By Brian Trompeter
Fairfax County supervisors on May 23 unanimously approved a request by Hilton Domestic Operating Co. Inc. to increase the size of the building-mounted signs at its Tysons headquarters.
The 7.64-acre Tysons Park Place property is located at 7926 and 7930 Jones Branch Drive, and is bounded to the north by Scotts Crossing Road and to the east by Interstate 495. The site has two 11-story office buildings with a combined gross floor area of 573,793 square feet, which share an above-ground parking garage and the same circular entrance.
Supervisors in June 2022 approved a special exception to allow the height of the office building at 7926 Jones Branch Drive to be increased to 175 feet. The board’s May 23 sign decision applies only to the Hilton headquarters building at 7930 Jones Branch Drive.
That building currently has two 198.9-square-foot signs mounted on the parapet wall, one on the north side and the other on the south. The hotel company will remove those signs and replace with a pair of 14-by-35.5-foot, internally illuminated signs measuring 496 square feet each, which would be located in the center of the parapet wall. The applicant also seeks to retain an existing 25-square-foot building-mounted sign along the south elevation, which was not included in the original special-exception application.
The supervisors’ decision will allow a total of 1,267 square feet of signage at the site, an increase of 617.7 square feet from what previously had been approved and a total of 942 square feet more than what would be allowed by-right.
Hilton moved its headquarters from California to Tysons in 2009 and last year extended its lease at 7930 Jones Branch Drive. The company, which occupies about 75 percent of that building, is spending millions of dollars to upgrade its interior, said Lori Greenlief, the applicant’s attorney. Hilton has committed to expanding its workforce at the site to 350 employees within the next five years, she said.
Vast redevelopment in Tysons since 2010, when supervisors approved a new comprehensive plan for the urban center, has necessitated more visible building signage for people navigating the busy area, she said.
“When the sign ordinance was written, it did not envision the signage needs of a high-density urban area like Tysons,” Greenlief said. “Innovative sign design is expected and signs intended to be seen from a distance are expected to be in the top half of the building and to be the largest signs in Tysons.”
Fairfax County’s comprehensive plan recognizes Tysons as the county’s major employment center and an economic engine for the region, she said.
“Retaining and enhancing corporate headquarters such as [Hilton’s] will help fuel that engine,” Greenlief said. “The proposed sign is tasteful and elegant and represents the corporate image that Hilton wants to portray in Tysons.”
Supervisor Dalia Palchik (D-Providence), in whose district the Hilton headquarters is located, said she recently had experienced difficulty reading the building’s sign while on the nearby Jones Branch Connector.
“So I think it became even more clear why this is appropriate for the worldwide headquarters and for our economic development here in the county,” Palchik said.
