The McLean Medical Building’s days are numbered now that Sunrise Senior Living is building a senior living facility on the site.

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors recently approved the facility, which will add 140 beds, 40 employees at peak times and a public garden, along with open space for private use by the residents.

Dranesville District Supervisor John Foust praised Sunrise at the meeting on Tuesday (Oct. 15), calling the facility’s public garden “an excellent contribution to downtown McLean.”

Sunrise tried to bring a senior living facility to McLean two years ago.

In 2017, the board nixed Sunrise’s plans to open a facility at 1988 Kirby Road over concerns that it would overwhelm the surrounding residential area and worsen traffic.

“The last time Sunrise came before this board in Dranesville, it wasn’t this much fun,” Foust said. “The funny thing was a lot of the testimony pointed to this [location].”

Now, Sunrise plans to raze the McLean Medical Building on the site at 1515 Chain Bridge Road. A historical link was uncovered earlier this year tying the building, which is not listed on any official historical register, to the doctor behind the first polio vaccine.

“They have taken the perfect site and done it exactly right,” Foust said.

First image via DPZ, second image via Fairfax County

The National Weather Service issued a Wind Advisory for Fairfax County and surrounding areas.

The advisory says that gusts could reach up to 50 miles per hour. The advisory is in effect until 6 p.m.

More from the National Weather Service:

…WIND ADVISORY IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM EDT THIS EVENING… * WHAT…WEST WINDS 15 TO 20 MPH WITH GUSTS UP TO 45 MPH. * WHERE…THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN MARYLAND AND NORTHERN VIRGINIA. * WHEN…UNTIL 6 PM EDT THIS EVENING. * IMPACTS…GUSTY WINDS COULD BLOW AROUND UNSECURED OBJECTS. TREE LIMBS COULD BE BLOWN DOWN AND A FEW POWER OUTAGES MAY RESULT. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS… USE EXTRA CAUTION WHEN DRIVING, ESPECIALLY IF OPERATING A HIGH PROFILE VEHICLE. SECURE OUTDOOR OBJECTS.

Strong wind gusts of 45 to 50 mph are expected in the wind advisory (brown) areas today through 6PM this evening. #DCwx #MDwx #VAwx #WVwx pic.twitter.com/RCFLgx3SlF

— NWS Baltimore-Washington (@NWS_BaltWash) October 17, 2019

As coworking becomes the “new normal,” several options have popped up in Tysons for people who want to work in shared office space.

Coworking lets different companies — large and small — rent out portions of a single office space or even allow people to have virtual offices where they can use services at a certain location without owning or leasing traditional office space.

Here’s an updated list of coworking spaces available in Tysons’ neighborhoods.

Tysons Central 123

• WeWork (1775 Tysons Blvd)
• Carr Workplaces (1750 Tysons Blvd, Suite 1500)
• Regus (8000 Towers Crescent Drive, 13th floor)

Old Courthouse 

• Regus (8300 Boone Blvd, Suite 500)
• Intelligent Office (1934 Old Gallows Road, Suite 350)

Tysons Central 7

• MakeOffices (1751 Pinnacle Drive, 6th floor)
• Chisel (1751 Pinnacle Drive, 10th floor)
• Metro Offices (1765 Greensboro Station)
• Industrious (1660 International Drive)
• Spaces (1640 Boro Place — opening on Nov. 11)

Tysons West

• Office Evolution (8609 Westwood Center Drive, Suite 110)
• Source Office Suites (1420 Spring Hill Road, Suite 600)

Play, Work or Dash, a coworking space that offered childcare, closed last November at 8214 Old Courthouse Road, according to a Facebook post.

Next month, locals will get the chance to weigh in on a proposal to reduce the parking requirements at Tysons Corner Center and Tysons Galleria.

Fairfax County is considering a proposal that would affect the four largest malls in the county — the two in Tysons, Fair Oaks and Springfield Town Center — after a review earlier this year of the parking rates and demand at large regional malls.

Consulting firm Nelson/Nygaard conducted the study from June 5-8 by doing a parking count for the Springfield mall and analyzing data from the Fair Oaks mall. The study found that less than 65% of the available spaces were occupied during peak times, according to county documents.

The study did not evaluate the two malls in Tysons, county spokesperson Crystal Santos said.

When Tysons Reporter asked how the Tysons malls’ parking needs might differ from the two malls analyzed, Santos said:

The county envisions that Tysons will become a walkable, sustainable urban center as it redevelops leading to less car usage in the area and therefore less demand for parking. While Springfield is more urban than Fair Oaks because of bus service and Metrorail, it’s not as urban or accessible through public transportation as the two Tysons malls. We wanted to examine similar, more suburban malls to measure demand on parking for this study.

Santos added that there was a parking study in 2014 in Tysons before the Silver Line stations opened.

“The malls are also included in the Tysons Comprehensive Plan to transform the area into an urban center, as a result, the malls are able to reduce their effective parking rate to less than 2.5 per 1000 square feet of gross floor area through a county review and approval process,” Santos said.

A spokesperson for Tysons Corner Center did not respond to Tysons Reporter’s request for comment on the proposal.

The proposal would alter the requirement from four to 2.5 or three parking spaces per 1,000 square feet of gross floor area — the recommended change from Nelson/Nygaard. County staff is recommending the rate be 2.8 parking spaces.

“This is a more realistic parking requirement and, if implemented, would continue to provide an oversupply of parking at peak demand on weekdays and weekends during all times of the year,” according to county documents. “Overall, the changes will provide Fairfax County’s largest commercial retail centers additional flexibility to react to a changing retail marketplace.”

The Planning Commission plans to hold a public hearing on Nov. 13 at 7:30 p.m. before the Board of Supervisors has one on Dec. 3 at 4 p.m.

Image via Google Maps

Canadian clothing brand Roots plans to open in November at Tysons Corner Center.

Back in June, Tysons Report spotted a sign outside the former Aldo space on the second level by the Victoria’s Secret, saying that Roots would arrive in October.

The clothing brand has now announced that the store will open on Thursday, Nov. 7, according to a spokesperson for the company.

Started in Toronto in 1973, Roots sells women’s, men’s and kids’ clothing, with a focus on leisurewear and leather goods branded with the beaver logo.

For shoppers who can’t wait until November, Roots has stores in the Fashion Centre at Pentagon City and Georgetown.

Work to fix cracked sidewalks and replace old benches in McLean is slated to happen by the end of the fiscal year 2020.

The improvements are apart of Fairfax County’s efforts for five community revitalization district (CRDs). The Department of Public Works and Environmental Service runs the CRD maintenance program.

A six-month-long study identified 28,000 features, including benches, bike racks and bus shelters within the CRDs that the county could maintain.

“The CRD program is responsible for slightly more than half of the features, with the other half maintained by utilities or the private sector,” according to the county.

PJ Tierno, one of the CRD program managers, told the Board of Supervisors last Tuesday (Oct. 8) that people will see old benches replaced and cracked sidewalks fixed in McLean within the upcoming fiscal year.

So far, the program has made 1,113 repairs in FY 2019 to trip hazards up to 2 inches deep in McLean through a company called Precision Safe Sidewalks, Tierno said.

Coming in FY 2020, 13,350 square feet of sidewalks in McLean are set to be repaired, Tierno said.

“That is the largest [square footage] of any of the CRDs,” Tierno said.

Old wooden benches in McLean will also be replaced, added.

“This is an awesome program,” Dranesville District Supervisor John Foust said at the meeting, saying that he likes that the county is maintaining VDOT’s sidewalks.

(Updated at 3:10 p.m.) Work may start on a new underground power line running through Tysons before the end of the year.

The existing load on power lines from the Tysons and McLean areas is expected to exceed 300 megawatts by 2022, according to Dominion Energy. The new power line will keep Dominion under the limits.

To make sure there’s enough power, Dominion is building an additional power source to avoid violating mandatory standards.

At a meeting last night (Tuesday) at Kilmer Middle School, Dominion officials said that construction is set to kick off in November or December — depending on the weather and when permits get approved — for the Idylwood-Tysons 230 kilovolt (kV) Project.

The project will add a new 4-mile-long transmission line underground, running under the W&OD Trail by I-66 and I-495 before heading up Gallows Road to International Drive in Tysons .

Commuters and pedestrians can expect lane closures along Gallows Road and International Drive in Tysons when construction starts.

Specific dates for the construction schedule and closures have not been determined yet, an engineer for the project told Tysons Reporter. People can expect an interactive online map, which will show what’s been completed and what’s under construction.

“People who live and work in the area will most likely be impacted by the construction,” Peggy Fox, a Dominion spokesperson, said. “We do not expect to interrupt service to our electric customers.”

Currently, the bidding process is underway for the project’s contractor. The final cost will be determined once the contractor is selected — the estimated cost right now is roughly $120 million.

The State Corporation Commission approved the project last fall.

The project is expected to be completed by late 2022, with rehabilitation work going into 2023.

A new tower is coming to Tysons’ skyline and snapping up the “tallest building in the region” title.

The tower is apart of Clemente Development Co. plans for The View development, which won approval from the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors last night (Tuesday).

The mixed-use development by the Spring Hill Metro station will add six buildings, including the 600-foot-tall building that will reach higher than Capital One’s headquarters.

Known as the Iconic Tower, building plans to capitalize on its height with a publicly-accessible botanical garden and observation deck.

The development has been praised for its varied building heights and sleek design, but the Iconic Tower’s height of 600 feet — 200 feet above the maximum for Tysons buildings — has received some criticism from the McLean Citizens Association.

Dale Stein, the president of MCA, said that the height “breaks the trust of the community.”

However, the supervisors felt differently.

Providence District Supervisor Linda Smyth said that the height creates an architectural statement that will help define downtown Tysons.

“If we keep that 400-foot level… we will have a collection of 400-foot shoeboxes defining our skyline in Tysons,” Smyth said, adding that people are “starting to see that already.”

Dranesville District Supervisor John Foust said that while he understands the MCA’s position about the height, “I don’t necessarily agree with that concern.”

Supervisors also lauded the development’s planned entertainment uses, which include a black box theater, art walk and open-air theater, along with a nearby community center.

“We’re no longer suburbia,” Smyth said. “We are going into the future with this.”

Image via Fairfax County

A janitors’ union has tentatively reached a contract agreement with commercial cleaning companies in the D.C.-area — avoiding a strike that could have affected Tysons offices.

Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ struck an agreement with the Washington Service Contractors Association today (Tuesday, Oct. 15), according to a press release from 32BJ SEIU.

The janitors’ union was planning two strikes later this afternoon ahead of the approaching deadline for the new contract agreement. 

The strike was meant to demand wage increases and full-time hours — some janitors currently earn $12.60 per hour for part-time work in Northern Virginia, according to the union.

In total, the strike would have hit more than 1,200 office buildings in D.C., Virginia and Maryland, according to the press release.

Union spokeswoman Julie Karant told Tysons Reporter that more than 4,000 janitors and 500 buildings in Northern Virginia would have been affected by a strike.

Some of the Tysons office buildings were the janitors work include:

• Capital One Tower (1600 and 1680 Capital One Drive)
• Freddie Mac building (8250 Jones Branch Drive)
• Northrop Grumman (7575 Colshire Drive)
• MITRE Corp. (7525 Colshire Drive)

The deal, which covers more than 10,500 jobs, is pending approval by union members, and the union plans to release more details on Monday, Oct. 20, “pending a ratification vote by union members,” the press release said.

“Associated Building Maintenance Co., Inc. remains the only employer out of 58 companies that has not signed the agreement,” according to 32BJ SEIU.

(Updated 10/16/19) Two weeks ago, Fairfax County announced that glass bottles and jars would no longer be recycled via curbside collection.

Instead, the county wants residents to toss those items in one of the purple, glass-only recycling containers located around the county or throw them in the trash.

Following in the footsteps of Arlington, Fairfax County said the change was spurred by China’s decision to stop accepting some recycling materials, along with growing concerns about the dangers of broken glass items in curbside recycling bins.

(The City of Falls Church and the Town of Vienna still allow glass bottles in curbside recycling bins.)

Earlier today (Tuesday), two members of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors pushed to declare Nov. 15 “Fairfax County Recycles Day” to promote the county’s recent messaging around glass recycling.

The board matter by Springfield District Supervisor John Herrity and Mason District Supervisor Penny Gross also wants the director of the Solid Waste Division and members of the recycling team to get recognized for their efforts with glass recycling on Oct. 29 by the county board.

The closest purple containers for glass recycling in the Tysons area are at the Providence Community Center (3001 Vaden Drive), Dolley Madison Library (1244 Oak Ridge Avenue) and the Lee Community Center (5722 Lee Hwy).

Map via Fairfax County