Flashback Monday: A Watercolored Look Back at Lake Anne Village Center

Please to be enjoying this pastel-hued look of Lake Anne Village Center, courtesy of an early 1960s promotional brochure. Much as with the Dutch Masters of the late Renaissance period, the true joy of unpacking such a work -- and such a brightly colored rendering of a future Reston certainly deserves to be unpacked -- is revealed through a careful study of the details:

Note that the fountain was originally envisioned to be a lot less ziggurat-like. That's not stopping the people seated under the brightly colored beach umbrella from pointing to a couple of young roughies considering playing in it.


Judging by the tattered foresail, this sailor appears to have been caught in a maelstrom further out on Lake Anne. He's frantically begging a leisure suit-clad Don Draper to grab his rope and pull the ship to safety. Meanwhile, another businessman is deciding to relax after a long day of strapping bombs to dolphins work by hanging out on his balcony, suit and all.Behind him, an indoor palm tree lurks in wait for the instant he turns around to fetch himself a martini. At long last, its plan will come to fruition.



Finally, note that the "art exhibit" is located in the exact spot where a different sort of exhibition was recently planned, the end.