If you want to read a good book that will inform and entertain at the same time, get a copy of Kristina Alcorn’s “In His Own Words.” This book gives the reader unique insights into the character who founded a community and named it for himself. Kristina, a longtime Reston resident, lets Bob (Robert E. Simon, Jr.) tell his story through anecdotal highlights of his life as he saw them. She gives us an especially engaging look into this complex man. You can get your copy at the Reston Museum or Amazon.com.
Part of Simon’s life not in the book has to do with a piece of Bob’s vision for Reston which has come tantalizingly close to realization not once, but twice. Bob spent a big chunk of his life managing Carnegie Hall before he sold it and bought the land which became Reston. Not surprisingly, he has hoped his creation would have a fine performing arts venue of its own one day. To date, the dream has yet to be realized.
In planning Reston Town Center many years after Bob was fired by Gulf Reston, a performing arts center was in the mix to be part of the urban core. However, as Reston Land moved forward with project execution and property values rose in Town Center, the idea of donating land for, and funding construction of, a performing arts center lost out to visions of profit sugar plums instead. The concept was scrapped in the early 1990s, around the time Simon returned to Reston after 25 years of in New York.
Fast forward to 2012. Like the phoenix of legend, the performing arts center arose from the ashes in the Reston Master Plan Task Force of which Bob Simon was a member. According to Terry Maynard, Reston’s top analytical mind, there was a “head-snapping moment in one Task Force meeting…when Pete Otteni committed Boston Properties to building a performing arts center across the street from the [planned] Town Center Metrorail Station.” Imagine being able to take Metro right to major live theater and see “top-tier performance[s]” right in Reston. After the Master Plan was approved BP made presentations of its theater concept plans to several business forums. It seemed the dream would come true this time.
Then, last month at Supervisor Hudgins’ “Reston-Blueprint for the Future” community meeting, the proposal disappeared. Boston Properties showed a new concept plan with no sign of a performing arts theater! The change was revealed just a few months after Bob Simon died at the age of 101.
When asked about the disappeared arts center which meant so much to Mr. Simon, I understand Mr. Otteni pointed out that the land so close to the planned Metro station was the most valuable property in Town Center, and that Fairfax County had agreed to build the arts center in the future Town Center North (near the new police station/Supervisor’s office suite), a mile north of the Metro station.
Certainly Boston Properties’ revenue outlook will improve by dropping the performing arts center and going to its new pay parking scheme in Town Center. But, the question for the rest of us is will Reston ever have a major performing arts venue and, if it does, who will pay to build it and operate it?
To my knowledge, Supervisor Hudgins has yet to confirm any agreement by Fairfax County to build, much less operate, such a theater. If indeed the County does agree, how do you suppose they would pay for it? Our guess is that it would be paid for by Restonians via an increase in the rate we pay for Special Tax District #5, the funding source for the Reston Community Centers. More to come.