Here is what our snow expert Valentina had this morning:

Miles had to laugh. There was a nice transitional graphic from the Millennial group who are part of the advance group who lived in Fairfax with their folks. They had to drive the roads out there in all sorts of conditions, so you can imagine the Weather Advisory got everyone’s attention. Like that trip to the store might get moved up to after linch since the snow is going to come in after darkness cloaks the old vegetation and newer asphalt. And brand new steel and concrete.

Our Zoomers- the Gen X and Y kids who already know it all and haven’t yet become aware that it is all wrong- had another poster on the way the Fairfax County board had things planned as they realized the big office complexes built atop Mr. Tyson’s corner of Peach Grove turned into vast swathes of black surrounding the proud towers.

This is what happened to Tysons after 1940. By 1975 the towers of SAIC and NADA ha been thrown up at the Corner and stayed up until the time of covid. The SAIC Campus- “Science Applications International Corporation” demonstrates the sprawl of parking for people who were not going to stay put near their offices. The sprawl of asphalt led down to the lower left where the National Automobile Dealers Association had set up shop:

Inline image

That is us in the brick multi-use Trillium at left above. That is where some of the Boomers can get Health Care delivered and the Zoomers have a set of scrubs to wear as disguises in the closet in the 4th floor Conference Room. How thi building happened o be constructed where the NADA tower was located at the edge of the Corner.

It was going to look something like this, featuring what was billed as “The Tallest Skyscraper in Greater Washington.”

Our Corner is at the middle base of the image. When the County Board woke up and realized they were going to create another feature of pretty buildings without people most of the time, they cancelled when they realized soaring towers were going to interfere with the restoration and rehabilitation of Dulles International Airport they decided out mixed use plan for NADA and SAIC was the way to go.

They tore down SAIC first, then NADA in 2021. We are excited about what is going to come in next door, as soon as next summer. In the meantime, before the snow, the contrails are still visible in the Eastern sky. We may lose them next year, obscured by sensible multi-use buildings like the one in which we hold our Socotra House Production Meetings.

We are going to enjoy the view while we have got it, you know?

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