The series of events marking Reston founder Robert E. Simon’s 100th birthday kicks off this weekend with a musical tribute by the Reston Community Orchestra.
Simon will turn 100 on April 10, and Reston is marking the occasion — along with Reston’s 50th anniversary with many celebrations. The full list can be found at Reston Celebrates.
RCO’s show, Innovation! A Tribute to Robert E. Simon, is Sunday at 4 p.m. at Reston Community Center Hunters Woods.
The performance is billed as “music as progressive and inventive as the community we share.”
The orchestra will perform works including Paul Creston’s Concertino for Marimba and Orchestra; Albéric Magnard’s Suite in the Ancient Style, Op. 2; and Bela Bartok’s Suite No. 2 for Orchestra Op. 4.
Admission is free, but donations are accepted.
Another musical tribute will be held on Sunday, March 23, when the the Reston Chorale presents Reston’s 50th: Celebrating the Vision and the Visionary.
The performance, 4 p.m. at South Lakes High School, will feature the premiere of The Essential Life by acclaimed composer Donald McCullough.
Simon was a founding member of the chorale in 1967.
For more information, call 703-834-0079, email [email protected] and visit www.RestonChorale.org.
Tickets are now on sale online for $30/adult; $25/Seniors (62+) and Students (13 – 17).
Reston’s milestone year is here, and now there is one spot to find all the celebration news.
Reston Celebrates is now live as the community prepares for founder Bob Simon’s 100th birthday and Reston’s 50th anniversary this spring.
Celebrations for the big 50/100 events begin in March and continue with Founders Day on April 5 and the Best of Reston Gala on April 10, which is Simon’s birthday.
Organizations supporting the 50/100 events are Reston Community Center, Reston Association, Reston Historic Trust/Reston Museum, Greater Reston Chamber of Commerce, Reston Hospital Center/Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), Cornerstones, Reston Town Center, and Myers Public Relations, which is hosting the RestonCelebrates.org website.
Visit the website to see the full lineup of events, which will include a performance by the Reston Community Orchestra and a screening of the film “The Reston Story,” among others.
Photo courtesy of Reston 50/100.
Fifty years ago, the first residents moved into Reston’s new homes. A then-50-year-old Robert E. Simon, who envisioned a “New Town” in the cow pastures near what is now Dulles International Airport, was taking a risk that people would want to live in the undeveloped western part of Fairfax County, with no highway, no grocery store and hardly any other people.
Simon likes to joke he only had to appease 3,000 residents when Reston was founded.
“And that was easy, because they were all cows,” he says.
In 2014, Reston — now home to close to 60,000 residents — is now a significant residential and business hub for the Washington, DC, metro area. Reston is the second-largest office market in Fairfax County with almost 19.7 million square feet of space, according to the Greater Reston Chamber of Commerce.
And, with Metrorail’s Silver Line set to open in 2014, more residential and business development is on the way. Long-range major developments planned for Reston:
- The Spectrum (Mixed-use; 774,879 square feet of office, retail and hotel space)
- Reston Heights (Mixed-use; 145,000 square feet of above-grade retail, 100,000 square feet of below grade space, 428,225 square feet of office 498 units residential units in the area around the Sheraton Reston and Westin Reston Heights hotels)
- A pair of 10-story, 280,000-square-foot office buildings on Sunset Hills at Reston Parkway near the future Reston Parkway Metro station
- A 23-story, 418,000-square-foot office tower at 1760 Reston Parkway
- The surface parking lot at Reston Town Center to be redeveloped as a high-rise office building (276,788 square feet of space, a maximum height of 17 stories, with 7,800 square feet of retail/restaurant uses on the ground floor)
- Mixed use buildings at Reston Station at the Wiehle-Reston East Metro stop, including residential, office, hotel and retail
- Redevelopment of Fairway Apartments, Crescent Apartments, Lake Anne Fellowship House and the Lake Anne area.
But before those exponential expansions will happen, Reston will have a series of events commemorating the big anniversary/birthday in 2014.
Already planned are:
Sunday, March 16, 4 p.m., Reston Community Center Hunters Woods
Reston Community Orchestra’s “Innovation: A Tribute to Robert E. Simon on his 100th Birthday”
Featuring music by Creston, Magnard and Bartok with renowned marimba player and RCO musician Rebecca Kite.
Sunday, March 23, 4 p.m., South Lakes High School
Reston Chorale presents “Reston’s 50th – A Celebration of the Vision and the Visionary,” a world premiere of All Beautiful and Splendid Things – a choral and orchestra work by composer Donald McCullough commemorating Robert E. Simon’s 100th
birthday and the 50th anniversary of Reston.
Saturday, April 5, noon, Lake Anne Plaza
Founders Day celebrating Robert E. Simon’s 100th birthday and Reston’s 50th Anniversary. Program will feature tributes, music and cake.
Saturday, April 5, 8 p.m. Reston Community Center
Reston’s 50th Anniversary Celebration. Enjoy the special screening of “The Reston Story” movie and the winners of My Community Video Contest. The evening will conclude with champagne and dessert with a toast to Robert E. Simon and each other.
Photo of Robert E. Simon, Sen. Harry Bird and Jane Wilhelm strolling in early Reston courtesy of Reston Historic Trust
Do you know a Reston native who has returned to town to live or work?
Then nominate them as a young Restonian to be recognized at Founder’s Day 2014.
As part of Reston’s big 50th Anniversary celebration on April 5, 2014, the Reston Historic Trust will recognize some of Reston’s second generation.
Nominate them by downloading and submitting this Young Restonian form.
Lots of other plans are underway for Founder’s Day, which will also celebrate Reston founder Bob Simon’s 100th birthday. Reston Now will keep you updated as the program develops.
Meanwhile, RHT is accepting Happy Birthday messages for the commemorative program. Messages begin at $25.
Want to have your birthday greetings to Bob in the program? Download this Bob Simon Birthday greetings form.
Our New Town isn’t so new anymore. Next year, we’re going to celebrate Reston’s 50th. We’re a community with a real history now.
To our credit, we’ve been taking steps to recognize and preserve that history. The Reston Museum, with its series of talks about the early days of Reston, has done a great deal to capture the stories of our past. The forthcoming movie “The Reston Story” should also help in preserving our collective memory. And of course, Lake Anne Plaza is recognized by Fairfax County as a historic district.
However, there’s another aspect of our history that I believe deserves some thought: how best to remember our most dedicated and distinguished citizens. Of course, we have awards like Best of Reston and RCA’s Citizen of the Year, which recognize the people who are doing good work in our community currently.
But I’m thinking about memorializing those Restonians who are no longer with us, but who made lasting contributions that deserve to be remembered by future generations. We should publicly honor those people who helped make our community the great place it is today.
Now is the time to think about this. The pioneer generation of Restonians is getting older. I wish they could all be immortal (as Bob Simon appears to be), but unfortunately, they won’t be with us forever. Read More
