A new look is in store for the water tower that looms over the Route 123 and Route 7 interchange in Tysons.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors voted last week (March 17) to support the Tysons Community Alliance’s plan to replace the existing sign on the water tower with an updated “Tysons” logo introduced last spring.
The board also approved obelisk signs that the TCA plans to install at each of the four Metro stations in Tysons to help visitors find their way around.
“These two initiatives improve the Tysons placemaking efforts, bettering the skyline and making it easier to navigate public transportation,” Providence District Supervisor Dalia Palchik said prior to the unanimous vote.
Though the existing water tower only has one sign, the TCA now hopes to install two signs — one on the tower’s southwest side and one on the northeast side — as permitted under a comprehensive sign plan adopted in 2015, when the nonprofit community development organization was still operating as the Tysons Partnership.
Elevated 90 feet in the air and each measuring 472 square feet in size, the signs will feature the geometric logo and “This Way Up” tagline that the TCA developed in spring 2025 for a branding campaign intended to establish a “bold new visual identity” for Tysons that reflects its “potential and possibility.”
The signs must still be approved by Fairfax Water, which owns the water storage tank. The existing sign, which still sports the old Tysons logo with a tri-colored “O,” was approved in 2015 despite some reservations from county staff to having any signage on water towers.
The proposed obelisk signs, meanwhile, are being coordinated with the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority and will have directional information in addition to the TCA’s branding.
Two signs will be installed at each Metro stop, one on each side of the train station.
“The signs will be internally illuminated, and there is an option that includes solar panels,” county staff said in a report for the Board of Supervisors. “No electronic display board is included with this sign.”
Based on renderings included in the staff report, the design of the obelisk markers will closely resemble wayfinding signs that the TCA added at Ukiyo Park on Westbranch Drive and other locations around Tysons last year.
Though all of the present board members ultimately approved the proposed signs, Springfield District Supervisor Pat Herrity questioned the staff report’s assertion that their installation and maintenance won’t have any fiscal impact for the county, since those tasks will be managed and funded by the TCA.
“Over 90, 95% of their funding is from the county, so technically, that would be a fiscal impact,” Herrity said.
Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay clarified that the signage project won’t require any new funding from the county, which allocated $2.75 million to the TCA in its fiscal year 2026 budget. County Executive Bryan Hill proposed giving the TCA the same amount of funding in his advertised budget plan for FY 2027.
“The money has already been transferred to the Tysons group for purposes like this, and they’re not seeking a new appropriation,” McKay said. “Is that correct?”
“That would be correct,” Hill confirmed.
Along with marketing Tysons, the TCA organizes and promotes events, advocates for transportation improvements, and collects data to support the area’s economic development.
The TCA is currently aiming to install the new water tower sign in April, if the weather cooperates, while the wayfinding obelisk signs will likely be in place around mid-June, communications director Monique Blyther told FFXnow.
“I am very eager to see this project come to fruition,” Palchik said.
The positioning of the obelisk signs for the Tysons Metro stations has been corrected from one on each side of the train platforms to one on each side of the stations.
