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SunGazette
VOLUME 35 NO. 32
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G R E AT FA L L S • M c L E A N • V I E N N A • O A K T O N
APRIL 3, 2014
Art, Lighting Pondered to Make Metro Less Monolithic BRIAN TROMPETER Staff Writer
Rising like concrete vertebrae along Routes 7 and 123, about 100 trestles for Metrorail’s Silver Line constitute a dominant feature of Tysons Corner’s skyline. Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Sharon Bulova (D) thinks the tow-
ering gray pillars should be made less stark and more atAnother in an tractive to motorists ongoing series. and residents alike. While driving through Tysons, “I looked up at the beams and infrastructure and thought, ‘Rats, why didn’t we incorporate aesthetics into the design?” she said.
Tysons
The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), which runs Metrorail, considered using colored concrete to make the trestles appear less monolithic, but officials scrapped the idea because it would make maintenance more costly and problematic, Bulova said. Bulova on Jan. 29 convened an advisory group to examine ways of beautifying the trestles.
OAKTON REMAINS UNDEFEATED IN BOYS SOCCER ACTION
Oakton High School’s Daniel Medina Gonzales, No. 13, stiff-arms Brett Sellers of South County as the players battle for possession of the ball in a March 28 boys soccer game. Oakton won the contest, 5-1, to remain undefeated with a 3-0 record. For more on this story, see the Sports section.
“We had some suggestions for visuals that were pretty cool and would put some color and design into what otherwise is a blank slate,” she said. Besides Bulova, the Metro Trestle Beautification Task Force’s members include her chief of staff, Clayton Medford; Barbara Byron, director of the Office of Community Revitalization; Rohit Anand, a principal with the design firm KTGY Group Inc. in Tysons; Doug Carter of BCS Design Inc.; Michael Caplin, executive director of the Tysons Partnership; and representatives from WMATA, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority and the Arts Council of Fairfax, she said. When the group reconvenes later this spring to review design concepts, it also will invite a representative from another key stakeholder: the Virginia Department of Transportation. The group will conduct a charrette, possibly in May, to examine design ideas, Byron said. “We’re very excited about it,” she said. “We’re just at the planning stages. We hope we can do something this spring to get ideas formulated.” Backers of the beautification efforts are trying to be open-minded, Byron said. “The aesthetic of Tysons is not colonial Virginia, so we’re thinking of something a little more 21st-century,” she said. “We’re trying not to predispose anything. We’re collecting a lot of images from around the world from kind of similar circumstances where people have done things, which hopefully will spur our imagination.” STC Associates on Jan. 29 presented the task force with a report highlighting similar infrastructure-beautification efforts around the globe. A central goal of the group is to “transform the aesthetically underdeveloped space into an experience of surprise, wonder and connection,” the report read. Some possible improvements involve painting the trestles, which would require
PHOTO BY DEB KOLT
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