News and notes from Reston (tm).

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

A Children's Treasury of Renderings of RTC's Westward Expansion

Now that the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors has given final approval to plans to remake the stodgy old Reston Executive Center on Sunset Hills Road into an exciting mixed use retail extravaganza known as RTC West, we can anticipate Reston's gritty urban core extending, tentaclelike, to within footsteps of the future Metro station. And what better time to break into the 173-page staff report to get a look at our exciting future. Here we go!

Current
Here's the current site, surrounded by surface parking and Chipolte's (sadly, Targetville is not labeled). Bo-ring!

Mesmery
Here's the new mixed-use hawtness, which will be created by adding new retail space to the bottoms of both buildings. It's part of a broader strategy by RTC West owner JBG to rehab its older Reston properties to cash in on the sweeeeeet Metro bounty. We just can't wait to shop at Mesmery, Plain Note, and Endless Wok.

Busy exec and slacker sister
Here a busy executive and her estranged slacker sister sit on uncomfortable wooden furniture, awaiting their separate reservations at Endless Wok.

Future consumer
A future consumer, being indoctrinated introduced to the fun of strolling in the sorts of privately administered, mixed-use "third places" that, by the time he/she is grown, will have replaced virtually all public gathering spots -- which is fine, until you feel the need to protest or maybe take a photo. But hey -- trendy midscale retail!

Boss signs
Will there be awesome signage? Yes, yes there will.

Font rules
We pity the fool that uses Garamond, not Gothic Black for the signage.

Drama
New construction = dramatic sunsets. We can't wait to shop at Nano, a store that only sells discontinued products from the Apple store around the corner, and Shoe Carnival, which sells... shoes for clowns? We dunno.

Edgy
EDGY. Corey Hart would approve.

Pavers
And finally, after poring through dozens of these staff reports, some DRB-pleasing paver palettes (say that three times fast) we can all get behind, the end.

4 comments:

  1. Nice models. Talk about 50 Shades of Beige.

    ReplyDelete
  2. We're blinded by beige and other smearish depictions of diaper contents. Awesome! Thank you very hard.

    ReplyDelete
  3. If that is RTC West, then what is RTC East?

    Tall Oaks?

    ReplyDelete
  4. http://gizmodo.com/the-secret-lives-of-the-tiny-people-in-architectural-re-1660746735

    ReplyDelete

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