http://patch.com/virginia/reston/reston-founder-robert-e-simon-dead-101-0?utm_source=alert-breakingnews&utm_medium=email&utm_term=obituaries&utm_campaign=alert

The father of Reston, its visionary founder — Robert Edward Simon Jr. — has passed away Monday at his Lake Anne home, according to the Reston Association. He was 101 years old.

The town is literally named for Simon, bearing his initials of RES in its name.

In 1961, Simon bought 6,750 acres of mostly undeveloped land in Fairfax County. He saw an opportunity to create a new kind of town, one that was diverse and based on residential clusters, walkability, facilities for all ages and the preservation of natural spaces. That vision turned into reality in 1964 when Reston was founded.

Simon later worked to transfer the responsibility of governing Reston from developers to citizens and formed Reston Association. He served two terms on the RA board of directors from 1996-2002.


The name Robert Edward Simon is literally a part of Reston, the town he founded. While Reston was born in April 1964, its founder had five decades of life experience before he sold Carnegie Hall to the City of New York for $5 million.

But it’s what he did after that sale, buying 6,750 acres of farmland in Northern Virginia, that has impacted countless people, families and businesses in the place he called Reston.

In April 2014, the community he founded turned 50, and Simon turned 100.

Truly a part of Fairfax and NoVa history.

Did he really want Reston to be "diverse" in the modern sense or in an economic mixed housing type of way?

No one with an ounce of sense would associate diversity with community today but back in 1964 it was still a novel idea with promise, I guess.

You mean like this diversity?

Just two weeks ago I rode thru Reston and thought of him, I laughed yes he's still here thinking about how old he was, I knew he was 100 and was keeping on.

Just wondering what would have become of the area if Reston was not founded.

Droves of houses, bedroom community's, no business tax base??

RIP. Mr. Simon

In the last two weeks, I saw him walking around the lake with his walker. He could often be seen walking around Lake Anne over the years. Despite being 100+, I must've seen him at least 50 times going through his exercise, even in the middle of winter as long as the paths were clear.

Met him a number of years ago at the Reston Festival. I wouldn't have known he was in his 90s. He didn't look young per se but was a seemingly humble and nice guy. Saw the news earlier and was sad but he lived a long life. I am sure he will be missed. R.I.P.

http://www.restonian.org/ has a writeup.

Reston Peace.

Laughing at all those dumb fucks that bought into his PUD/utopia bullshit. Enjoy your million dollar condo next to subsidized housing, idiots!

Met him a few times, usually walking around the lake. Good guy.
Most of you losers can only aspire to what he did with his life.
RIP Bob.
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I wonder if his remains will be...SUBDIVIDED?

Reston thrived and inspired a revival of community planning in the United States. Some planned towns, like Columbia, Md., near Baltimore, flourished. Others, like Riverton, N.Y., south of Rochester, did not. Reston did not quite become the community Mr. Simon had envisioned, but it grew into a vibrant suburb of Washington, another planned city of great expectations.

“It’s difficult to overcome the culture that we live in,” he told The Washingtonian magazine in 2009. “It’s a culture where a state-of-the-art bathroom and kitchen are what one needs, plus enough square footage to show everyone that one could afford it.

“We’ve gone a couple of centuries without understanding community. It’s too bad it’s so hard to communicate what pleasure one gets from living with one’s fellow human being.”

“Get out of your rooms where you keep your high-techery. Get outside. Get on a bicycle. Get on the tennis court. Row a boat, paddle a boat, sail a boat. All the things that make life for a fuller life than just exercising your thumbs,” said Simon.

Simon Says Wrote:
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> “Get out of your rooms where you keep your
> high-techery. Get outside. Get on a bicycle. Get
> on the tennis court. Row a boat, paddle a boat,
> sail a boat. All the things that make life for a
> fuller life than just exercising your thumbs,”
> said Simon.

+1

Even Bob hated the high rises and the urbanization of his hood!

Town Center Too Much Wrote:
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> Even Bob hated the high rises and the urbanization
> of his hood!

Correct

The New York Times did a nice article on Simon.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/22/realestate/communities/robert-e-simon-jr-founder-of-reston-va-dies-at-101.html

Robert E. Simon Jr., a New York real estate developer who founded Reston, Va., in the early 1960s as America’s first planned alternative to the postwar suburban sprawl of commuter towns with cookie-cutter houses on look-alike streets, died on Monday at his home in Reston. He was 101.

His death was confirmed by his stepdaughter Lynn Lilienthal.

At a time when millions were fleeing crowded cities for what some sociologists called a colorless life in suburbia, Mr. Simon envisioned a Northern Virginia community that blended the serenity of an Italian hill town, the urban attractions of San Francisco’s Embarcadero and the social equality of a utopia in Finland.

Heir to a fortune, he sold his interest in Carnegie Hall, and in 1961, assembled financing and bought some 7,000 acres of woods and fields in Fairfax County, 20 miles west of Washington. He laid out a town of open spaces, homes and apartments that would be affordable to almost anyone, racially integrated, economically self-sustaining, pollution-free and rich in cultural and educational opportunities.

He planned seven shopping plazas, each serving a “village” of 10,000 to 12,000 residents; 35 houses of worship; 21 schools; an industrial park to employ half of Reston’s work force; and a downtown area with transportation, medical, hotel and entertainment facilities. Reston — its name incorporated its founder’s initials — would also have a 35-acre artificial lake surrounded by town houses, shops and recreational green spaces.

By 1965, the first village had been built; 400 pioneers, including Mr. Simon, had moved in, and a dedication was held.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/22/realestate/communities/robert-e-simon-jr-founder-of-reston-va-dies-at-101.html

Oh that planned community where they place section 8 poor cockroach housing next to nice neighborhoods? That worked out well! Well, for the cockroaches who can conveniently home invade yuppie assholes.

Ya, Reston rocks!

celebrate diversity!! Wrote:
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> Oh that planned community where they place section
> 8 poor cockroach housing next to nice
> neighborhoods? That worked out well! Well, for the
> cockroaches who can conveniently home invade
> yuppie assholes.
>
> Ya, Reston rocks!


I didn't move to Fairfax for affordable housing and diversity. But it was shoved down my throat anyway. I now have to be tolerant, understanding, pay more taxes, watch my neighborhood deteriorate, and watch where I go and when. Wonderful.

I prefer to discriminate and be a snob.

I strongly support government-enforced neighborhood diversity, except, of course, for mine. No way would I want blacks trashing my Great Falls estate. They are welcome during the day, to cook and clean.

`

idontlikebeingrightaboutshitlikethisbutiam



Edited 21 time(s). Last edit at 5/31/1967 05:57AM by WingNut.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/15/2015 09:28PM by WingNut.

WingNut Wrote:
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> North Shore and Lake Anne could be made really
> nice again.
>
> Hopefully one day it will rebound.

That area is going to be a traffic cluster fuck once the new Lake Anne Town Center gets built.

Robert Simon is exiting at the correct time before his vision is completely destroyed.
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Town Center Too Much Wrote:
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> Even Bob hated the high rises and the urbanization
> of his hood!

Ironic that he lived his final years in a high rise.

ennairam Wrote:
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> Town Center Too Much Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Even Bob hated the high rises and the
> urbanization
> > of his hood!
>
> Ironic that he lived his final years in a high
> rise.

He checked out just in time to avoid the traffic clusterfuck that is coming to Lake Anne.

According to one of the cards left at his statue, he lived on only the 3rd floor.

Isn't it ironic, don't you think?

Candle light vigil at Lake Anne plaza Friday night starting at 6:45pm.
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