New Towns: 18 Miles from the Capital

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The idea is simple enough. Cluster houses closely together instead of planting each house on an inadequate lot of its own. Consolidate the extra space to make playgrounds, parks, golf courses and lakes for community use. Provide an industrial park where small industries can locate, making the town something more than a commuter's bedroom outside a big city.

But for the developer, the hazards are immense. He cannot start small and then expand. In order to create a New Town, he must acquire immense acreage, invest large sums in landscaping and nonproductive (at least immediately) projects such as artificial lakes and golf courses, and figure on waiting five years or more before the place catches on, the people move in and he can earn a return on his investment.

Across the U.S., some 20 courageous developers have started New Towns. But the unanswered question still is: Will the independent U.S. homeowner be willing to sacrifice a part of his own backyard for the sake of more spacious community facilities? Will enough companies move out of the big cities into the New Town's industrial parks? For indications of how the future will go, the New Town most closely watched by architects and developers alike is Reston, Va. It is probably the farthest along, and architects agree that it is superbly designed. Says Architect Philip Johnson: "Reston is the most advanced planning in housing today."

Residential & Recreational. Situated on 6,800 acres of rolling fox-hunting country, 18 miles west of Washington and four miles from the new Dulles Airport, Reston is the brainchild of New York Entrepreneur Robert E. Simon Jr. By its projected completion in 1980, it will house 75,000 people in seven villages, have over 1,600 acres of recreational areas, including two 18-hole and three nine-hole golf courses, a natural and an artificial lake, and a horse stable (the nearest village will have hitching posts in front of its stores), plus a plethora of community-owned pools, tennis courts, playgrounds and hiking trails.

Residential and recreational areas will be woven together so closely that some Restonians will be able to chip onto a nearby green from their patio, others to watch their horses grazing a few steps away, still others cast off from their own bulkheads, motorboat across the lake, and moor a few feet away from their favorite store. Its houses will be built around dead-end streets, thus keeping children well away from hurtling through-traffic. Because no part of any village will be more than ten minutes away by foot, most travel will be confined to tree-lined walkways.

No Saltboxes. The choice of residences is as wide as the choice of recreations. Prospective dwellings range from a one-room efficiency flat in a high-rise apartment building through a $25,400 three-bedroom town house to a custom-built home on a large lot for $60,000 or more. To avoid a drab uniformity, Simon has assigned the designing responsibilities to five different architectural firms, and they have come through with flying colors. Instead of picture-window ranch houses or cramped Cape Cod saltboxes, Reston offers handsome modern architecture and quality construction found in few developments today.