In March we announced the preliminary completion of Tysons’s first block of new road grid, enveloping the Ascent high rise off of Springhill Road. The completion of the road signaled nothing functionally and everything potentially and at its core it exemplifies why planning between projects is necessary. Without this needed planning each property would continue to develop individually without any connectivity for infrastructure.
The new road grid is composed of three streets which wrap the north, east, and south side of the Ascent building. New sidewalks, street trees, and human scale ground level have taken what was a perennially empty parking lot and transformed it into a liveable block.
What are the newest roads in Tysons named?
Broad Street defines the north side of the building, with East Street along the east and West Street along the west. Yes, a massive snooze fest of creativity, and hopefully a placeholder until some more interesting names come along. I’m extremely surprised Georgelas didn’t take the opportunity to place make in their selection of road names.
For a project that has ambitious goals of becoming the arts district over the next two decades, it seems there was no thought about highlighting Georgelas’s ongoing funding of Tysons first theater, 1st Stage(which happens to be across the street)? Something along the lines of Stage Left Drive, Spotlight Street, or as simple as Arts Drive would establish those future goals.
For now the road is ho-hum in both its function and naming. This new grid won’t get you very far in Tysons, simply connecting a new road along side of the container store from Route 7 with Springhill Road, but it lays the ground work for a future road system that will run parallel to Route 7.
What do you think it should be named?
