Section A:
Tysons Corner is located in Northern Virginia, and founded in April 22, 1851. Originally named, Peach Grove, it has undergone an extensive transformation. In the 1950s, there were only a few stores that surrounded the narrow crossroad. Now Tysons Corner is located in Northern Virginia between the community of McLean and the town of Vienna along the Capital Beltway (I-495), it lies within the Washington Metropolitan Area. Tyson’s is home to bumper to bumper traffic, two super-regional shopping malls-Tysons Corner Center (1968), Tysons Galleria (1988), and the corporate headquarters of numerous companies such as Intelsat, Gannett, Hilton Worldwide, Cvent, Freddie Mac, Capital One and Booz Allen Hamilton.
The population was 19,627 as of the 2010 census which has grew dramatically over the years. Tysons is Fairfax County’s central business district and a regional commercial center. It has been characterized as a quintessential example of an edge city. In 2008, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to begin a 40-year plan to urbanize Tysons Corner around the coming four stops of Washington Metro’s Silver Line in the vein of neighboring Arlington County’s Rosslyn-Ballston corridor. The Washington Metro subway (Silver Line) has expanded westward to Tysons Corner, and eventually will be extended to Dulles Airport and beyond. The Tysons Corner station on the Silver Line is on the north side of the shopping center where Tysons Boulevard crosses State Route 123 (Chain Bridge Road). There are four stations in the Tysons Corner area.Utility relocation for the project began in 2008. The Silver Line opened July 26, 2014. The Macerich Company, who acquired owner Wilmorite Properties in 2005, is developing Tysons Corner Center into a community location. There will be expansions for residential and commercial buildings, along with a hotel. There will also be slight expansions to the mall. The project will be completed in four stages and it is expected to be finished in 10 to 15 years, adding 3,500,000 sq ft (325,160 m2) of office, residential, and retail space.
Definitions:
- Central Businesses District (CBD): it is the commercial and financial center of a city, which usually have a higher density of people, offices and retail stores.
- Land Use: the function and facilities that are used in an area.
- Peak Land Value Intersection (PLVI): land use with the most expensive, most accessible and most populated area.
- Sphere of Influence: the maximum range that a person is willing to travel to get goods and services.
Main Question:
To what extent is Tysons Corner a central business district?
Aims to Investigate
- Where is the the highest PLVI located ?
- Which area has the highest accessibility and difficulty with transportation?
- To what extent is there a financial zone in these areas?
Hypothesis:
- Tysons Corner is currently a central business district
Section B:
To conduct the investigation, primary and secondary resources will need to be collected to support the hypothesis as well as the aims and the data collection will be conducted over 3 days from the hours of 3pm and 5pm on thursday, friday, and saturday.
Primary Resources
The data collection will mostly consist of gathering data by going to the 4 metro stops and asking whether or not if people were going to the mall or working at the mall. I also will go to the metro and gathered data on how many people use each facility. I will go to tysons to count how many people went and parked at the mall to figure out the transportation aspect and see how dense the population is at the mall and finally count the non- virginia license plates to see how far people were willing to travel in order to answer certain questions in the research question.
Secondary Resources
I will use transport route maps for buses and metros as well as land value of the areas will need to be collected through secondary resources such as area profiles, news articles and investment websites. This will provide external information on the accessibility of transportation and the land value of these areas as it cannot be identified using primary data in order to explore the aims. These will be conducted after the primary collection, so there can be a better understanding of the functionality of each area and can support the evidence collected.
Sections C and D:
As you can see these are a few cities near tysons
- Merrifield to Tysons: 3.42 miles
- Wolf trap to Tysons: 2.96 miles
- Vienna to Tysons: 2.33 miles
- Mclean to Tysons: 4.28 miles
- Idylwood to Tysons: 2.91 miles
- Dunn Loring to Tysons: 2.17 miles
- Reston to Tysons: 8.81 miles
Tysons is surrounded by many major roads such as:
- 495 located not only in the states of Virginia and Maryland, but also crosses briefly through the District of Columbia
- U.S. Route 66 from middletown VA. (West) to washington D.C. (East)
- Route 123 (Chain Bridge rd.) from Arlington (North) to Woodbridge (South)
- Route 7 (Leesburg pike) southeast from downtown Winchester to downtown Alexandria.
Tysons Corner is located on the silver line on the metro
The 4 main stops are (according to the picture above)
- Spring hill
- Greensboro
- Mclean
- East Falls Church
Tysons Corner station provides convenient access to two of the region’s major shopping destinations. The station is located on Route 123 on the same side as Tysons Galleria, and provides access via pedestrian bridge to Tysons Corner Center across the street.
In the circle above indicated on the photo above it shows a convenient access for the pradestians showing the metro is accessible with a ½ mile walking distance along the radius.
Having 4 metros near tysons is relevant because it allows easy access to other places in northern virginia and to D.C. for a low cost. On saturday i went during rush hour to the Tysons metro stop and stood on the bridge connecting the metro to Tysons Corner mall. There my friend and I asked people for 30 mins
Why are you visiting the mall?
- To shop
- To go to work
2) depending on the answer of number one i would ask…
- Why do you choose tysons mall instead of another mall?
- How far did they live from the mall/ job?
While conducting this simple questionnaire I wanted to keep it short because i didn’t want to take up someone’s time because most people are rushing to get to their destination on time and also it allows me to be able to ask more then one person more efficiently in a short amount of time.
During those 30 mins i and my friend had asked 30 people (a person per minute)
And I divided the answers into 4 charts
- If they ride the metro for work in tysons?
- If they lived in tysons?
- If they came to shop in the mall and why tysons?
- And how far they lived from tysons?
I noticed a lot people who came to visit the mall do not live in the tysons area because the area is really expensive. But I also noticed the people who did live in tysons worked in dc because that area was too expensive and for the people who did live in tysons worked in D.C. and one of the men I questioned was a lawyer in D.C. that lives in the apartments near tysons mall that rides the metro everyday. He was so interested in my school project that he told me his life story. He explained to me that he lived in D.C. but he said that the area was so bad because of the cultural diversity and different age groups. He said that riding the metro once it became dark out became somewhat hazardous, and metro has very little to no security especially on the trains. And if a incident were to happen were someone would get hurt from a fight, metro would make everyone get off the entire train and force them to take a different train to their destination. Once the situation would be fixed Metro would make the train leave the station and go back to the metro train depot and would not return until a later date. He also added that not only was the lack of security for riders a turn away but the condition of the train cars and train stations was as well. The stations besides the newly built silver lines stations aren’t very well kept up and tend to have mechanical problems. He also added that the main factor he moved to tysons was because of the metro. But they are very unreliable and problematic getting to work. And while hes on the tysons metro it only takes a couple stops towards D.C. and the whole demographic changes not only in the metros appearance and cleanliness but how people treat each other. He said tyson’s is new and clean and very beneficial because it is the midpoint between D.C. and the airport.
The CBD is oftentimes the central hub of a metropolitan area transportation system. Public transit such as buses and metro, as well as highways, converge on the CBD, making the area highly accessible and convenient to those who commute. The four metro stations near Tysons, as a result, provides a substantial fraction of the mall’s customers and helps explain why tysons is so well-populated throughout the entire day. On the other hand, the convergence of road networks in the CBD often creates overwhelming traffic jams as commuters from the suburbs attempt to converge on the CBD in the morning and return home at the end of the work day.
Why does tysons have a lot of trees (green on the image above): Parks and open spaces aren’t just decorations; they’re essential for a CBD to thrive because they help to improve the quality of life for the area’s residents. For example, the color green in a largely urban landscape provides visual relief; Not only is it visually appealing, but it relaxes the busy atmosphere and is environmentally friendly. And open spaces are an opportunity to host a variety of activities and seasonal events — take the winter ice rink and summer concerts at the Tysons Plaza for example. We see that these amenities are in fact necessary to create a safe, family-friendly setting. This way they help the area earn money.
https://www.wmata.com/rider-guide/stations/tysons-corner.cfm
The Comprehensive Plan divides Tysons into eight districts. Four of these districts are within walking distance of Metro stations and will be redeveloped as high intensity, mixed use areas, or Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) districts.
Mix of Uses – The map on the top shows that much of the land in the TOD districts is planned for Transit Station Mixed Use. This is envisioned as 65% office and at least 20% residential, with the remainder in retail, hotel or civic uses. The two regional malls are planned for Retail Mixed Use, with at least 20% residential. Outside the TOD districts significant areas are planned for Residential Mixed Use, with 75% residential and the remainder in office, hotel, retail and civic uses.
Intensity – Within ¼ mile of the four Metro stations, the Plan does not set a maximum density level but calls for the creation of high quality urban environments with a mix of uses and activities. The Plan gradually tapers densities down for areas that are farther from the stations. This is shown in the map on the bottom right. About three-quarters of Tysons’ development will be within a ten minute walk of a Metro station.
Housing – The Plan provides incentives to reserve 20% of new residential units in Tysons for affordable and workforce housing (households earning between 50% and 120% of the area median income). This is significantly higher than the current countywide goal of 12%.
Tysons Corner, Fairfax County’s largest business district with 29 million square feet of office space, is undergoing a transformation into an urban, walkable mix of offices, upscale residences, and public areas. Among companies with headquarters in Tysons Corner are Fortune 500 firms Booz Allen Hamilton, Capital One Financial, Freddie Mac and Hilton Worldwide. Including the communities of McLean, Vienna and Great Falls, median household income in this area is more than $150,000, with 75 percent of the 25-and-older population having earned a bachelor’s degree or higher. The area is home to the CIA, Wolf Trap in Vienna (the only national park dedicated to the performing arts), shopping malls featuring more than 6 million square feet of retail space and Great Falls, with spectacular views of the Potomac River. Metrorail Silver Line runs through the heart of Tysons Corner, which also features easy access to Washington, D.C., and Dulles International Airport via the Capital Beltway and Dulles Toll Road.
- https://www.distancefromto.net/
- https://www.fairfaxcountyeda.org/tysons-corner-business-area
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Line_(Washington_Metro)
- http://silverlinemetro.com/tysons-corner/
- https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/news2/transforming-transportation-in-tysons/
- https://www.distancefromto.net/