LMI is moving their headquarters from McLean to what is quickly becoming Headquarters Row on Jones Branch Drive. The new headquarters will anchor a to-be-built 11-story office building near the 495 express lane ramp to Jones Branch between fortune 500 companies Fannie Mae, Gannett, and Hilton Worldwide. The new office tower is designed by architecture firm Gensler and developed by MRP Realty. (CoStar)
Last night WUSA9 did a great story about the Option 3 Dulles Toll Road ramp plan for Boone Boulevard which was publicly discussed this past summer, and for the most part demonized by residents in Tysons and Vienna. The plan proposes creating an excessively wide road for the proposed Boone Boulevard extension and connecting this road directly to DTR, which would induce significant avoidance traffic to pour onto currently walkable and bikeable regions of Tysons. The story discusses the importance of the buffer space as well as the public amenity of green space in urban environments in its interview of Pam Konde, Greater Tysons Green Civic Association. (WUSA9)
Fairfax County Board of Supervisors will hear Capital One’s master plan tonight after the Planning Commission recommended approval last week. The plan has had opponents from MCA and for good cause. For a significant period of time Capital One had argued that their tax obligations should be reduced in comparison to previously approved rezonings and not compared to the actual built condition. This would have set a new precedent in Fairfax and it was a good sign for future negotiations with developers that it was conceded. (Reston Patch)
SAIC recently announced it would be splitting the company in two in order to focus operations… and that was about all they said about it. Unfortunately it has held a lot of employees and public officials in a holding pattern about what the potential restructuring could mean for the Fortune 500s presence in Tysons and Fairfax abroad. The Washington Post digs through the relatively small quantity of indications and statements to sort it out. (Washington Post)
Urbanism Concept of the Day
PARK(ing) Day was last week… don’t worry if you’ve never heard of it, I hadn’t either until twitter blew up with examples of urban parklets being planted for the day. It gives daily commuters, pedestrians, and retail shops an idea about how their frontage and street interaction can go from an often wasted parking lot to an amenity which encourage customers and improves inter-modal safety. Unfortunately, there were exactly 0 (zero) examples here in Tysons, a city which many have called the Mecca of parking. Hopefully this time next year we can help in forming a parking day parklet in one of the many multi-thousand space empty wastelands here in Town.