The Town Center

The Town Center Neighborhood is the most urban of the three neighborhoods. This distinct neighborhood is set into a high-quality public realm. It contains a mix of building types, uses and open spaces, with the intent of providing quality neighborhood services and destinations within a five-minute walk of most residents.

The tallest buildings are located here, which also contains the greatest mix of uses along wide sidewalks, all contributing to the creation of an active, highly walk-able destination for residents, workers, transit users, and surrounding neighbors. Uses planned in the Town Center include offices, a hotel, retail shops (including a grocery store) as well as residential multi-family buildings. The neighborhood edges transition to lower-scale residential buildings (units and townhouses) to be compatible with the character of existing neighboring development.

Open space is provided in a variety of types. The center of the neighborhood provides urban paved, hardscaped and softscaped squares. Whereas, at the edge of the neighborhood, a greenway and trail system is provided, connecting the Town Center to surrounding neighborhoods and open spaces.

Garden District

The Garden District Neighborhood contains a variety of urban settings, mostly residential in character with the ability to add a smaller neighborhood=serving mixed-use center at a central location. Buildings are utilized to elegantly shape public spaces, defining the edges of walk-able streets and neighborhood greens and plazas. A “Durable outer shell” is proposed of mixed-use buildings and residential units on major street frontages (such as Beauregard) surrounded by a “soft center” of smaller scale townhomes and neighborhood greens. This blending of building types creates a grand presence along major street frontages and a smaller, more intimate residential experience on neighboring streets. The advantage of this durable outer shell/soft center model is that a variety of housing types and uses can be combined within the neighborhood creating a complete community. Neighborhood parks and greens that are suitable in character for surrounding residential areas are provided. In addition, an enlarged greenway at the neighborhood edge provides new linkages with pedestrian connections to Dora Kelly Park, Homes Run Park, The Winkler Preserve, Ramsy School and the Town Center neighborhood.

Uplands Park

The Upland Park Neighborhood is primarily planned as a residential neighborhood, but is also planned to include a variety of commercial uses. The most distinctive feature of the neighborhood will be the large Green open space around which the buildings and uses are organized. The two Eastern most quadrants, which will eventually form the Western edge of the ellipse, are planned as commercial uses, such as a hotel, retail and office uses. These buildings will provide an urban edge and a definition to the Ellipse, while also serving to embrace and define the neighborhood’s interior spaces. The two quadrants to the East are each planned as residential apartment buildings. Ground floor units in these buildings will address the neighborhood streets and as such will have front doors and intimate protected entries along the tree lined sidewalks. The western edge of the neighborhood is planned as a row of town homes that address the interior neighborhood street while also providing a low scale transition to the established neighborhood of single family homes to the West. The large central green which organizes and provides a focus for the Upland Park neighborhood also connects directly to the Greenways along the neighborhood frontages of Beauregard and Seminary, and through the Greenway, to the other neighborhoods (both existing and proposed) within the Plan Area.

Adams

The Adams Neighborhood includes the office component that is a critical element in the overall mixed-use development concept proposed by the Beauregard Corridor. The redevelopment will include the demolition of the existing six office buildings and the construction of five new office buildings varying in height between six and eight stories, a restaurant and a six v story hotel. The hotel, fronting on the Ellipse will frame one of the corners of the Beauregard St. and Seminary Rd. intersection, forming a welcoming entrance to the western part of the corridor.

The planned office park is within walking distance of the new Town Center. The combination of an enhanced sidewalk, improvements along the Beauregard St. frontage and the new parallel road will promote the utilization of the proposed network of pedestrian and bicycle systems as an alternative form of transit for the residents and office tenants in the area. The design of the office park will include improved street access to the buildings for the tenants and visitors and will be integrated with its surroundings to allow for a more attractive relationship between the buildings and street frontage. The height of these office buildings has been restricted and the setbacks from the adjacent residential areas have been established so as not to dominate the view sheds for residents in the neighborhoods.

The design of this neighborhood includes a green area that will be preserved on the North end of the site as well as a green roof that is proposed on top of the underground parking garages that will be built to serve part of the off ice complex. The location of this office park provides a separation and buffer from the adjacent existing residential neighborhoods while still encouraging connectivity between all of the uses.

Southern Towers

The Southern Towers has been owned by the same family that built it almost 50 years ago. It has excellent access to transportation including direct access from southbound I-395 and currently provides the community with approximately 2,300 residential units and a variety of retail and commercial services. This community serves as an important residential hub for Alexandria and through the master planning and rezoning process will become an even better place to live.

The northwest corner of Southern Towers will be transformed into a mixed-use center proposed to include new office, hotel, and retail space with a potential grocery store. The residential building, the Berkeley, will continue to operate and will be the anchor to this new mixed-use environment. This portion of the property will be characterized by wide sidewalks, a proposed rapid bus station, and an active and inviting main street. A centrally located plaza will serve the entire Southern Towers community and offer residents and visitors a place to socialize and interact.

The balance of Southern Towers will continue to maintain its residential character with its apartment towers which include retail and commercial spaces generally located on the first floors as well as on existing pad sites. Ample open space has always been provided by its large central green that features many mature trees, pools, barbecues, a playground, and tennis courts.

Seminary Overlook

The Seminary Overlook neighborhood contains the existing Seminary Hills and Seminary Towers apartment communities as well as the vacant Steak and Ale restaurant site, for which development of a by-right office building is planned. The Seminary Hill community consists of 2- and 3-story garden apartments, while Seminary Towers consists of two 13-story apartment towers. Both communities were built in the early 1960’s.

The Seminary Hill site will be redeveloped with 4-5 story buildings multi-family residential buildings with underground parking and a compact, urban block size that will facilitate movement through and around the site. Across Kenmore Avenue on the Seminary Towers site, two 4-5 story multi-family residential infill buildings are planned, which will replace existing surface parking lots with buildings that front directly onto the street. The infill buildings will help complete the transformation of Kenmore from a car-oriented street, lined primarily with surface parking lots, to a street contained by buildings with ample sidewalks for pedestrian movement. The new buildings will have a comfortable scale relative to the street and will provide for transitions to adjacent neighborhoods through building shoulder conditions or the use of outward-facing courtyards that reduce building mass.

The central design feature of the Seminary Overlook neighborhood will be the development of a central public green that is prominently located along Kenmore Avenue and will serve as the heart of this primarily residential neighborhood. The green will further help to join together the new residential buildings with the existing Seminary Towers, which are expected to remain into the foreseeable future.

An additional key component of redevelopment in the Seminary Overlook neighborhood will be the realignment of the eastern half of Kenmore Avenue to meet Seminary Road and Library Lane. The realignment will create direct westbound access to Seminary Road from Kenmore, as well as help address traffic conflicts that exist today between the I-395 off-ramp and the current Kenmore alignment. As part of the improved road network, a new dedicated bike trail will run east-west through the neighborhood joining connecting the Parkside community with Seminary Road.

Greenway Park

The Greenway Park Neighborhood is similar in character to the Garden District Neighborhood, also containing the ability to have a small neighborhood-serving mixed-use center, a “durable outer shell” of urbane apartment buildings on major street frontages, and “soft center” of smaller scale development with neighborhood parks and greens near secondary and tertiary streets. A greenway connection along the Resource Protection Area (RPA) connects Holmes Run Park and the Winkler Preserve. This greenway also contains a newly-created pond area, intended to be utilized for storm water management but also designed as a community amenity, as well as larger open spaces that could be used for other active uses (such as a dog park or a community garden).