Flashback Monday: Reston The 'Instant City'

Strap on your circular glasses and set the controls of the Earth-Toned Wayback Machine to December 24, 1965, where residents of a certain planned community took a moment from their holiday festivities of choice to see themselves portrayed in Life magazine (for our younger readers, a "magazine" is like Buzzfeed, only with slightly fewer animated GIFs and slightly more concern trolling, as the incendiary headline above would suggest).

But we digress. Our Favorite Correspondent, The Peasant From Less Sought After South Reston, shared some fancy digital scans from this magazine and had this to say about it:

I suspect the impetus for this theme came from the Watts riot that summer, the start of LBJ's Great Society and urban renewal programs, etc.  In an article titled "What's To Come", Reston was given a two-page spread under the headline, "Reston: First Of The New 'Satellite' Cities". 

Note that thanks to the text in the article we can now choose between not one but two new slogans for our beloved community: "A Harbinger of the Future" or "The Country's First Instant City".  Either sounds a lot better than the current one.

Are there pictures of adorable children playing amid brutalist, shin-cracking concrete abutments? As the people of the 1960s might say, you bet your sweet bippy!

A triptych of the undeveloped land around Lake Anne Village Center, a slice-o-townhouse, and Bob Simon himself:

 

Back when you could get anywhere in under 10 minutes:

And finally, there's this:

Well, maybe.