🚀 go-pugleaf

David Lee said to All: 

  DL> From: dlee@oasys.dt.navy.mil (David Lee)

  DL> I don't understand the comment on Reston's regional shopping center
  DL> concept... These "regional" shopping complexes were planned so as to
  DL> "contain" the shops which serve the Reston community and was an
  DL> attempt to manage commercial development.. This way, the planned
  DL> community concept, commercial development was located in certain areas
  DL> and a mix of different stores were located together.. These shopping
  DL> centers in Reston are in no way comparable to "indoor malls" or large
  DL> shopping complexes.. They are spread around the Reston community and
  DL> blend in with the environment. My personal opinion is that they are
  DL> too small to provide the variety necessary for commercial viability
  DL> and blend in so well that most non-Reston shoppers tend not to
  DL> know/see their locations...

David, some of us just jumped in and started using some jargon without
defining it.  A "regional" shopping center is one like Tysons Corner Center, or
Springfield Mall, or Fair Oaks.  In resort terms, it's a "destination" -- you
go there just to get there, not because it's on the way somewhere else.

The shopping centers in Reston are /not/ in this category.  They're really
neighborhood shopping arcades, not shopping centers in anything but name.
They were called "village centers" in the original design, because they were
(as you have correctly noted) intended to focus the local travels and
activities
of the residents of a /very/ local area.
 
You're quite right about them being "too small...", and my point was that they
became too small, rather than being planned too small.  (It's arguable, but
this isn't really the right forum.  I'll reply to e-mail, if anybody wants to
continue this.)

The /nice/ thing about the Reston design, getting back to dining, is that each
was intended to provide people in the immediate area (within walking distance
on a nice day, essentially) with their daily bread & milk, and with a place
to get at least a snack, and in some cases a good meal.  That strategy was
"nice," but the tactics of implementation killed it.  Several of the village
centers do have good restaurants (Bangkok West at Hunters Woods, the Blue
Channel Inn and Marie's at South Lakes, Jasmine Cafe and maybe Il Cigno (if
you tolerate roaches) at Lake Anne, and so on.  But the layout of the shopping
areas was such that people could get out of their car, hit the "magnet" stores
(Hallmark, Giant, the video stores that came along later...), and get back in
their cars without ever walking back /into/ the shopping area.  Death, to a
retail business.  The BIG shopping centers avoid that by making you walk all
through the small stores to get between the big ones, and within stores they
make the customers walk all over the place to find escalators, restaurants, 
even the exits.  That's irritating to me, but great design for the retailers.