Parkfairfax

Responding to President Franklin D. Roosevelt's request for middle-class rental housing near the Pentagon, Frederick Ecker, chairman of the board of Metropolitan Life and already the owner of large apartment complexes in New York, had his company build 285 separate two- and three-story buildings with 1,684 units. The layout followed a modified Radburn or garden city plan already in place at nearby Colonial and Buckingham villages in Arlington. Ample internal green space, curving roads, culs-de-sac, the preservation of trees where possible, and provision for outdoor recreation were common features. Leonard Schultze of New York, who was known for the design of high-rise buildings, was the architect. Starrett Brothers, one of the largest firms in the United States, carried out the construction in two years. Stylistically, the buildings wear generic Colonial Revival garb; some have spindly-legged porches derived from Mount Vernon, others are more reticent. After the war, Parkfairfax attracted individuals on their way up, including young politicians such as Richard M. Nixon and Gerald Ford. In the late 1970s it became a condominium.