___  Fairfax's Fortunes ___ In 2000, the second year in a row, Fairfax County had the highest median household income in the nation. Sunday: A County Transformed Fairfax is the only jurisdiction whose median household income has topped $90,000. The affluence hasn't just brought taller office buildings and bigger houses; it has helped change the way the region views its biggest county. Monday: Working to Keep Pace They commute long distances, buy bargain detergent and search consignment shops. They also make more than $90,000 a year. In Fairfax, even families who know they're fortunate can't help wondering, "Why don't we feel rich?" Tuesday: Growing Up in Affluence The nearly 250,000 children and teenagers in Fairfax–whether they are haves or have-nots–are engulfed in a culture of affluence, from the latest clothing in school to the cars their families drive. Wednesday: Middle-Class Squeeze They teach, police and maintain Fairfax County, but it has become something of a truth that they can no longer afford to live there. High housing prices send many of Fairfax's employees to Prince William, Stafford, Loudoun and beyond. Thursday: Living on the Edge Good Shepherd Housing and Family Services helps people get out of shelters, assists those who face eviction and helps the poor pay their bills. And even in Fairfax County, there are waiting lists for almost everything the agency offers. Friday: New Lives on Harvest Mill As America's immigrants have moved up the socioeconomic ladder, ethnic enclaves have given way to places such as Harvest Mill Court, a Fairfax cul-de-sac with people from nine countries living in its 30 homes. _____Video_____ • The Post's Michael D. Shear discusses his series on the high cost of living in Fairfax County. E-Mail This Article Printer-Friendly Version Subscribe to The Post

By Peter Whoriskey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 1, 2001; Page A01

The big buildings keep popping up in Tysons Corner.

The new headquarters for Gannett/USA Today is nearly finished. Financial services giant Capital One began work on its towering flagship a few weeks ago. And developerLerner Enterprises has submitted plans for a 23-story glass tower, the first of nine office buildings it wants to build there.

Yet for all the grandeur of the emerging Tysons skyline, Fairfax County's seven-year-old vision of transforming this capital of suburban sprawl into a more traditionalcity center may be as elusive as ever.

"The rhetoric about creating a downtown in Fairfax County has no substance," said Patrick Kane, an adjunct professor of urban planning at the University of Virginia's Falls Church campus. "They can say they're building a city there, but it's not -- and it's not going to be."

Instead, what is emerging at Tysons Corner is a slightly taller version of what was there before: The buildings are still set apart from one another, remote islands in a sea of driveways, plazas, berms and parking garages -- a place, in other words, that remains better suited to automobiles than pedestrians.

Why? The cause, curiously, may lie not with developers but with the county's profound ambivalence toward traditional downtowns.

County leaders say they want to remake Tysons into a more traditional city center, and their urban center plan promotes that idea, but at the same time, fear of downtown crowding and traffic has led them to limit building densities there to relatively sparse suburban levels.

The result: Tysons Corner is stuck between its aspirations to big-city status -- it already is home to the country's 14th-largest daytime office population -- and its suburban ideal of free-flowing traffic.

"Tysons Corner is not going to feel like a city by any stretch of the imagination because the buildings are much farther apart," said William Louie, the partner in charge ofthe Lerner project for the Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates architectural firm. "It's a suburban density. Better to call what's happening a hybrid."

Consider Lerner's proposed 23-story office tower. Peter Rosen, the company's senior development director, says it "will help fulfill" the county's vision of creating a downtown at Tysons. The soaring angular glass structure -- Kohn Pedersen Fox is known for such landmarks as the new World Bank headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue NW -- would rise across the street from the Ritz-Carlton and two lofty office buildings.

That nucleus may sound like a fledgling city. But the front doors of the new tower would sit 200 feet back from the curb, and the nearest building across the street would be at least a football field's length away.

Similarly, the Capital One and Gannett/USA Today projects, both of which are large, modern buildings, stand at some distance from neighbors.

The idea behind the Tysons Corner Urban Center plan that Fairfax supervisors approved in 1994 was to fashion a downtown worthy of Virginia's preeminent economic engine. Like the effort to attract a major league baseball team to Northern Virginia or boost the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra, it was partly an exercise in civic pride.

It's difficult to tell in a quick drive-by, but Tysons Corner already rivals several major U.S. downtowns. In addition to its office population growth, Tysons boasts the second-largest concentration of retail activity on the East Coast (after New York City), according to the Urban Land Institute.

Spread out as it is, though, this is one "edge city" that seems more edge than city.

"There is no there there," conceded Fairfax Supervisor Gerald E. Connolly (D-Providence), who represents the area. "It needs to change."

Momentum for change began in the early 1990s, when increasing traffic congestion around Tysons, talk of a Metro line coming, and growing complaints that the area had become an ugly, vehicular jungle propelled county officials to act.

Their urban center plan addressed the "lack of cohesiveness and identity" by promoting the image of a pedestrian-friendly environment with tightly clustered buildings -- close to sidewalks, close to Metro, close to each other.

"Workers and residents will be able to do everyday errands, or meet a friend for dinner and a movie, without getting into an auto," the plan envisioned.

In other words, a real downtown.

For the citizen task force that spent three years working on the plan, a key sticking point was how much new construction to permit. The panel's answer: as much as possible without dooming commuters to city-style gridlock.

While some see that decision as a practical balance between traffic concerns and the desire for a downtown, urban planners argue that it may be impossible to have it both ways.

"Traffic is a consequence of a downtown," said Robert T. Dunphy, a transportation analyst at the Urban Land Institute. "Anyplace that aspires to be a world-class downtown would probably not say, 'We can only build so much out of fear of traffic.' "

To limit density, planners used a measure that compares the square footage of a proposed building to that of its site. The larger the result, the bigger the building that can be built.

In downtown Washington, that figure is generally between five and nine; around the Bethesda Metro station, it's often four or five. At Tysons, by contrast, it's typically one or two.

With building size thus limited, and with tenants preferring high-rise views out their windows, much of the development at Tysons is likely to take shape as towers plopped down at a distance from one another.

"The density levels we set are not urban," said Dan Alcorn, the lawyer who chaired the task force that devised the urban center plan. "While the intention of the county is to develop a downtown there, the decision of the community -- the task force -- was that Tysons Corner is not ready to go to that level of density. There was a rational decision made not to overload the roads."

As a result, some planners see the future of Tysons as an unfortunate retreat from the noble goal of replacing sprawl with a vibrant, compact downtown.

"One of the keys to downtowns is street life, and these [buildings] . . . will frustrate the pedestrian. They're too spread out," said Warren C. Boeschenstein, a University of Virginia architecture professor who has studied the potential of mass transit in Northern Virginia.

But Fairfax planning director James P. Zook argues that it's a matter of semantics and that the county is moving in the right direction.

" 'Suburban' and 'urban' are relative terms," Zook said. "Compared to other development in Fairfax County, Tysons is planned at a level that is urban."

Even without density restrictions, fashioning a downtown from Tysons's sprawl would be a challenge.

Wide, busy roads crisscross the area, making a dash across Route 7 on foot the suburban equivalent of running the Marine Corps Marathon. Some blocks in Tysons are twice as long as typical city blocks, though hardly as inviting, given that the sidewalks are lined with parking lots and garages.

Other factors further complicate matters.

County planners, for example, would have liked for the new Capital One headquarters to be built immediately adjacent to a Metro stop planned for that site. Instead, the company put the buildingon the other side of its property, next to the Capital Beltway, where it can serve as a monumental advertisement to passing motorists.

"What can you do?" Connolly said, shrugging.

Perhaps the biggest obstacle to transforming Tysons Corner is its resounding success. Never mind that critics have branded it unsightly, inconvenient and bad for the environment; its popularity as a commercial mecca is undeniable, tempering enthusiasm for change.

Tysons office buildings continue to draw prestigious corporate clients, who pay rental rates -- as much as $45 per square foot -- rivaling those in downtown Washington. Bustling Tysons Corner Center, the shopping mall wedged between Routes 123 and 7, pulled in 21 million visitors last year.

As a result, some question the idea of transforming the place.

"Tysons Corner is a phenomenal success -- it's the center of the Northern Virginia universe," said John T. "Til" Hazel Jr., the lawyer-developer who helped propel the area to prominence. "It's pretty late in the day to dream about pedestrian access to the area. I think they got what they're going to get at Tysons Corner."