U r b a n T r e k k e r

Getting to Walkability

The DC government gets down to its urban metric.

Getting To Walkability

View more presentations from mrlerner.

Northern Virginia 2020 Transportation Plan

IF you're buying sometime in the FY 2010 to 2020, learning the details on transportation planning slated for Northern Virginia, probably won't hurt. Just to make sure that the property you're buying is not going to ended up in some sort of eminent domain.

According to the 2020 transportation plan map, here are the eight major corridors:

1. Dulles/VA-7 corridor
2. Tri-County/ Loudoun County Parkway & VA 234/VA 659 corridor
3. VA 28 corridor
4. Prince William County Parkway (VA-3000) corridor
5. Fairfax County Parkway (VA 7100) corridor
6. I-66/US-29/US-50 corridor
7. I-495 beltway corridor
8. I-95/-395/ US 1 corridor

In addition to these corridors there are selected improvements and other improvements that include outside the corridors above. Mostly the plan involved some sorts of roads/ highways infrastructure - bypass, interchanges- whether new or widening existing roads. I'm not a big fan of more roads, I think other transportation mechanism is preferable, like light rail, small feeder buses that can connect some neighborhoods to the nearest metro stations, bike trails, pedestrian trails - anything that will help reduce road congestion. And get more people to use the mass transit.

NOVA 2020 Trans Plan Map

Highlights:

• For VA 28 corridor (Fairfax, Manassas), there's a transit plan slated for light rail from Manassas to Dulles Airport with a capital cost of $790 million. More likely for 2020 FY.

• FY 2010 selected improvements metrorail extension from Dulles corridor to VA 772 in Loudoun and metrorail extension from Vienna to Centreville. (the Centreville plan I haven't heard about it).

• 2020 improvements include metrorail from Dunn Loring to Tysons Corner to Maryland.

• Light rail in US 1 corridor from Alexandria to the Pentagon.

• 2010 FY and 2020 bicycle and pedestrian improvements.

2010 major improvements include Columbia Pike to Pentagon Trail, Springfield to Tysons Corner Bikeway

2020 major improvements include Light rail VA 7 -Tysons Corner to Baileys Crossroads; Columbia Pike corridor -Baileys Crossroads to Pentagon, VA-7 (4 to 6 lanes) Seven Corners to Baileys Crossroads.

Read the 2020 NOVA transportation report here.

--

Correction: Headline should read not "Virginia" but Northern Virginia.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Tysons-Dulles Corridor Real Hot Topics (metrodcliving.com)

The Best Home Designs in Arlington

The winner of Design Arlington 2009 Awards Program. These designs below are just beautiful. You'll be more impressed when you digging into more details (more like before and after) about their places, here. 

Awards of Excellence

 Fort Scott Residence,
(2765 Fort Scott Drive)

Owners: Michael Reamy and Andres Tremols
Architect: David Jameson Architect, Inc.
Other: Carl Petty Associates, Ltd.Spout Run Residence,
(2758 North Nelson Street)

Owners: David Harris and Elena Sterlin
Architect: David Jameson Architect, Inc.
Others: Added Dimensions, Inc.McGlone Residence,
(4521 32nd Road North)

Owners: William McGlone and Lisa Ruskowski
Architect: Wiedemann Architects, LLC
Others: McNamara Brothers, Inc.; Frank Chow, P.E.ECO-Art,
(Crystal City Water Park)

Sponsor: Crystal City Business Improvement District
Artist: Sergio Martinez
Others: Vornado/Charles E. Smith; Archstone-Smith

Awards of Merit

Flynn/Harless Residence,
(521 North George Mason Drive)

Owners: Eileen Flynn and J. Paul Harless
Architect: Susan Woodward Notkins Architects, PC
Others: Smeda, Inc.; Tony Beale, P.E.; Clark’s Lumber & MillworkHibbitt Residence,
(1028 North Daniel Street)

Owner: Karen Hibbitt
Architect: Moore Architects, PC
Others: GN Contracting; Structural Design Services, PLLC

220 Twentieth,
(220 20th Street South)

Owner: Vornado / Charles E. Smith
Architect: Dorsky Hodgson Parrish Yue
Others: Balfour Beatty; HOK; Hartman Design Group

The Shelton,
(3215 24th Street South)

Owner: AHC, Inc.
Architect: Bonstra Haresign ARCHITECTS
Others: Harkin Builders; Landscape Architect Bureau

The Wooster and The Mercer Lofts,
(1600 Clarendon Boulevard and 1615 North Queen Street)

Owner: Abdo Development, LLC
Architect: Cunningham|Quill Architects
Others: Abdo Construction, LLC; Davis Construction;
Ehlert/Bryan, Inc.; GHT, Ltd.

Kettler Capitals Iceplex,
(609 North Glebe Road)

Owner: Arlington County Board
Architect: Architecture, Inc.
Others: VIKA, Inc.; RTA Group;
Rathegeber Goss Associates

Arlington Arts Center,
(3550 Wilson Boulevard)

Owner: Arlington County Board
Architect: cox graae + spack architects
Others: McMullan & Associates;
Century Engineering, Inc.;
R.C. Fields, Jr. & Associates

[via Arlington County]

Nearly $2 Billion for Region's High Speed Rail Funding

  

The $2 billion allocated for the region - Virginia, Maryland and mid-Atlantic states, which is part of the stimulus funds. However, Virginia didn't get the $1.8 billion it requested for the 19 high-speed rail projects from Petersburg to DC. $620 million slated for upgrading 480 miles of track in the Southeast corridor from Charlotte - Raleigh - Richmond - Washington DC. Maryland and DC gets the $1.2 billion for development along Northeast corridor, from DC to Boston.

Full story here.

--

image: bullet train Shinkansen 500, Japan

Smart Home Program and The Nats Stadium: Eco Aquarium, EcoBuild

About a few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to attend two Eco Aquarium sessions at EcoBuild, a 3 day conference in DC for the built professionals. Eco Aquarium is about presentations from people/ professionals, who have been there. It's kinda learning from the experts. The sessions provide very interesting insights to problems, challenges, and things learn into various 'green' projects.

The two sessions were about Smart Home Program, a project from Duke University and the Nats stadium being the first green ballpark in the U.S. that happens to be in our backyard. The Smart Home Program is a live-in lab at Duke, where students participate in an opportunity for bring innovative technology for residential industry. It took a couple of years to build the smart home, which is a 6,000 square feet research lab. Jim Gaston, who is the leader for this project, says that they had groundbreaking in 2005, but then realized that they had no money to financed the project. So, the students spent a year in 2006 to do fundraising. Construction then begins in 2007 and completed in the same year. The SH project earns a LEED Platinum. 

  

image: via SHP (more pics, here)

Some of the features you can find in the smart home. Via Smart Home Program.

• There are 5 double bedrooms in the home (4 on the top and 1 on the bottom).
• They are designated by their compass location. For example, the room on the north face on the east side is called Northeast Bedroom.
• Each bedroom is approximately 250 square feet and comes furnished with a 2 of the following: 3/4 loft,desk and chari, bookshelf, dresser, and wardrobe.
• A 2-person lab counter is provided in each room with a window view as extra working space for projects.

They have some pretty fascinating products/ projects in the works. Currently, the SH Program have few students working on a few projects. For example, there is a student working on the future of home wireless technology, where one day you can put your gadgets like laptop, cell phone, etc. on the table and re-charge your gadgets. You can read more about the program, here. 

Building the stadium for the Nats, created different challenges. Anika Landrenau, Architect with HOK, talks about the challenges they faced and things they learn in the process. Though the Nats is the first green stadium, LEED Silver, in the U.S., because they deal with different parties with different interests - the stadium owner and DC government - HOK didn't tell contractors that they're building towards LEED certification. The idea was to create a sustainable site where it's a Transit Oriented Development, involved in a voluntary cleanup project in a brownfield site with an intricate 30 acres separate sewer and storm. It provides alternative transportation where there are no public parking. People would take metro the the site. Now, they have to pay people to park. 

Some of the things discussed were the challenges faced in storm water management, water efficiency strategies to reach annual water savings of 30% over EPACT, where the baseline of water use according to EPACT requirement is 9.6 million gallon per year. Materials use for the projects include 20% building from recycle content, 35% building materials from around the region.

Oh one more thing, DC government is pretty strict about storm water management..

2009 People's Choice Arlington Best Business. And the Winners are..

More than 5,000 Arlingtonians voted for their favorite local businesses and venues in the 2009 People's Choice Arlington Best Business, ABBIE awards. The winners were announced by County Board Chairman Barbara Favola yesterday. 

I've been to the two big winners Whitlow's on Wilson and Lost Dog Cafe. We had meetups scheduled at Whitlow's a few years back. They've got this big room on the side of the restaurant that you can use for events. It's separate from the restaurant for privacy. The other place, Lost Dog Cafe, I used to go there with my former co-workers. Their sandwiches are out of this world! So I'm not surprised that these two places received the most votes for venues and businesses from residents.

And the winners are.. (h/t Shop Arlington)

1. Arlington’s Best “Bargain” Restaurant
   Lost Dog Cafe
2. Arlington’s Best Boutique
   ShoeFly
3. Arlington’s Best Brunch
   Carlyle
4. Arlington’s Best Customer Service
   Pacers Running Stores
5. Arlington’s Best Dessert
   Heidelberg Pastry Shoppe
6. Arlington’s Best Family Friendly Restaurant
   Lost Dog Cafe
7. Arlington’s Best Happy Hour
   Whitlow's on Wilson Bar & Grill
8. Arlington’s Best Late Night Spot
   Bob and Edith's Diner
9. Arlington’s Best Place to Learn Something New
   Arlington Public Library
10. Arlington’s Best Neighborhood Bar
    Whitlow's on Wilson Bar & Grill
11. Arlington’s Best New Business
    Lost Dog Cafe, South Arlington location
12. Arlington’s Best Community-Based Nonprofit
    Arlington Food Assistance Center (AFAC)
13. Arlington’s Best Performing Arts Organization
    Signature Theatre
14. Arlington’s Best Place to Care for Your Pet
    Ballston Animal Hospital
15. Arlington’s Best Place to Dance the Night Away
    Clarendon Ballroom

Arlington Economic Development Interactive Map

They're putting it on interactive map. The new feature from Arlington Economic Development site - is so cool - that you can spend a whole day looking at it. You can play around and see what buildings, projects, etc. It's color-coded for different type of buildings, whether it's residential, commercial, mixed, government, and more. You can also view it using bird's eye view tab.

Arlington is an example oYou can see from the map what area that have more hotels or commercial developments. Developments line up is along the orange metro line.

The images below is: Ballston.

 

 

Check it out here..

Retrofitting the Burbs

Image via Wikipedia

Eons ago, a friend who used to live overseas, said that "it's nice to live in a big house out in the burb, but the problem here is as you grow older when you can't drive anymore, there's not many transportation choices available." And that is the big hole in our mass transit system here. 

There's this urgency - the urgency to retrofit the burbs so people will age there- even small towns are eagerly looking to transform their burbs into some sort of close-knit walkable communities. 

"That sense of urgency is understandable. The nation's sprawling suburbs—home to as much as half of the U.S. population and more than 30 million people age 55-plus—may have been a good place to grow up. But the suburbs are proving a tough place to grow old.

Indeed, as the country ages, suburbia's widely assumed benefits—privacy, elbow room, affordability—tend to vanish. Maintaining yards and homes requires more effort; driving everywhere, and for everything, becomes expensive and, eventually, impossible. (Research shows that men and women who reach their 70s, on average, outlive their ability to drive by six and 10 years, respectively.)"

[via Wall Street Journal]

Related articles by Zemanta

• New thinking about suburbs needed to help baby boomers age in place (seattlepi.com)

Maryland OKs Red and Purple Lines

Governor O'Malley (D-MD) announced a few days ago, that the two projects - the 14-mile of east-west light rail red line connecting the existing Baltimore Light Rail system with MARC stations and 16-mile Purple line that connects Bethesda to New Carrollton - will now be submitted for Federal approval. The two projects are part of Maryland's smart growth plan.

 

 

[via One Maryland]

The Landowners of Tysons

image: Fairfax County DPZ

For the fun of it, I digged info on "Who's Who" Tysons Corner's landlords. In this post, we're trekking the landlords of Tysons using the data that was prepared sometime in 2005 for Dulles metrorail. So it may contain info that is notcurrent as of this time of writing.

The landownership within Tysons Corner is divided into publicly owned and privately owned land.  The other day,Washington Post had a piece about West Group (link to post), the largest 'privately-owned' landowner, that is selling land holdings to another company. While West Group is the single largest property owner, Tysons Corner Property LLC owns the largest contiguous land mass in Tysons, according to Fairfax County record.

The landownership in Tysons is divided according to the proposed four rail stations slated for Dulles metrorail:

1. Tysons East
2. Tysons Central 123
3. Tysons Central 7
4. Tysons West

In Tysons East. Who knew? That with the exception to the large parcel of Gates of McLean condominium, north of this station is owned by the 'whats-in-your-wallet' Capital One (25 acres) and West Group (10 acres). On the south of the station, the land is owned by a 'few' large landowners (no further info). However, land ownership along Colshire and southeast Anderson Road that range from 10 to 20 acres is owned by a few companies that includes Mitre Corporation, West Group, Northrop Grumman, MR Commons and Safeway.

Move on to Tysons Central 123. This part of Tysons has large parcel of land over 20 acres. North of the station, the owners includes Tysons II Land Co LLC (30 ac.), Tysons II Mall. South of the station, which is the largest single land mass under one owner is owned by Tysons Corner Property Holdings LLC (Tysons I Mall) with over 80 acres.

Then to Tysons Central 7. On this part of the proposed station, land masses ranged from 5.5 acres to over 18 acres, is owned by a few companies, i.e. SAIC (18 ac.), Booz Allen Hamilton (13 ac.), Sherwood Tysons (Marshall Shopping) owns about 16 ac. Koons Auto Dealership owns about 14 acres. Pike 7 Plaza owns about 12.6 acres.

Last station is Tysons West. This part of the proposed station no biggie landowners per se, because ownership is divided among several car dealerships and Rosenthal that owns 12 ac. of land, which is  the largest piece over here.

Oh, there's more here. There you have it..

CROSSPOSTED at In Tysons Space