Flashback Monday: Reston in 1969, The Summer of Mauve

Set the earth-toned Wayback Machine to 1969, where this exciting "photo graph" shows our beloved community rising from the primeval forest. This is one of our favorite aerial photos of Reston, as there's scads of stuff happening in it. (A ridiculously high-res version is here.)

Near the center of the photo, you can see Wiehle Avenue dead-ending at the intersection with Sunset Hills, way short of the Dulles Access Road (bottom left corner), a pristine field and a couple of trees standing where parallelograms will soon rise. In the upper left, you can see the water tower for the 'ole distillery, which would continue turning out hooch for U.Va. frat boys for another decade or so.

Almost at dead center is Isaac Newton Square, where the old RA headquarters building and the Ebola-tainted monkey lab proudly stood. A few other bomb-to-dolphin strapping outfits businesses are to the south of Sunset Hills in the lower left corner, while the townhouses of Golf Course Island (with an empty patch of land reserved for the Island Walk cooperative) are directly behind it. To its right, on the other side of Wiehle, is a stand of trees that would eventually become Tall Oaks.

And if you squint and look in the upper right-hand corner, you can see Heron House and the rest of the Lake Anne Village Center, still surrounded by trees and whatnot, with the fields of Hook Road already carved out on the other side of the lake. But most thrillingly of all, if you look at the white scar of denuded land on the east side of Wiehle near the center of the photo, you can almost smell the grease from Reston's once and future home of fast-food goodness: the McTacoHut, the end.

Sex Sells: Racy Store, Or Maybe Just Economic Development Trends in Retail Sector, Sends The Action McNews Van to Lake Anne Plaza

Who knew that a simple piece of lingerie hung in a store window would draw so much attention? The Action McNews Team rushed to Lake Anne Plaza to discuss the economic development issues involving differentiated retailing opportunities in a transitioning retail market. Oh, who are we kidding? They came to juxtapose images of naughty nighties with kids playing innocently in the nearby fountain. We smell a local Emmy!

Confidential Restonian Operatives tell us that there's some frantic behind-the-scenes scrambling to invalidate the lease for Maria’s Passion Paradise due to the way the property was subdivided or find some other loophole to keep the store from opening. Our BFFs at Patch managed to track down the store's owner, Tiana Coturro, who stresses that she's going for a tasteful retail experience.

"I want to have my own business and help people," Coturro said. "So I started thinking lingerie and candles, things that make you feel good. I originally thought about having workshops to help couples who are in committed relationships. I am not a licensed therapist or anything. This is more about entertainment, ways to get in a romantic mood."

Call us old-fashioned, but we prefer flipping through musty used copies of Looking For Mr. Goodbar whilst noshing on something delectable from a cupcakery. Apparently the Lake Anne of Reston Condominium Association and the Lake Anne Merchants Association agree:

Lake Anne Merchants' Association president Eve Thompson says for her, the issue isn't adult merchandise - it is the quality of the merchandise.

"Our niche at Lake Anne has got to be 'small and boutique,' " says Eve Thompson. "We have to work hard at being excellent. Not everyone here is doing that.  We are trying hard to bring quality merchants here and also to get the merchants we have here to adapt a level of quality."

We'll leave it to you, faithful "web log" readers, to envision what "quality" might look like in this context, the end.

Millions Wise and Billions Foolish: Airport Authority Opts for Above-Ground Metro Station

As widely suspected as the pressure continued to mount, the airport authority voted Wednesday to reverse itself and build the Dulles Airport Metro station above ground, in the vague proximity of the parking lots airport.

The move is hardly surprising, given the airport authority's well-publicized trip to the woodshed, courtesy of U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. The writing was on the wall after the Loudoun County board of supervisors publicly signaled their willingness earlier in the week to foot more of the bill for developing stations in its particleboard wastelands -- with the above-ground station as a condition.

Bottom line? Barring catastrophe, Phase 2 of the Silver Line will be built. The Dulles station will be above-ground, ugly, and inconvenient to airport travelers. Toll Road tolls will continue to rise, but maybe a bit less than the worst-case scenario (keep clapping!) And the Silver Line, which was initially billed as a much-needed connection to the airport, will actually become a tool to fuel further development in the Dulles Corridor, especially with the public-private partnerships that will wind up building the remaining stations. The good news for us in Reston is that, with the threat of the Silver Line ending at Wiehle no longer an issue, all that development will get spread out along the Dulles Corridor a bit more, and not just end with a collection of parallelograms surrounded by Loudoun cut-through commuters sitting in perpetual gridlock on Wiehle Avenue, the end.

The Action McNews Van Returns to Reston, This Time for a Wacky Contracting Mishap

The Action McNews Van found its way to Reston yet again last week, this time to cover some wacky contractor shenanigans. Our favorite part?

Moore walked over next door and said she asked one of the workers what happened.
“He said, ‘Oh, ah, mistake. We fixed it,” said Moore.

We've heard that before.

'Commercial' Establishment Coming to Lake Anne (Wink Wink Nudge Nudge Say No More)

A Confidential Restonian Operative sent us this photo from Lake Anne Village Center, prompting us to wonder just what the nature of this "commercial" establishment will be.


Say no more.

Update: Our BFFs at Patch have more about the exciting new business that will soon grace Lake Anne. Maria's Passion Paradise? Maybe they'll sell smoothies or something.

Flashback Monday: Welcome to Reston!

This exciting photo is of the Reston Visitors Center, which was nestled on the shores of Lake Newport. Imagine the excitement of walking into the soaring atrium and receiving a series of informational brochures about the residential developments rising from the earth behind it.

The building is now home to a real estate company, which we guess it always was if you think about it.

More Fancy Drawrings of Reston Station, With Nary a 90-Degree Angle in Sight

Please to be enjoying these exciting architectural drawrings of various parallelogram-shaped buildings. You're not looking at plans for some futuristic postmodern development on a German airport service road, but rather our very own futuristic postmodern development on our very own airport service road: Reston Station, which is now our Facebook BFF.

These fancy Facebook pictures represent three of the buildings that will make up the 550,000 square feet of office space at the Metro development. Here they are again, from a different angle, and also as they will appear in the upcoming CGI movie: Tron: Design Review Board Investigators:

We'll give Comstock credit: When they promised "world class architecture," at least they don't appear to be delivering your typical blocky DC suburban midrise office shlock. But for those who prefer their buildings to join together at right angles, please to be enjoying this drawring of the planned residential complex at Reston Station:

Of course, this is what Reston Station looks like now:

"The hole gets bigger and bigger." "Rough terrain." You'd almost think they were alluding to the ongoing hilarity involving extending the Metro line being built right behind this giant dirt pit. But no worries! The Reston Association has decided to send a letter to the airport authority, urging it to finish building Phase 2 of the Silver Line, so all the recent unpleasantness is as good as solved. (The full text is here.)

So yay, pointy buildings and piles of dirt (viewable in real time via this fancy webcam). The only thing that gives us pause?

Brambleton likes this? What, are they going to clad the pedestrian walkway to the Metro station in vinyl siding or something?