Efforts to save an architectural gem in Reston appear to have fallen short. Photo by Ken Moore.
Restonians left the county’s Board of Supervisors meeting July 26, 2016 incredulous.
More than a dozen and a half speakers testified for more than two hours on the beauty of the American Press Institute building on Sunrise Valley Drive and the architectural significance of a building in Reston designed by world famous architect Marcel Breuer.
Breuer was inspired by Robert Simon’s vision for Reston and agreed to design the building because of Simon, said Cheryl Teriot-Simon and others who testified last week.
But people who came to the hearing on July 26 were told all of that just didn’t matter.
“Unfortunately, the testimony has been directed to the historic preservation of the building,” said Hunter Mill Supervisor Catherine Hudgins.
“This process today is not our task to preserve a building; it’s whether or not this Board supports or does not support the application that is before us,” she said.
The Planning Commission voted 7-4 against the application on July 21, 2016 after hearing about the building’s significance.
SEKAS HOMES filed the application, to construct 34 single family attached dwellings and one multifamily residential building with 10 units on the site of the 48,200-square-foot American Press Institute building designed by Breuer in 1973.
“Even if the property had been part of a historic registry, that doesn’t guarantee it being saved,” said Chairman Sharon Bulova.
“I also have to say that I’m really puzzled and disappointed in the API … who was aware of the value of this building and had it built and was proud of having it built by a famous architect,” but then sold it without securing its future, Bulova said.
ARCHITECT MARCEL BREUER, called a "Master of Modernism," also designed the Whitney Museum, now the Met Breuer-Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris.
The vacant building at 11690 Sunrise Valley Drive drew international attention in the days before a rezoning hearing at the Fairfax County Planning Commission on June 16, 2016.
“How did we get to a situation where because of a technicality an architecturally significant building by one of the most significant architects of the 20th century, the only building by him in Virginia, is not protected in any way?” said At-large Planning Commissioner James Hart.
That question was never adequately answered in the process.
Architects, historians, preservationists, journalists, community leaders and other news media executives who attended API seminars during its Reston years along with API staff members joined the movement to save the American Press Institute building.
“This has gotten the attention of people all over the globe,” said Carol Ann Riordan, formerly with the API executive staff. “We would be ecstatic if this world class building could find a second life. Wouldn’t it be marvelous if another organization would move into that grand building and the torch could be passed?”
HUDGINS WROTE:
“The Applicant has agreed to allow members of the Reston Historic Trust to determine if there are items from the API building for preserving. Consideration should also be given to working with the Virginia Room to capture the history of the API and Marcel Breuer’s work in Reston,” Hudgins said.
But it appears none of that will stop the demolition of the building itself.
Hudgins went on to lay out a process for trying to prevent a similar debacle in the future:
“Historic properties and facilities are important to Fairfax County. This year the county will celebrate the federal legislation which established the National Register of Historic Places 50 years ago, allowing numerous historic designations in the County. In an attempt to avoid the unfortunate circumstances faced on the API zoning, the DPZ has begun a reconnaissance-windshield level survey of the area along the Dulles Corridor – Transit Station Area (TSA) to determine if other buildings should be considered for either Historic designation or included in a Historic Overlay District. Further, the process should reach out to the Architectural Review Board and the History Commission to ensure these organizations can assist in a proactive review.”