By Brian Trompeter
“Converge” – a mixed-use development with a major construction company’s headquarters, an innovative educational facility and hundreds of housing units near the West Falls Church Metro station – received unanimous support July 25 from Fairfax County supervisors.
Converge West Falls LLC will build a two-block development on 7.53 acres owned by the city of Falls Church and Virginia Tech. The property now is occupied by the four-story, 101,000-square-foot Virginia Tech Northern Virginia Center, as well as surface parking and a stormwater-detention pond.
Block A will have an up-to-120-foot-tall building with 230,000 square feet of space for HITT Contracting’s headquarters and a 40,000-square-foot educational facility for Virginia Tech’s future Coalition for Smart Construction.
“This is really intended to be a defining architectural statement for our region,” said applicant’s attorney Andrew Painter. “One of the things you’ll see with this design is we’ve been purposeful. It symbolizes progress, it symbolizes openness, it encourages people to look inside the facility and see what’s going on.”
A 100,000-square-foot solar array on Building A’s canopy will be a “visible commitment to building sustainability” and will generate between 1,100 and 1,400 megawatts of electricity to power the “net-zero” structure, Painter said.
Block B will be home to a 550,000-square-foot, up-to-145-foot-tall residential tower with as many as 440 multi-family units and a maximum of 18,000 square feet of ground-floor retail. Ten percent of the housing will be affordable workforce-dwelling units.
Between those buildings, the applicant will extend West Falls Station Boulevard to the city of Falls Church and provide a publicly accessible median with landscape and hardscape elements and a pavilion structure.
Twenty-nine percent of the project will be open space and feature pollinator gardens, a “Veterans Grove” and these three parks:
• A 7,419-square-foot “Sustainability Pocket Park” will be located between Building A and Falls Church Drive and constructed above a bio-retention feature. Among its amenities will be an elevated boardwalk, interpretive signage, native plantings and play elements.
• A 42,668-square-foot “Innovation Civic Plaza” will be located in the green median space between Buildings A and B. The area in front of Building A will offer a plaza space, gardens, paths, lighting, public art, interpretive signage, seating elements, an open-air structure and gathering space.
An innovative “Cloud Pavilion” there will have “floating electronic fabric” with built-in LED lighting that can display different colors, patterns and imagery, Painter said.
• A 7,908-square-foot “Pocket Play Park” at the southwestern corner of Haycock Road and Falls Church Drive will have play and structural elements, plus way-finding signage.
Supervisor Penelope Gross (D-Mason) had qualms about locating a children’s park near a four-lane road. Painter responded that the developer had placed the park near a main building entrance and that the play area would be shielded by berms and fencing.
Supervisors also approved a comprehensive-plan amendment allowing the requested 243,000 square feet of office space and 40,000 square feet of institutional use on Block A, versus 181,000 and 160,000 square feet, respectively, as originally proposed. The reduction in institutional use will result in fewer daily and peak-hour vehicle trips, county officials predicted.
Not everyone was thrilled with the changes taking place in the vicinity.
Cyndy Cordell, who lives across from the site, said the project and the recently approve one at the transit station would “significantly impact” her living environment.
The county’s comprehensive plan states buildings across from The Villages condominiums should be no taller than 85 feet, she said. Her townhouse is one of six that will be directly across the street from the 145-foot-tall portion of the development’s residential building.
Paul Rothstein, an opponent of the project, said supervisors were using an “unrealistic interpretation” of the county’s comprehensive code to justify the increased height for residential Building B near The Villages.
Holly Wade, president of The Village Homeowners Association, also worried about the height and proximity of Building B relative to nearby residences and its shadow impacts.
Some who testified at an earlier Planning Commission hearing said the issue was moot because buildings 40 feet taller were being constructed at the city of Falls Church site just to the south and would cast even longer shadows.
Falls Church area resident Sonya Breehey, Northern Virginia advocacy manager for the Coalition for Smarter Growth, said the project is the right kind of development in the right place.
“Providing more homes and jobs in walkable communities near transit stations is how we can accommodate future growth served by more sustainable transportation options,” she said.
Reston resident P.J. Ross testified in favor of the application, saying it was “awesome to see the development of this new, sustainable office building supporting local business growth.”
(Project opponents afterward pointed out that Ross had not identified himself as chief financial officer for HITT Contracting.)
Supervisor John Foust (D-Dranesville) said the project is “really going to make a difference to our county and our community.”
The development is consistent with the county’s goals for transit-oriented development, Foust said. The project, along with the two developments bracketing it, will result in a “fabulous, integrated, mixed-use community that’s going to have some of the most attractive buildings in the Northern Virginia region,” he said.
The HITT/Virginia Tech building will be on the cutting edge of sustainability and will exemplify what can be done with construction and design, said Foust, who also lauded the project’s residential element.
“Providing more homes close to transit is a major piece of the solution to many of the problems that we face,” he said.
“I think this will be a great addition to this part of the county,” agreed Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay (D).
