HCA REMEMBERS BELOVED HICKORY CLUSTER CHAMPION RALPH PARK YOUNGREN, ARCHITECT, FAIA

Ralph passed away peacefully in his Block 3 home with his family beside him on October 17, 2023 at the very accomplished age of 98 years.

In the photo at left, Hickory Cluster Association former Director/President Michael L. Poss presents Ralph with a special plaque at the Hickory Cluster Stream Reach Restoration and Youngren Bridge March 11, 2017 dedication event with the HCA Board of Directors, HCA residents, RA representatives, and the Wetland Studies management, design, and construction team.

Ralph's family joined many of his friends and neighbors near the HCA Pond and Youngren Bridge at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, November 19, 2023, to celebrate Ralph's life and many contributions to national, Reston, and Hickory Cluster Mid-Century Modern Architecture, followed by a gathering with refreshments at Lake Anne Village Center Cafe' Montmartre, as announced by his wife Ann and sons Malcolm and Todd.  

During the Cafe' Montmartre celebration, Ralph's family and friends shared remembrances, including the following:

RALPH PARK YOUNGREN ... THROUGH THE YEARS

  Courtesy of Malcolm P. and Todd P. Youngren, All Rights Reserved

REMEMBERING RALPH AND HIS HICKORY CLUSTER LEGACY

  By Michael L. Poss, M.Arch., Former HCA Director and President

    2008 Blocks 1-3 Improvement Project Railing Replacements

    2012 Blocks 1 and 3 Swingset Replacements

    2014 Block 3 Goodman Commemorative Sign

    2017 Blocks 1 and 2 Stream Restoration Bridge Replacement

    2017 Blocks 1 and 3 Street Entrance Landscape Upgrade

    2024 Block 1 New Fellowship House Townhomes Site Plan 

The Youngren family published Ralph's obituary in the New York Times, also available on legacy.com.

Bonus:  Ralph's work as part of an Art Institute of Chicago collection.

Ralph, thanks for enriching our lives with yours.  We miss you dearly.

RA COVENANTS ADVISOR TO HCA DEPARTS @ FRI MAR 4

Updated May 16, 2022

RA and HCA will lose the substantial knowledge and experience of RA Covenants Advisor Vern James when he leaves to take on new and greater responsibilities nearer his home as the Ashburn Village Community Association, Inc. Resident Services Manager, effective Friday, March 4.  Unknown to most of us during his RA tenure, Vern was also an accomplished writer with nine novels and more than 50 short stories published over a period of 26 years.  

RA is currently in the process of seeking a replacement.  Until that person is on board and trained, the temporary Covenants Advisor for Hickory Cluster is Catherine Castrence, nicknamed "Cat", ccastrence@reston.org.

Vern joined RA in September 2013 and simultaneously supported up to 30 Reston clusters, including Hickory Cluster, for almost nine years.  He became an expert in RA Covenants, Codes, and Restrictions, RA Maintenance & Use Standards, RA DRB Design Guidelines, and HCA Cluster Standards.  He tirelessly helped HCA Members maintain and improve their Goodman Houses, the majority of whom value compliance with protective rules that enhance daily quality of life, Goodman architectural integrity, and resulting property value growth.  And he did this in a friendly manner, even in the face of a heavy workload and unfortunate opposition from a small number of residents who believe RA protective rules, to which they agreed when they purchased their Reston homes, do not apply to them.  Vern was an effective professional, a friend of Hickory Cluster, and a valuable Reston asset.  He will be missed.

BLOCK 2 GOODMAN HOUSE PRICE RECORD @ FEB 3

Updated February 25, 2022

The Payton Residence, an almost fully renovated Hickory Cluster Block 2 Model A2B Goodman House with a near-perfect rear southern exposure to central HCA Common Area, sold for a record $745,200 price yesterday following the July 2021 departure of a beloved long-time medical professional homeowner and her late husband, a highly-regarded journalist, bureau chief, and executive editor.  They met as college students, married, and lived together in Belgium, Israel, Italy, France, and most recently Reston.  Both were serious modern architecture, rock music, foreign film, and Porsche 911 fans.  

A realtor who rarely resells Hickory Cluster Goodman Houses initially sold the home as an off-MLS private sale to an investor buyer in September 2021 for $480,000.  After homeowner out-of-state relatives managing her affairs decided the home was a deferred maintenance "money pit," and to cash out the estate asset as quickly as possible, the realtor they chose did so by representing BOTH the homeowner seller AND investor buyer as what is termed a "dual agent." But as a prominent Hickory Cluster realtor expert diplomatically understated, the dual agent realtor did the homeowner seller a "disservice" by not allowing typical full and open price competition.  Even the realtor's own brockerage company advises that, according to a recent MLS study validated by two Ph.D. economists, "The median sales price for homes sold on-MLS was 16.98% higher than homes sold off-MLS."  In other words, the homeowner seller and her estate lost an estimated $81,504 through an off-MLS sale with no competition among an otherwise huge market of highly-motivated buyers who also could have renovated the home and lived in it.  

But wait, there's more:  As part of the initial deal, the very same realtor arranged to represent the investor as seller during the on-MLS, three-day, six-offer, $745,200 second transaction in February 2022.  She ostensibly earned both a 6% September 2021 commission (homeowner seller 3.5% + investor buyer 2.5%), but also the 3.5% February 2022 investor seller commission.  So who benefited most from this apparent conflict of interest?  With full on-MLS price competition for their follow-on resale, the realtor and investor got the real deals.  The homeowner, with no MLS price competition for the initial resale, did not.

Increased resale prices also mean increased annual assessed property values and property taxes for everyone else.  For one nearby Block 2 Model A2B Goodman House, the 2022 Notice of Real Estate Assessment Change dated February 22, 2022 reports an increase of 15.11% from 2021, no doubt in part due to this February 3 resale.  Corresponding property tax amounts tentatively increased $878.88 from $5,815.44 to $6,694.32, subject to final county tax rate decisions and possible homeowner appeal.  See the real estate sales page of this website for comprehensive Hickory Cluster resale data covering all 2013-22 resales.  

The house was the subject of almost continuous work from September 2021 through January 2022, and the all-too-frequent blocking of a fire hydrant and resident cars by contractor trucks for hours at a time despite clearly marked fire lanes and a clearly visible fire hydrant.  Hickory Cluster fire lane signs do not say "except for contractors."

The investor team repaired substantial drywall water damage and other deferred maintenance, and remodeled bathrooms and kitchen with trendy, contemporary flat-pack DIY cabinets, fixtures, and hardware, all sadly not Mid-Century Modern in design or color.  The ground floor kitchen was reconfigured to be a more open and space-efficient with a useful pantry barn door, but in a simplistic, boring, white-on-white color scheme contrasted by stainless steel appliances and black fixtures and hardware.  Lack of a breakfast bar as part of the new kitchen cabinet divider waterfall counter top was a missed, but still possible, opportunity.  In the process, priceless original 1960s Fresnel lens ceiling and other light fixtures, original butterfly bathroom fixtures, and original kitchen appliance and cabinet components were lost forever rather than offered for reuse to other homeowners. 

Contractors refinished and repaired original Hope steel-frame awning and casement windows and original aluminum frame sliding glass doors, but they also absurdly painted the originally removable awning window screen units to the fixed window frames.  Both types of operable windows and the sliding glass doors will require eventual replacement with more modern alternatives to prevent typical excessive air infiltration and heat loss.  The contractors also added a trendy rear patio high-smoke fire ring sure to be popular with nearby neighbors.  New mixed warm white and cold blue ceiling lights will need overall color consistency, typically on the warm side.  Replacement of the old front main entry door house number plaque with a new and original-design-consistent plaque was a good thing, however, painting the replacement front entry white-anodized window aluminum door and window frames foolishly made previously paint-free elements now regular maintenance items requiring paint to match.

Hardwood floors throughout were significantly repaired and refinished, as was the rear patio brick surface.  The investor removed and replaced original ground floor wood parquet tiles attached by black mastic asbestos adhesive with dark tiles that can provide passive solar heating, but laid diagonally rather than orthogonally as did International Style Goodman.  This was a huge mistake.  Goodman used wood for at least one good reason:  concrete slab floors are and feel VERY cold during Winter months, and wood provided much less heat loss than denser vinyl or tile.  So now to compensate, the new homeowner must buy large and expensive rugs, which of course defeat passive solar heating by shielding the tiles from direct sunlight.  Or, as other homeowners did before not after floor material replacement, the investor could have installed a radiant floor heating system between the slab and new tile.  Or, he could have simply refinished the wood tiles as have many other Goodman House homeowners.  And then there's the issue of possible asbestos fiber contamination if not properly managed during tile removal.

Also sadly, it appears the RA resale inspection and disclosure document team neglected to fully follow its own Design Guidelines, Maintenance & Use Standards, and HCA Cluster Standards during both 2021 and 2022 resales of this home.  Such negligence results in unfair treatment of other HCA homeowners who were previously cited for and invested in repairing the very same non-compliant conditions elsewhere, including:  rear mid-level non-original as-built design gutter and downspout addition, upper roof deck non-original as-built design replacement light fixture, and rear top concrete beam black mildew caused by a seriously overgrown tree next door.  In addition, rear patio staggered board fences are non-compliant designs according to current HCA General Resolution 6 Fence Standards, an RA Cluster Standard, which allows four specific options, and the standard does not allow exposed hinge hardware.  According to previous HCA legal counsel guidance, such violations persist whether cited or not, and new homeowners inherit related remediation liability.  RA and HCA standards inspection and disclosure negligence also contributes to a growing accumulation of non-compliant elements, and a death spiral in individual and community Goodman House architectural integrity.

Regardless, Hickory Cluster continues to benefit from a strong real estate seller market with low supply, high demand, and historically low mortgage rates.  Goodman Houses sell quickly, with large cash down payments, almost sight unseen, and without buyer contingencies.  The overall financial success of this project for the realtor and investor is a reflection of those current conditions.  However, further continuation of this success for all stakeholders will still depend on diligent support of unique original as-built Goodman House architectural integrity by both RA and HCA, and the resulting market appeal and value to enlightened and motivated homebuyers who will pay premium prices to own an original Reston, Mid-Century Modern, Hickory Cluster Goodman House.

RESTON HISTORIC BLDG SURVEY MTG @ TUE JAN 5

The Fairfax County Dept. of Planning and Development and Virginia Dept. of Historic Resources survey consultant Hanbury Preservation Consulting has completed their draft report and published it for community review on a Fairfax County webpage.  According to the official meeting agenda, Fairfax County Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn will welcome attendees, and the project team leaders will then brief the Reston community on the project and initial survey findings during a virtual meeting from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, January 5, 2021.  HCA Members and others can attend using a WebEx link, or via telephone at (844) 621-3956 with access code 179 469 1739.  The meeting will also stream live on Alcorn's YouTube webpage.  The 2019 kick-off meeting was reported in an earlier post on this website. 

The survey is a key element of Fairfax County's belated response to their tragic and avoidable 2016 approval of demolition of Bauhaus Architect and Professor Marcel Brauer's striking 1964 Reston American Press Institute Building that made way for yet more generic cookie-cutter townhomes.  The API building and many others were not on the County Inventory of Historic Sites because that deficient list then covered buildings only through about 1920.  Architect Charles M. Goodman's 1965 Hickory Cluster was an important focus of the current survey that will be used to inform government agencies and hopefully prevent future losses of early Reston significant Mid-Century Modern Architecture.

HCA NEW DOOR, WINDOW, OR WALL PROJECT?

To help preserve remaining Hickory Cluster architectural integrity, and to help maintain and increase popular Mid-Century Modern resale property values, HCA requires RA DRB applications and approvals for replacing solid entry doors, solid balcony doors, sliding glass doors, fixed or operable glass windows, concrete block or wood rear patio fences and gates, and other original Goodman House as-built design elements and colors as documented in respective HCA governing documents and RA DRB Design Guidelines, even for some compliant proposed replacements.  The application preparation and submission process also follows a number of important steps.  To help HCA Members understand and successfully complete those steps during and after the 2018 RA Cluster Inspections, HCA developed the application process guide posted above.  Note that the guide describes a best case scenario for a complete application, fully compliant project, and normal RA process times.  In addition, RA recently updated their corresponding application form required for all DRB submissions by all RA homeowners.  For more information, see the HCA website Governing Documents webpage for cluster-specific HCA General Resolution architectural standards that take precedence over RA guidelines, the more general RA DRB Cluster Housing Design Guidelines webpage, and the RA DRB application webpage.

RESTON HISTORIC BLDG SURVEY MTG @ TUE DEC 17

In 1991, the Virginia Dept. of Historic Resources initiated a Survey and Planning Cost Share Program to assist local governments.  The program also supports the DHR mission to identify cultural resources statewide and record them in the DHR VCRIS digital database.  More than 120 Virginia communities have competed to participate and receive limited matching annual funding, and with DHR have conducted 150-plus projects in every region of the Commonwealth.  As a result, each year the DHR inventory of architectural and archeological resources grows with the addition of more than 4,000 newly recorded properties. 

In 2019, DHR selected Fairfax County to participate in a survey covering all of Reston except within the existing Lake Anne Historic Overlay District as designated by Fairfax County.  DHR thoroughly documented and added Lake Anne Village Center to the Virginia Landmarks Register in 2017, which led to listing in the U.S. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places.  DHR listed Reston overall in 2014.

For the 2019 Reston survey project, DHR will hire expert consultants to photograph, map, and document properties with information about building style, construction date, architectural description, and preliminary evaluation of relative significance.  The sites or buildings can then be nominated to be included in the County Inventory of Historic Sites, the Virginia Landmarks Register, or the National Register of Historic Places.  Although such honorary designations do not ensure a building's survival, Bauhaus Professor and Master Architect Marcel Breuer's 1964 Reston API Building, the only Breuer building in Virginia, was permitted for 2016 demolition primarily because it was not listed within the incomplete and outdated Fairfax County inventory that covered Hunter Mill District sites and buildings through only 1920.  Sadly, the permitted developer replaced the bold modernist Breuer API Building with typical, nondescript, cookie-cutter townhomes.

DHR and Fairfax County will hold a joint public information meeting this evening to kick off the project at RCC Lake Anne at 7:00 p.m.  They will also brief the community on completed survey findings early next year.

HCA STANDARDS PAINTS 30% OFF @ THRU NOV 30

The 1993 HCA General Resolution 5, Exterior Painting Standards and Maintenance of Concrete Beams, Appendix A, specifies numerous paint colors and finishes for key Hickory Cluster architectural elements and details, including exterior walls, beams, doors, and trim.  More recently, the 1993-98 Cluster Standards 2018 Equivalent Products guide describes current versions of former Duron and other brand paints now available at 30% off with a coupon from the local Sherwin Williams store at 495A Elden Street in Herndon, just past the Fairfax County Parkway and Safeway store, telephone (703) 471-1484.  This information is for reference only, not an HCA endorsement or guarantee. 

RESTON, GOODMAN, HICKORY BOOK TALK @ WED SEP 18

CityLab Senior Editor Amanda Kolson Hurly will discuss her new book Radical Suburbs:  Experimental Living on the Fringes of the American City at a September 18, 2019 RCC Lake Anne Rose Gallery event sponsored by the Reston Historic Trust and Museum.  Ms. Hurly, who specializes in architecture and urban planning, also recently discussed another major planned community and book chapter in a similar program at the Greenbelt Museum on July 18, 2019.

In Radical Suburbs, Ms. Hurly writes about Reston in Chapter 6:  The Fight Over the Soul of a New Town, from origins through recent developments, and mentions both Architect Charles M. Goodman and Hickory Cluster: " ... Two prominent architects from Washington filled in the edges of Lake Anne Village with more small-scale Modernist housing.  Charles Goodman, the designer of nearby Hollin Hills, produced Hickory Cluster, ninety townhouses tucked gently into a wooded hillside overlooking the lake.  The houses vary in size and height, but they all bear the same grid in front, a concrete frame that is sometimes enclosed with large panes of glass, sometimes left open as a patio. ... "  Ms. Hurley also quotes Goodman in her Conclusion chapter. 

In another similar book published in 2013, Covert Capital:  Landscapes of Denial and the Making of U.S. Empire in the Suburbs of Northern Virginia, author and Haverford College Assistant Professor of History Andrew Friedman writes about Reston, Goodman, and Hickory Cluster as notable elements of the Dulles Corridor between CIA Headquarters and Dulles International Airport where foreign service lives, places, and architecture merged as professional and personal community expressions of modern, post-World War II, post-colonial, U.S. foreign policy promoted by the CIA.  The book also mentions former HCA Block 3 Member homeowner and CIA Officer Karl Ingebritsen who passed away August 16, 2019.

Both books confirm the noteworthy roles Reston, Goodman, Hickory Cluster, and local residents have played and continue to play in international, national, and regional policy, culture, and history.

RA DRB RELEASES NEW APPLICATION FORM

RA Covenants Administration recently advised HCA that " ... DRB Staff has revised the DRB Application homeowners use when applying to make improvements. This does not affect any applications currently submitted. ... Please let us know if you notice any problems, misspellings, or parts of the form that do not function correctly." 

RA DRB application approval and compliance with HCA and RA standards is required prior to most exterior changes and private property tree removals proposed by HCA Member Goodman House homeowners.  More specific HCA exterior cluster standards enforced by RA are documented within HCA General Resolutions.  Related RA and HCA reference documents are available here and on the HCA Governing Documents webpage, as follows: 
RA Design Review Overview
RA Designs General Information
RA Cluster Housing Design Guidelines
RA Application and Review Procedures
RA Submitting An Application
RA DRB Application Form ... February 5, 2019 version
HCA RA DRB Application Process ... draft

RESTON LAVC ARCHITECT CONKLIN PASSES

Architect William J. Conklin, who along with late professional partners Julian H. Whittlesey and James S. Rossant designed Lake Anne Village Center, passed away in Maryland on November 22, 2018 at age 95 as reported this week by the New York Times and the Washington Post.  Along with Hickory Cluster designed by Conklin local contemporary Charles M. Goodman, the Village Center is part of the original Reston First Village envisioned by late Reston Founder Robert E. Simon, Jr.  Conklin was profiled in a 1982 American Architecture Now video interview and a Winter 2011 Reston Magazine article.  He studied architecture under modernist Bauhaus School founder Walter Gropius at Harvard University as did retired architect, HCA Block 3 Member, and former HCA Director Ralph Youngren.  Conklin is shown at far right in the photo along with former New York Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller, former New York Mayor John V. Lindsay, and late Architect Philip C. Johnson.  Whittlesey passed away in 1995, Rossant in 2009, and Simon in 2015.

RA HCA CLUSTER INSPECTIONS @ MAR 23+

In 2008, RA conducted visual exterior inspections of all 90 HCA Goodman Houses as requested by the HCA Board of Directors.  This resulted in a clusterwide flurry of home clean-up and repair that improved overall cluster appearance and property values for many years thereafter.

In 2018, RA will perform exterior visual walkthrough inspections of Hickory, Waterview, and Burchfield Woods Clusters, as requested by respective Boards of Directors, and according to RA schedules. 

HCA specifically requested in 2018 that RA focus on a limited number of less comprehensive Goodman House exterior items with high visibility property value impacts for which existing condition corrections are reasonably achievable by homeowners.  However, RA advised that its staff teams will perform inspections according to established RA processes, RA standards, and RA checklists used throughout Reston, without HCA-requested limits. 

Assistance for exterior home repairs may be available from RA Helping Homes, an on-going community service project, to eligible HCA Members who are who are elderly, disabled, or financially challenged and are unable to make those repairs through their own resources.  In 2016, RA Helping Homes provided assistance to four Reston homeowners.

For more information and most recent updates and revisions, including 2018 product equivalents and recommendations for 1993-98 HCA Cluster Standards colors, paints, and concrete beam coatings, see the dedicated HCA RA Cluster Inspections webpage. 

UPDATES ... April 24:  For more information about RA violation letter items cited, contact RA Covenants Advisor Vern James.  April 23:  The March 2018 v1.0 "color palette" paint and coating product equivalents reference page RA provided in April 19, 2018 violations letters is an early version, it contains errors later corrected in the March 28, 2018 current version, and HCA asked RA on March 29 to replace it.  The current version is available on the HCA Governing Documents page on this website.

HCA ARCHITECT GOODMAN TYSON'S CLIENT PASSES

The Washington Post reported today that the visionary real estate developer who hired Hickory Cluster Architect Charles M. Goodman, FAIA, to design major Tyson's Corner office parks and The Commons of McLean multi-family apartment complex, WestGroup Management LLC founder Gerald T. Halpin, died August 14, 2017 at age 94.  Like Reston's late founder Robert E. Simon, Jr. earlier at Hickory Cluster, Halpin commissioned Goodman to design notable works of commercial and residential Modern, and later Post-Modern, Architecture.  Goodman's WestGroup buildings exhibited many of the same design elements used earlier at River Park Mutual Homes in Washington, DC and then in Hickory Cluster, including flat roofs, multi-panel and bay window units, and jutting concrete beam ends later expressed as building mass. 

Sadly, many if not most Goodman WestGroup buildings, including The Commons, have been or will be demolished as part of MetroRail Silver Line station area redevelopment to make way for newer, larger, and more profitable buildings.  For more information, also see the HCA Goodman Preservation webpage.

HCA RESALE DISCLOSURE DOCS UPDATE

To conserve, protect, and enhance the value of all real property subject to Fairfax County Codes and the Amended Reston Deed, the County, RA, and HCA established standards that govern the upkeep, use, occupancy, condition, and physical appearance of that property.  Upon purchase, HCA Member homeowners agree to maintain their Goodman Houses in compliance with these standards.  If they do not fulfill their obligations, then RA and HCA typically cite them for non-compliance as part of the disclosure process leading to home resale Settlement.  At that point, resolving non-compliant items becomes a negotiated matter between Sellers and Buyers, and Buyers inherit full responsibility for all unresolved non-compliant items.  Unfortunately, some Sellers just pass on these problems to Buyers, some Buyers never resolve them, and the architectural integrity and unique value of Hickory Cluster spirals downward.  So to encourage timely resolution, Goodman design preservation, and higher property values, HCA now advises Buyers within the HCA Compliance Summary and related information that they must resolve non-compliant items within 90 days after Settlement if Sellers have not already resolved them.  If unresolved 90 days after Settlement, HCA will act further to motivate compliance.  In addition, HCA will encourage consistency with RA compliance efforts and documents by providing RA with an official complaint based on the HCA Compliance Summary.  For reference, see RA Cluster Housing Design Guidelines, RA Use and Maintenance Standards, and HCA Governing Documents.

HCA STREAMBED NATIVE PLANT RESCUE @ SEP 8-17

As part of the Stream Restoration project, numerous existing native plants may be destroyed unless relocated before construction begins.  To save them, Hickory Cluster gardeners are encouraged to find, remove, and relocate the following native plants recently identified by the Reston Garden Club within the HCA Blocks 1-2 streambed area, starting today through September 17:
FERNS:  New York, Christmas, Lady, Grape
GRASSES / SEDGES:  Deertongue, Luzula, Pennsylvania
SHRUBS / TREES:  Elderberry, Spicebush, Cornus Florida
VIBURNUM SHRUBS:  Mapleleaf, Dentatum
VINES:  Virginia Creeper, Grape

OTHERS:  Partridge Berry, Jewelweed, False Nettle, Jumpseed, Hog-Peanut, Asclepias Incarnata, Lobelia Cardinalis, Asters, Agrimony, Liriope
These native plants can be relocated to either (1) the Blocks 2-3 streambed Common Area not part of the restoration project, or (2) Hickory Cluster private gardens within private property lines, not nearby Common Areas.  To help save any remaining native plants not relocated by HCA Members, RA will host a public Native Plant Rescue on Saturday, September 17, from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., within the streambed restoration area.  During this public event, participants may remove rescued native plants from Hickory Cluster.

GOODMAN HOLLIN HILLS TOUR @ APR 30

The Hollin Hills Civic Association recently announced its 2016 House and Garden Tour, usually held every other year.  Hickory Cluster Architect Charles M. Goodman FAIA designed 326 acres of Hollin Hills detached, single-family planned community homesites and homes in Alexandria, VA during the post-World War II building boom, years before his Reston, VA Hickory Cluster and Washington, DC River Park Mutual Homes multi-family projects.  Tour-goers can easily identify architectural elements common to Goodman Houses everywhere.  Hollin Hills is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

HCA FENCE STANDARDS OPTIONS

HCA fence cluster standards described within 1998 General Resolution 6 were enacted to maintain reasonably consistent fence types as replacements for failing unreinforced concrete block rear patio walls, to increase rear patio privacy, or to open up rear patio views.  The standard provides Members with five options: (a) no fence or wall, (b) up to a 6 ft. tall screen of shrubs on private property, (c) a wood screen fence with floating faceboards on edge, (d) a solid wood fence with floating edge-to-edge faceboards, or (e) a concrete block wall.  The example above is one partially-compliant example of the (d) solid wood fence option.

However, the HCA standard does not include an option for popular shadowbox designs with front-and-back alternating-surface faceboards like the example at left.  Therefore, shadowbox fences built after enactment of the 1998 HCA fence standards are not compliant and may be cited as violations during HCA and RA resale or other inspections unless otherwise approved individually by RA DRB.  Members should consult HCA General Resolution 6 for more information, official text, and compliant fence elevation and section drawings.

RESTON MUSEUM EVENTS @ SEP 20 + OCT 17

The Reston Historic Trust and Museum help preserve and promote Reston's unique history.  Hickory Cluster played a key role in that history as part of the Reston First Village, and as an important work of Mid-Century Modern Architecture in Reston by Charles M. Goodman FAIA.  To help build RHT membership and financial support, RHT sponsors numerous events each year.  On Sunday, September 20, RHT will hold the Family Fun Day & Membership Drive with Reston Founder Robert E. Simon, Jr. on the Lake Anne Village Center plaza from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m.  And on Saturday, October 17 from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., RHT will hold the 14th Annual Reston Home Tour.  Last year, more than 500 attendees visited Hickory Cluster to tour a newly-furnished Block 3 Type C1 Goodman House.  For more information, visit the Reston Museum website.

COUNTY HOME HAZMAT COLLECTION @ SEP 12

Many household items include toxic chemicals that might contaminate landfills, rivers, and drinking water if they are poorly stored or illegally placed in weekly trash collections.  To help prevent environmental pollution, Fairfax County maintains two permanent facilities and holds four annual Remote Collection Events to safely collect and dispose of Household Hazardous Waste like aerosol sprays, brake fluid, unbroken fluorescent bulbs, gasoline, glue, herbicides, insecticides, paint, paint thinner, pesticides, and rechargeable batteries.  HCA Members may safely dispose of these toxic items at the nearby McLean Community Center, 1234 Ingleside Ave., from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, September 12.  Home electronics and computer products also contain toxic materials that should be recycled through Best Buy or other local business programs rather than included in weekly trash.  Home Depot will recycle 20 lb. barbeque grill propane tanks at no charge or exchange them for full tanks for about $20.

RA DESIGN GUIDELINES HEARING @ SEP 24

HCA and other Reston homeowners legally agreed to comply with numerous covenants and restrictions when they purchased their homes.  Many of these covenants help protect the design intent, as-built architectural integrity, and property values of important works of Mid-Century Modern Architecture like Lake Anne Village Center, Hickory Cluster, Waterview Cluster, Coleson Cluster, and Golf Course Island Cluster.  An extension of those covenants are current RA Design Review Board Design Guidelines that govern general exterior changes to HCA Goodman Houses, some of which are specifically governed by HCA General Resolutions.  RA recently published proposed changes to DRB Design Guidelines and will hold a second public hearing at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, September 24 at RA Headquarters.  RA encourages Members to attend and provide feedback.

RESTON HOME TOUR FEATURES GOODMAN HOUSE

The 13th Annual Reston Home Tour 2014 fundraising event will showcase the McClung Residence, a renovated 1248 s.f., two bedroom, 1965 Type C1 Goodman House on October 18, 2014 for hundreds of attendees.  Renowned Modern Architect Charles M. Goodman, FAIA (1906-92) built only three other Type C1 Hickory Cluster townhomes with the same special split level floorplan, upper floor clerestory windows, and elevated central Common Area views.

As architectural historian Richard Guy Wilson noted in The Making of Virginia Architecture:  " ... More than any other individual, Charles M. Goodman brought modern architecture to mid-twentieth-century Virginia.  A figure of international stature, Goodman's impact can scarcely be measured ... .  His designs formed the basis of the generic Modern American house and school, widely imitated in every part of the country. ... The result was a body of architecture of great distinction that captured Americans' imagination for many years. ... "

And as architectural historian Elizabeth Jo Lample noted in Housing Washington:  " ... The appeal of living in a Goodman house is enormous to those who share his avant-garde spirit, plus his ideals for openness, engagement with nature, and liberal social values.  There remains a solid housing market today for people who appreciate the simplicity amid nature and the progressivism that a Goodman house still offers.  ... To those who are fortunate enough to obtain them, his dwellings feel like highly livable works of art, glazed conduits to the natural world.  Perhaps far more than those who inhabited them early on, the houses offer a rarified experience that, contrary to their designer's intent, renders them well removed from any vernacular realm."

For more information on Reston's Goodman Houses, visit the Hickory Cluster official website at http://hickoryclusterassociation.blogspot.com.