The problem of what to do with suburban edge cities with their mega malls, inhospitable pedestrian environments, and thousands of parking spaces will be one of the biggest challenges facing urban environments in the coming decades. Tysons Corner in Northern Virginia has been used as the perfect example of an edge city, springing from its status as a census designated place, with no discernible center other then its collection of malls and office parks. What makes it different though, is that it is an edge city with a plan, when the Washington, DC metro rail system arrives in the next couple of years the city has laid out a vision for the future that is very different from its present.
“This is your classic drivable suburban place that is anchored by a regional mall, just like Perimeter Center in Atlanta; King of Prussia, outside Philadelphia; Schaumberg, west of Chicago; Newport Beach; and Costa Mesa south of Los Angeles,” says Chris Leinberger, a developer turned academic and urbanist who is now at the Brookings Institution. “This is, however, one of the biggest, if not the biggest concentration of retail, office and hotels in the suburbs, in the country.”
“This is something that we the people wanted very badly,” he says. “What we didn’t know is as you build more of it, you decrease the quality of life.”
The city has woken up to the fact that in today’s world, and more importantly marketplace, people want walkable, livable, urban environments. The city plans to capitalize on its connection to the Washington metro by turning itself into one of these environments, a city in its own right. Building off the success of previous developments like the Bethesda metro center, the city is planning a drastic a redesign of the urban environment.
Bill Lecos, who runs the Fairfax Chamber of Commerce, admits that Tysons was designed for cars, not people. “About 17,000 live here and about 117,000 — give or take — come to work here every day,” Lecos says. “So that incredible imbalance is why you have the absolute commuter nightmare of trying to get 117,000 people in, in one period of time in the morning, and out again at 5 o’clock.” S
Tysons Corner Today
In order to fix this imbalance the major goal of the plan is to increase residential housing stock in a big way. Plans call for the construction of enough housing units for 100,000 people, but in order to create the livable environment the city will need more than just new housing stock it means a complete redesign of the city with no love for pedestrians. Things like pedestrian lights that are too short, sidewalks to nowhere, and acres and acres of parking will need to be changed.
Tysons Corner's Potential Future
The plan calls for a grid of streets, shorter blocks, and better public transportation linkages. What’s different about this urban plan is that there are no plans to restore the former vibrancy, because in this case it didn’t exist. By the looks of things that entire area will be rebuilt, it doesn’t appear that many structures have made it from the before to the after pictures. However, the city hopes to be a model for how to transform these former edges cities into livable urban environments. Time will tell, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction.
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