Lake Anne Village Center is located around a plaza and the inlet of Lake Anne at 1609 Washington Plaza W. Reston. It is a mix of residential and commercial buildings, restaurants, brewery, small shops, art galleries, Lake Anne Community Center and Reston Historic Trust Museum, with public art calling children to climb on and run through the concrete pieces. Photo by Mercia Hobson.
Anyone taking a walk on the plaza at Lake Anne Village Center is drawn to it, unsure at first what it is. Behind the bronze statue of Robert E. Simon installed on a plaza bench with his back to the lake, and alongside a Christmas tree, someone placed a wishing net. It is strung between simple plastic piping wrapped in evergreen garland. The whole thing is topped off with a big, sparkly, red bow, and it is alive with movement.
The netting is filled with hundreds of attached hangtags rapidly fluttering in the lake breeze like white hummingbird wings, moving forward and back, pivoting in figure-eights. They are the markered wishes of unnamed authors, expressing their yearnings.
Some are written in bold, shaky child's script. Letters spill uphill and downhill creating words with inventive spellings. Others show the more collected writings by adults.
"I think Bob Simon is looking over this," said Marjorie Lane of Reston.