Reston Featured in Fancy Planning Magazine

Planning Magazine, which is essentially the Cosmo of the urban planning scene, minus all the fragrance strips stuffed into the pages, just ran a fancy article on Reston (PDF). It gushes over Fountain Square and its fancy "glass roofed pavilion, built in 1993, that distantly recalls the "crystal palace" at the core of Ebenezer Howard's garden cities." Which is exactly what we're reminded of every time we go to hear a Beatles tribute band or wait in line for one of those, whazzitcalled, iPads. And the complements keep coming!

Architect Robert A.M. Stern, who designed one of the residential complexes in Reston, has likened it to such older, walkable suburban cities as White Plains, New York, Stamford, Connecticut, and Evanston, Illinois.

We should be proud to be called the "White Plains of the South," right?

Along with dropping the names of fancypants architects with more frequency than Page Six lists misbehaving starlets, the article includes a few Fun Facts that we didn't know, such as the original plan for our Fake Downtown gritty urban core crystal palace was situated on the other side of Reston Parkway for easier pedestrian access. It also has this to say about the imminent arrival of Metro:

The current Master Plan being considered for the area around the Fake Downtown gritty urban core crystal palace is also discussed in favorable terms:

Consider this your list of talking points for the next time you're invited to a cocktail party of urban planners and architects. Just stay away from your detailed critique of Witold Rybczynski's view of urbanization after everyone's had a few drinks.