Graphically evident is the contrast between 1960s ideals in the Lake Anne Village and 1980s consumerism in this suburban town center built by the Reston Land Corporation. Here a re-created main street is a pedestrian mall and community plaza located in the center of a large-scale shopping, restaurant, entertainment, and hotel development. Cars are excluded from the center; drivers must park either in large lots on several sides or in one of the various garages. Stylistically, the architecture is the Disneyesque postmodernist variety, a sort of theme park with vague elements of Art Deco and classicism. The movie theater has pylons topped by large globes. A substantial addition with supposedly “softer, more American town squares,” by the Sasaki firm, is in the planning stages.
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Reston Town Center
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