In 2008 when county officials announced an ambitious plan to transform suburban Tysons into a vibrant, sustainable urban center, some local residents surely must have wondered whether it was a hoax. Located several miles west of downtown Washington and known as a major shopping hub, Tysons was filled with acres upon acres of parking lots and snarled traffic. It was anything but the ideal urban neighborhood.
Fast forward several years and it is obvious that Tysons is in the midst of a rapid transformation. Silver Line trains now whisk commuters to and from four Metro stations, sorely needed greenspace has been added, and a large number of commercial and residential project have recently come to market. Some of the most visible change can be found at the Tysons Corner Center mall, where developers have brought in half a million square feet of Class A office space, a 30-story residential tower, and a Hyatt Regency.
And more change is on the way. The Boro, a 4.2 million-square foot mixed-use project in the heart of Tysons, recently received a thumbs up from county planning officials. When completed, the development will alter the street grid by cutting a ‘superblock’ into several smaller blocks, improving walkability. Further east, Capital One is moving forward with an expansion of its corporate headquarters that will include the second tallest building in the metropolitan area, a high-rise residential building, retail, and civic space.
With so much movement on the ground, Tysons is starting to make the county officials who created the comprehensive plan for an urban center look like clairvoyants. The question for Tysons no longer centers on whether it can successfully urbanize; the question now is, how long will it take?
