How Rail Spurred A Makeover In Tysons Corner

Planners in this suburban D.C. community want to double or even triple the city's density, bringing its population of 17,000 closer to the 120,000 that work there.

The inspiration for this proposed sea change is the 23-mile rail extension that has been approved between D.C.'s Dulles International Airport and the center city. Four stops will be included in Tysons Corner.

"The blueprint, which has been four years in the making and calls for a dense, walkable green city, is a model of public-private partnership and the largest such undertaking in the country. The implications of this redevelopment project stretch far beyond Fairfax County, as suburbs and exurbs across the country look for ways to repair the damage from five decades of outward, rather than upward, expansion. There are scores of so-called edge cities that have popped up near urban centers, suburbs on steroids that often grew around a giant mall — like King of Prussia, Pa. (outside Philadelphia), and Schaumburg, Ill. (Chicago). 'If Tysons can be retrofitted, then there's great hope for a lot of others,' says June Williamson, an associate professor of architecture at the City College of New York and a co-author of Retrofitting Suburbia."