Get to know Reston

Virginia's first planned residential community, Reston takes its first three letters from the initials of Robert E. Simon, the real estate entrepreneur who conceived it as a place to live, work, and play in nature’s embrace. Much of the community was laid out by master planner James Rossant, who studied at Harvard under the tutelage of Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius. Central to Simon’s vision was a diverse housing stock with a range of densities, heights, footprints, and lifestyles. Here, one can find tranquility by the water or embrace the convenience of condo living in the heart of town. Reston’s early developments, like the brutalist Lake Anne Village Center and the cubist Charles Goodman-designed Hickory Cluster, are considered masterworks of mid-century modern design. You'll find 1,300 acres of open space — and 55 miles of paved trails — throughout Reston, with more than 700 acres of forest, 50 meadows, and numerous lakes, ponds, and streams.

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Living in the Washington Metropolitan Area

The Washington Metropolitan Area starts with the District of Columbia proper and radiates out to the inner suburbs of Virginia and Maryland and stretches all the way to the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. Colloquially, many locals refer to the region as the DMV, an abbreviation for D.C., Maryland, and Virginia, but will often just say they live in D.C. when they technically have an address in one of the states. Each town has its own specific atmosphere and residents — even the newly transplanted — often display fierce loyalty to their own suburb of choice. Generally, towns that are closer to D.C., especially those inside the Beltway, have more access to public transportation and more pedestrian-friendly downtowns, while towns on the far reaches of the metropolitan area like Charles Town, West Virginia, will have a more rural feel and fewer daily commuters to D.C. and its immediate environs.