Robert E. Simon

Robert E. Simon, Jr., was born in New York City in 1914. After graduating from Harvard University, Simon took over the family real estate management and development business. In 1961, with the proceeds from the sale of a family property, Carnegie Hall, Simon purchased 6,750 acres (27 km²) of land in Fairfax County, Virginia and hired Conklin + Rossant [http://www.jamesrossant.com/] to develop a master plan for the new town of Reston, Virginia, now recognized as the foremost Planned Community in the United States. Simon's new town concept emphasized quality of life for the individual and provided a community where people could live, work, and play without driving long distances.

Simon returned to live in Reston in 1993 and helped celebrate Reston's 40th birthday [http://www.restoncelebrates.org/40th.html] in 2004. In that same year a bronze statue of Simon was placed on a park bench in Washington Plaza [http://lakeanneplaza.com/] on Lake Anne, the original heart of the community he built.

Robert Simon's Stated Goals in the Creation of Reston, VA:

#That the widest choice of opportunities be made available for the full use of leisure time. This means that the New Town should provide a wide range of cultural and recreational facilities as well as an environment for privacy.
#That it be possible for anyone to remain in a single neighborhood throughout his life, uprooting being neither inevitable nor always desirable. By providing the fullest range of housing styles and prices -- from high-rise efficiencies to 6-bedroom townhouses and detached houses -- housing needs can be met at a variety of income levels and at different stages of family life. This kind of mixture permits residents to remain rooted in the community if they so choose -- as their particular housing needs change. As a by-product, this also results in the heterogeneity that spells a lively and varied community.
#That the importance and dignity of each individual be the focal point for all planning, and take precedence for large-scale concepts.
#That the people be able to live and work in the same community.
#That commercial, cultural and recreational facilities be made available to the residents from the outset of the development -- not years later.
#That beauty -- structural and natural -- is a necessity of the good life and should be fostered.
#Since Reston is being developed from private enterprise, in order to be completed as conceived it must also, of course, be a financial success.

External links

* [http://www.restonmuseum.org/urbanCommunity.html Reston Concept: The New Town - R.E.Simon 1966]
* [http://www.restonmuseum.org/historyAndPhilosophy.html Genesis of Reston - R.E.Simon]
* [http://www.gmu.edu/library/specialcollections/simon1.html Robert E. Simon, Jr collection]
* [http://www.jamesrossant.com/ James Rossant] , master planner of Reston
* [http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A21208-2004Mar24?language=printer At Home With His Creation-Washington Post 3/25/04]
* [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/2000/simon081699.htm A Town Grows in Fairfax - Washington Post 8/16/99]