Flashback Monday: Some Post Mid-Century Flair for Reston, Courtesy of the Uplands

In recent years, 'flair' has become a punchline associated with the midscale chain restaurants we Restonians hold so dear, but there was a time, as the increasingly frayed button-down establishment 1960s looked to the freewheelin' 70s with equal parts of excitement and trepidation, that it meant something. And not just an opportunity for graphic designers to practice their calligraphy skills, Silly Rabbit. Instead, "flair" meant this:

Sweeeeeeeet. "Bold contemporary homes as new as tomorrow," indeed. Actually, with the possible exception of the carport, this and the other Uplands homes still look better than the Tyvek and particleboard contraptions that pass for "new construction" today. We've seen examples of the interior flair within these homes, although the Uplands is also the location of the apocryphal, never-conclusively-documented-but-too-good-to-be-false story about the basketball backboard required to be repainted the same color as the house by a vengeful DRB. And in the heady days before the successor to Reston's favorite president started wearing WIN buttons to get control of spiraling inflation, there was this:

Even after spending $900 for a fancy cedar shake roof, that would still leave you with a few "Benjamins," as the kids today no longer say, to splurge on some flair, or at least a pretty sweet shag carpet with all the shades of browns and yellows of an earth-toned rainbow, the end.