: The Magazine, News You Can Use

Soon uniformed federal agents will be delivering the latest issue of Reston: The Magazine to our homes. But in case your weekend plans include confronting your neighbor about the decaying state of your shared party wall what they do with their grass clippings, here's a "sneak peek" at some helpful hints in the helpful "charticle" format those of us in the media elite love us so bad:

These Stock Photo Restonians certainly look like they've resolved whatever neighborly conflict they once had about taking the trash can out at 6:58pm instead of 7:00pm the night before pickup, or whatever. Oddly, "don't make plans to redevelop the golf course" doesn't appear to be on the list.

There is also a picture of a monkey on a telephone in one of the ads in the upcoming issue of Reston: The Magazine, so that's something to look forward to when it arrives in the mail, the end.

Caddyshackpocalypse Now: The RA Grows a Pair of... Fanciful Concrete Bollards

To its credit, the Reston Association grew a pair took a stronger than anticipated position against the scourge of gophers potential redevelopment of Reston National Golf Course when it held a Very Special Meeting yesterday. According to our BFFs at Patch:

Reston Association's Board of Directors voted to adopt a policy that the group is completely opposed to that proposition.... The directors were considering sending out a letter offering residents information about the hearing - as well as encouraging them to attend RA's regular Sept. 13 meeting - but without taking a stance on the issue.

However, South Lakes Director Richard Chew - whose constituents live in the area around the golf course - convinced the board to make a formal policy.

Good on them. Let's hope that position actually translates into some meaningful opposition if when the rubber hits the road. Fighting to preserve open space is certainly a better use of our assessment money than a bunch of no-smoking signs.

Speaking at the meeting, Reston attorney (and one-time board candidate) John Farrell warned the RA Board to be prepared for a fight.

"This application is looking to do 'by right' development. They want to be able to redevelop the golf course into something with close to 7,000 people. They are arguing they don't have to go through the process. That needs to be reiterated to our citizens."

And now, another trip to the YouTube vault for a cheap laugh a few related words of wisdom:



Update: Here's the letter the RA has sent to property owners near the golf course. "We want to assure you that the RA Board plans on being an active participant in this process," the letter states. The RA has also created a spot on its website for information on the golf course.

Caddyshackpocalypse Now: 'Rescue Reston' Forms As Plans For Course Remain Cloudy

Hey, golf fans! Been hitting the links with surveyors equipment and property plats the old golf clubs lately? It's been an interesting couple of weeks at Reston National Golf Course, where the recent unpleasantness is starting to get the attention of the media and county officials.

Folks in the clusters around the Reston National Golf Course have formed "Rescue Reston," a group "committed to defending Reston's planned community open spaces from over development." Feel free to check out their website, Facebook page, or Twitter feed if you're so inclined. They've identified a law firm to represent them, started to raise money, and are planning to design banners, signs and whatnot. In a letter to supporters, they pointed out one particularly germane fact:

We know that everyone is upset, angry, and scared. Expressing what you thought was true is not helpful. All of us labored under false information for years. Let’s not spend time discussing the past but strategically align to preserve the future by facing facts and channeling skilled resources and funds.

The Reston Association is also holding a special meeting today on the golf course, including sending "a letter of support to homeowners near the golf course regarding what they call 'a Potential Threat to a Reston Founding Principle,'" according to our BFFs at Patch.

Meanwhile, Hunter Mill Supervisor Cathy Hudgins tells our Patch BFFs not to worry, as these kinds of requests are totally routine:

"My interpretation is the property owner is asking what he can do with the property," said Hudgins. "It can be for future develpment, but it can also be for refinacing or to sell. The property owners asked for interpretation. The staff gave it. It is not a new thing."

The attorney for the property said similarly comforting things to the Washington Post:

Looney told me that what RN Golf was seeking “is not a rezoning. What this is is trying to determine what the actual zoning of the property is today.” Yes, but then what? Looney said he couldn’t say any more about whether his clients had specific ideas or whether they were just assessing their options.

Color us just the teensiest bit skeptical, as the property owner's appeal to the Board of Zoning Appeals specifically calls for the board to "reverse the Zoning Agent's determinations and direct that the County be required to accept a properly filed and complete PRC Plan application as the next step in redevelopment of Subject Property for residential uses." (Our emphasis, obv.) Not a whole heck of a lot of gray area there, though we're sure that no one's decided whether to put up sweet midrise condos or sweet midrise apartments, or maybe a sweet midrise Cheesecake Factory with sweet midrise condos and sweet midrise apartments on top of it.

Of course, lots of questions remain, including how county officials will react if/when the zoning determination is overturned and an actual development proposal surfaces. We all know the county board has the reputation of being just a soupcon developer-friendly, but given the time and effort they've put into master planning in Reston -- and probably more importantly to them, the walkable urban nirvana that Tysons is supposed to become -- it might not be in their best interest to be blase about this. After all, all the fancy master planning meetings and charettes in the world, no matter how well intentioned, don't add up to much of anything if even one land owner decides to, say, plop a giant parking lot in front of a Metro station or opt out of building connecting sidewalks or trails across their property.

Rescue Reston spokesperson John Pinkman told the Post:

“This is a moment in the town’s history,” Pinkman said, “when we start clarifying who’s going to keep Reston’s promises.”

Exactly.

Okay, here's the part with the jokes: In a RESTONIAN WORLD EXCLUSIVE, here's some grainy YouTubes video of what the first conversations about redeveloping the course just might have sounded like:

We're #7! Reston Reclaims the Mantle So Unfairly Usurped By Manassas Park

Our earth-toned nirvana has been ranked the 7th best place to live in the U.S. by the listicle addicts at Money Magazine, an incredible honor only slightly tainted by previous years' inclusion of cloverleaf intersection Centreville and, of all places, Manassas Park, on the list. (Seriously, WTF?)

Here's what Money had to say about Reston:

Reston may be a planned community, but don't expect cookie-cutter homes here. Thanks to famed master planner Robert Simon, houses of all shapes and sizes sit next to one another.

Activities come in all stripes too, from an über-urban downtown to 55 miles of bike paths, 52 tennis courts, and 15 pools.

Thanks to Reston's growing reputation as a technology hub near Washington Dulles International Airport, major firms have large offices here. Those who do commute to D.C. contend with traffic, but next year's completion of the Washington Metro's extension to Reston will help alleviate the pain.

Sure it will.

Of course, someone (not us, for a change) had to ruin all the fun on the magazine's fancy "web site.":

Exurban nightmare Carmel, Indiana, which has helped sucked the life out of nearby Indianapolis, was the best place to live on the annual list. On the plus side, it does have "a big sports and recreation center." Number two (heh) was McKinney, Texas, where the main draw appears to be homes like this:

We'll stick with earth-toned T-111 siding and stucco, thank you very much.

To be sure, Reston is arguably the most diverse of the "best cities" ranked above it. But the REAL SCANDAL is on the magazine's Fan Favorite Towns, based on how many people "like" their town on Facebook. At the time of this writing, Reston is currently #4, while its evil Maryland doppelganger, Columbia, is climbing the ranks quickly to #13. C'mon folks, Facebook harder or something, the end.

Flashback Monday: A Children's Treasury of Suddenly Deeply Ironic Photos of Reston Growing Around A Golf Course

What a nice conceptual sketch of a happy Reston resident driving his whale-sized vehicle home after a long day of strapping bombs to dolphins work, his spirits cheered by the tree-lined entrance to his neighborhood, nestled in the center of a golf course, of all things. What crazy dreamers!

Here's a golf course just south of the Dulles Access Road surrounded by... well, nothing. But not for long!

The year is 1972. The bourgeoise frolic on the links while the proles workers build the shining black megalith in the background. And also the Sheraton.

Wow, that didn't take long.

Some townhomes being built near a golf course a parcel of indeterminate zoning.

For some unknown reason, real estate developers thought that the presence of a golf course would be enough of a "selling point" for prospective residents of a planned community that they portrayed it prominently in their advertising. Go figure!

Some sweet sweet 80s visuals here. You just know that the guy is listening to some Glenn Fry Frey on his walkman.

This clever photographer hid a parcel of land with indeterminate zoning characteristics somewhere in this picture. Can you spot it?

Update: The Peasant From Less Sought-After South Reston contributes more inspired poetry.

Reston: The Major Motion Picture

Little did we know that Reston was the center of global conspiracy and intrigue! Yeah, actually we did know that, but little did we know that it is the center of global cinema conspiracy and intrigue! Confidential Restonian Operative "Joe" shared this exciting tidbit from the new movie The Bourne Legacy, in which the absence of Matt Damon has provided an opportunity for our earth-toned community to seize the spotlight.

I went to see the new Bourne movie last night in the newly refurbished Bow Tie cinema in RTC and lo and behold blow me down with a feather - in the montage of scenes at the start of the movie, they jump from Alaska to Bethesda to London to New York to Manila to Pakistan to , er, Reston VA (OK, not quite in that order, but it sounds better if I tell it that way). It turns out that Edward Norton’s character lives there and in between sleeping and shutting down the project that produced Jason Bourne and killing large numbers of people in the process, he still has time to train for the Reston triathlon between the hours of 4 and 5am.

I recommend you go and see for yourself. Strangely, Reston is in it for all of 5 seconds and the location reference is utterly irrelevant. Makes me think something suspicious is going on, e.g. someone connected with the Reston Association was involved in the production of the movie and insisted on the inclusion.

"Joe" tells us that there's little in Reston's moment in the spotlight that suggests it was actually filmed here -- just Ed Norton running on a dark wooded street. Clearly he missed this climactic chase scene, in which Jeremy Renner makes a daring jump straight into the light-filled "civic center" of Reston Station.


Our BFFs at Turtle Pond Cinema point out another scene is purportedly set at Herndon's Amphora Diner. What, was the Macaroni Grill not available?

Caddyshackpocalypse Now: Reston National Golf Course to Be Redeveloped? (Updated)

The owner of Reston National Golf Course has sent Fairfax County a letter asking for a routine clarification of the zoning for the 160-plus acre property--and, oh yeah, just for giggles, "the potential for redevelopment of the property to uses other than a golf course," according to the response from county zoning officials. Will fanciful concrete bollards and midrise condos become new hazards?

Our legal specialty is pet divorce, not zoning, but we think that it's safe to interpret the planning staff's response to the idea of potentially rezoning the golf course as at least somewhat tepid. Here's part of the letter:

It goes on like this for a couple of pages. But really, the property owner would just have to go through the same approval process as other redevelopment projects, only working against the fact that the current use of the property isn't existing office or residential space. But then there's the cold hard reality of property values: How many 18-hole golf courses are within a half-mile of Metro stations in the DC area? And Confidential Restonian Operatives have told us that the idea of redeveloping the course has come up during previous master planning meetings. Of course, during those same task force meetings, there's been a call for at least 54 acres of additional open space to accommodate all the growth in the area, not less of it.

The RA appears to have been taken by surprise by all this activity, according to our BFFs at Patch:

Reston Association President Ken Knueven says he only recently heard about the inquiry, but the Board of Directors will look into the matter.

"Any time we look at any redevelopment, we are also going to adhere to what we consider essential Reston and protecting green space," he said.

Of course, no redevelopment plan has been proposed (at least not yet). And there may be a perfectly innocent reason for the request for zoning information. Maybe Reston National just wants to build a really bitchin' snack bar:



Update: The property owner has appealed the original determination by county zoning officials and has filed a request for the Board of Zoning Appeals to "reverse the Zoning Agent's determinations and direct that the County be required to accept a properly filed and complete PRC Plan application as the next step in redevelopment of Subject Property for residential uses." (PDF here). A hearing has been scheduled for October, so it looks like the property owners weren't just asking about the zoning designation to settle a bet in the clubhouse.

The Reston Association issued a press release stating it "has been made aware" of the review process initiated by the golf course owners and is "researching the history of zoning for the golf course property and what our options might be." The RA release states:

Knowing this matter would have significant impact on the community, we will keep them informed of what we have learned. This includes a letter to all RA property owners that border the golf course, making them aware of our research, the events and a scheduled hearing before the Fairfax County Board of Zoning Appeals on Oct. 24.

We will also be discussing the issue at our next board meeting on Sept. 13 and encourage you to attend.

Members of Golf Course Cluster are also weighing their options.

"This is a detailed legal battle and is not political in nature," said John Pinkman, a resident of the cluster for 20 years. "I am advised that the most prudent method of preventing this from happening is legal research and action; not phone calls to supervisors, political entities, or petitions. We need to quickly raise funds directly from homeowners to hire specific land use attorneys. "

Sounds about right.

The Washington Examiner weighs in with an article. The golf course's owners and their attorneys have still not publicly commented on what plans, if any, they have for the property.

Flashback Monday: Happy Five-Year Blogiversary to Some Crappy 'Web Log'

Strap on the skinny jeans and set the Earth-Toned Wayback Machine to 2007, an era when the property values on our homes had only started to plummet, when the county was just starting to look for a developer partner to do something with a kiss and ride lot off Wiehle Avenue on the off chance the Metro might actually make it out this way, our neighbors to the west had won a decisive battle for the FOX Nation the town, and some fancy "web log" was launched on a Friday the 13th, just to be annoying.

In those simpler, happier times, no one had heard of fanciful concrete bollards, Bratz, or rad 80s art, and if you'd told people they'd put a Wal-Mart within a stone's throw of a Mercedes dealership in Tysons, they'd have laughed with at you. Just look back at 2007, through the gauzy lens of late-oughts nostalgia:

Fun Fact: It is believed that archeologists unearthed the very Treo in this drawing shortly after this picture was taken.

But the nostalgia isn't over yet! Behold this fancy screen grab of this web log's very first post:

As you can see, our web design skills have improved by leaps and bounds since then.

In conclusion, it's been a great five years, and as we slouch towards delivering our millionth page view, we probably should have put all that time and effort into launching a tumblr about cute kitties and gotten that lucrative book contract instead, the end.

Design Hawtness: Another Look at Reston Station's Future Field of Parallelograms

A Confidential Restonian Operative alerted us to this hawtt new (to us) series of renderings of Reston Station, the wonderland of parallelograms that will soon rise atop the parking garage for the Wiehle Avenue Metro Station. We'll stick with our earlier, highly informed assessment from our years playing SimCity studying contemporary urban architecture -- they're actually pretty nice. At worse, they're a lot better than most off-the-shelf office dreck. Of course, dramatic clouds make just about anything look nice, or at least uncannily like an excessively earnest progressive rock album cover.

Here's a new look at the fancy "civic plaza" in the middle of the project. Initially criticized for its small size and lack of sunlight due to the tall buildings, it seems nice and light-filled here; maybe they added three suns to AutoCad to ensure proper lighting in this rendering. More encouraging is the lack of cars, since there was originally talk about how pedestrians will have to dodge harried commuters on their way to the Cheesecake Factory share the space with auto traffic at least part of the time.

Here's an aerial view and AW HELL YES A HELIPAD! We know where we'll be relocating Restonian World Headquarters come 2014.

But something seems... missing. Wonder what it could be?

That's it. Much better.

The Personal Injury Lawyers Road Oakey-Pokey

As VDOT prepares to remove nearly 60 trees in Great Falls following the July death of a driver there, our favorite correspondent, The Peasant From Less Sought After South Reston, shares a photo from his own harrowing experience a bit closer to home.

The Peasant From Less Sought After South Reston has commented more than once about being in the right place at the right time to breathlessly capture some breaking news for this “web-log”, but his latest on-the-spot reporting is more a matter of, fortunately, not being in the wrong place at the wrong time. On July 31, The Peasant was steering his turbo-charged 328i limited edition oxcart east on Personal Injury Lawyers Road near Myrtle when two large oaks on an embankment came crashing down across the road not 10 seconds after The Peasant had passed that very spot. Forensics indicated that it was an apparent murder-suicide, as one oak gave up the ghost and took the second with it, apparently after discovering the heated affair its partner had been having with that neighboring strumpet of a maple. (“Ooh, Oakey, every time you show me your nuts my sweet sap just gets running.”)

Other than this double “oak-icide” , there were fortunately no casualties (snark aside, as was not the case with that unfortunate soul killed recently on Georgetown Pike when a massive oak toppled). The Peasant was highly impressed that the first VDOT crew arrived on the scene within 10 minutes, and within 45 minutes all was back to normal for the usual hordes of kamikaze commuters and spandexed cyclists. We took away from this incident both a new appreciation of why Personal Injury Lawyers Road is such an apt name, as well as new lyrics for a classic popular song.

The Oakey Pokey

You put your right branch in
You put your right branch out
You put your right branch in
And you shake it all about
You do the oakey pokey
And you topple to the ground
That’s what it’s all about!

This, among other things, is why the Peasant is the official Restonian Poet Laureate.

On the YouTubes: We Watch the Reston Association Videos So You Don't Have To

We're still in the middle of the dog days of summer, so what better visuals to greet us as we begin our monthly video exploration of all things Reston than an empty, dug-out pool in which no hot children will play, ever, this summer? Not even Andy Sigle's dulcet tones can take away the Sad of seeing the gutted Dogwood Pool, which will not open this season due to ongoing delays. Zero depth entry pool, fountain jets, and a spray and play area -- all of that Awesome will just have to wait. Good thing there are a few other pools in Reston we can go to in a pinch!

Hey, good news! Turns out you can get your driver's license from an RV parked in front of Reston Town Center. Why RTC? Because as the one part of Reston not governed by the RA, it's the only place where the DMV was actually allowed to park an RV. We'll be sure to bring the Winnebago by for a visit the next time the DMV's in town. Do they have septic hookups near the Mercury Fountain?

There's also some stuff about exotic invasive plants and the Weed Warriors and whatnot, but we weren't really paying attention because we were really rattled by a brief snippet of video:

WATCH OUT, ANDY! Obviously, someone at Reston Today is a film buff, as this is almost a frame-by-frame recreation of this climactic scene.

And with that, we're left to confront the end of yet another summer, as our time on this planet grows inexorably shorter as darkness comes sooner with each passing day. Happy summer!

Game of Earth-Toned Thrones: Boston Properties Reston Town Center Acquisition Solidifies Developers' Grasp

Developer Boston Properties' announcement that it is forming a joint venture with an undisclosed partner to acquire the original Reston Town Center buildings on Fountain Square for $385 million signals the continuing consolidation of developers -- and development -- in Reston. Like that midnight dorm room game of Risk we keep yammering on about, a handful of big developers is getting ready to profit from bring about big change to our earth-toned community.

Boston Properties is already building out the last undeveloped block of Reston Town Center with the Avant, its 359-unit residential building, complete with 27,000 square feet of ground-level retail. Boston also owns 20 acres of land connecting the Reston Town Center with the future Metro station, including the current temporary park and ride lot, so it's safe to say they have Big Plans involving the station and its growing Reston Town Center portfolio. Hopefully it involves Jetsons-style moving sidewalks!

Of course, they're not alone. JBG is emerging as the king of Reston redevelopment, what with the now-approved Fairway Apartments redevelopment and its long-delayed -- but still on the books -- plans to continue redeveloping Chili's the land around the Reston International Center on the other side of the Toll Road as part of its Reston Heights project. The most recent plans there called for 145,000 square feet of above-grade retail, including a grocery, 10,000 square feet of "below-grade retail" (for the Mole People), at least 230,000 square feet of office space and nearly 500 residential units. Washington Nationals owner Lerner continues to prepare its own redevelopment of big-box schlockfest (and Macaroni Grill home) Reston Spectrum. And Comstock's private-public partnership with Fairfax County on Reston Station involves plenty-o-parallelograms to be built atop the Wiehle Avenue Metro parking garage.

But why should the familiar names have all the sweet redevelopment fun? Hines, a global developer of high-end properties, has submitted a proposal to redevelop the county-owned Crescent Apartments near Lake Anne; an announcement from the county on the future of the 16-acre parcel is expected sometime this fall. And other one-off development ventures, including what would be Reston's largest mauvescraper, are also in the works. But clearly there's big money to be had in Reston, and the big players are clearly getting their ducks in a row.

Flashback Monday: The South Lakes Village Center That Almost Was

You'd be excused for thinking this is an extremely optimistic rendering of the old, zombie-infested Hunters Woods Village Center, or maybe what planners in Old Blighty thought their own dystopian "new town" might have looked like if it wasn't in a country where it rains 340 days a year. But this is actually the first whack at what planners envisioned for South Lakes Village center, way back in 1977. We had no idea!

Note the smaller separate parking lots divided by the then-in-vogue pedestrian mall. Maybe in the midst of the energy crisis, planners thought people might be willing to walk to stores (at least on odd or even days). We know how that idea turned out, and so did planners, who ultimately went for the more traditional awesome strip mall style we all know and tolerate love.

The connection to the lake is the one element that remained in the final design. And for good reason.

The actual plastic fantastic plan. Save for the lake access, it's pretty much your generic strip mall, made slightly more Reston-y by adding a bunch of trees in the drawring -- the classic architect apology for designing something he or she knows is going to be ugly.

And here's the final product, photographed sometime in the 1980s.

We get that the strip mall design is what's been proven to work, even in fancy New Urbanist Reston, where even the strip mall that isn't visible from the road has suffered. But we still would have enjoyed walking around Plan A a lot more, at least while there were actual viable businesses there.

Guess the Mauve Bits Pt. 8: The Triumphant Return of the Gaming Sensation You Didn't Even Knew You Missed

Hey, fans of Internet fun and HOA regulations! Fuel up your RC aircraft and get ready to take to the skies as we resurrect everyone's favorite game of guessing mauve bits of our favorite earth-toned community, courtesy of the emerging unchecked surveillance state the friendly Google Maps machine. Inspired by the (false) promise of brand new Buicks, previous "winners" managed to identify various edges of curvy buildings and Escher wannabes in between 7 and 33 minutes, so we thought we'd try to make this one a bit harder. We doubt it'll matter.

Attractive, no? Have at it. We'll post another picture of this landmark feature "in context" if no one gets it. Bonus points (or Buicks) if you can figure out guess what this amalgamation of hardware actually does, the end.

Update: You people! Two commenters guessed correctly within a minute of each other at 34 and 35 minutes out, respectively. Still, that's a Guess the Mauve Bits(tm)(R) record! Both commenters correctly identified the unidentified bits as a rooftop feature of the Hyatt at Reston Town Center, as shown in this slightly wider shot:

Still no idea what it does, but we think it might have something to do with the Triffids.

With Purchase of Rendered Chicken Bits, Culture War Won Forever

This fancy Twitter picture shows the scene of ABSOLUTE CHAOS at the Reston Chick-Fil-A yesterday, which for one day became Ground Zero of the complex and nuanced debate currently underway in this country -- a debate in which reasonable people are discussing in rational ways how best to reconcile and respect conflicting and overlapping value systems, including the role of the state, personal and spiritual beliefs, human rights, generational change, and, above all, the deliciousness of rendered chicken scraps pulled from the walls of industrial abattoirs and reconstituted into "nuggets." Fortunately, this isn't Communist Russia (yet), so people were able to express their God-given Constitutional rights of free expression by purchasing waffle fries from one purveyor of pre-processed industrial food instead of another purveyor of pre-processed industrial food (i.e., those godless heathens at Popeyes). Frankly, this "web logger" hasn't seen such a powerful example of societal change in action since Chicago 1968, when anti-war protestors boldly defied existing social and political norms and went en masse to a Jack in the Box.

Fellow "web logger" Marooned in Marin ("currently living in exile in Fairfax County, Va.") posted a web log post that proudly displayed a photo of the mass-market chicken product he purchased at said establishment under the words "Chew on this Libs!"

"This is what freedom tastes like," he wrote. We couldn't agree more.

Somewhere Over the DRB-Violating Rainbow

Twitter Operative "SportySarahKM" shared this exciting photo of a double rainbow following yesterday afternoon's brief hailpocalypse thundershower. Along with a panolpy of colors that cause great offense to the DRB palette, this picture suggests that the fabled End of the Rainbow is somewhere in the neighborhood of On the Border, which sounds just about right if you substitute leprechauns and the pot of gold for dudes wearing khakis and $4.99 loaded "poppers," whatever those are, the end.