Tysons Corner is a census-designated place (CDP) in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. Located in the heart of Northern Virginia, Tysons Corner lies between the community of McLean and the town of Vienna along the Capital Beltway (I-495). The population was 18,540 as of the 2000 census. It is the nation's 12th largest business district.[3]
The area is home to Tysons Corner Center – the largest shopping mall in the state and in the Baltimore-Washington area – and to upscale malls Tysons Galleria and Fairfax Square, which neighbor it to the north and south. Every weekday, Tysons Corner draws 55,000 shoppers from around the region.[4] In comparison, Washington, D.C. draws 15 million visitors annually, or the equivalent of 62,500 per weekday.[5]
Tysons Corner has 46 million square feet (4.3 million m²) of office and retail space, making it an important business district in its own right and the classic example of an edge city.[6] Notable companies in the area typically use McLean or Vienna addresses rather than Tysons Corner.
Tysons Corner is the opposite of a bedroom community, with a daytime population greater than 100,000 and a nighttime population of less than 20,000.[7] Local urban planners envision up to 200,000 jobs and 100,000 residents in coming decades.[6]
History
Known originally as Peach Grove, the area received the designation Tysons Crossroads after the Civil War. William Tyson, a Maryland native, purchased a tract of land from A. Lawrence Foster. Tyson served as postmaster of the now discontinued Peach Grove Post Office 1854-1866 (the Peach Grove Post office was established Tuesday, April 22, 1851.[8]).
Big changes came in 1963 when the Tysons area moved from a country crossroads to a giant commercial urban area with the awarding of contracts at the interchange of Route 7 and Route 123.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors in 1962 approved a Tysons Corner Shopping Center of 88.13 acres within 150 acres triangle bordered by Chain Bridge Road, Leesburg Pike, and the Capital Beltway. Developers proclaimed it as the largest enclosed mall in the world when it opened July 25, 1968.[9]
Geography
Boundaries of the Tysons Corner CDP as of 2003
[update]
Tysons Corner is located at 38°55′7″N 77°13′47″W / 38.91861°N 77.22972°W / 38.91861; -77.22972 (38.918485, -77.229833).[10]
To local residents, Tysons Corner is the area around the intersection of State Route 123 (Chain Bridge Road) and State Route 7 (Leesburg Pike), which, as recently as the 1950s, was a quiet rural intersection flanked by a few small stores. Tysons Corner Center, a large shopping mall, is located here, and is a main attraction for nonresidents. Tysons Corner also houses many smaller shopping centers and stores (including the Tysons Galleria mall), along with a significant number of car dealerships. In recent years, the influx of technology companies into Northern Virginia has brought many new office buildings and hotels to the landscape. The rapid growth of Tysons Corner (in comparison to other locations near the Capital Beltway) has been the topic of numerous studies.[11][citation needed] One factor may have been the aggressive promotion of Tysons Corner by Earle Williams, for many years the CEO of the defense contracting firm Braddock Dunn & McDonald.[citation needed]
According to the United States Census Bureau, the community has a total area of 4.9 square miles (12.7 km²), all of it land.
Demographics
As of the census[1] of 2000, there were 18,540 people, 8,814 households, and 4,512 families residing in the community. The population density was 3,782.5 people per square mile (1,460.9/km²). There were 9,474 housing units at an average density of 1,932.9/sq mi (746.5/km²). The racial makeup of the community was 71.20% White, 3.86% African American, 0.13% Native American, 17.73% Asian, 0.07% Pacific Islander, 1.26% from other races, and 5.74% from two or more races. Hispanics or Latinos of any race were 6.15% of the population.
There were 8,814 households out of which 20.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 42.0% were married couples living together, 6.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 48.8% were non-families. 39.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.10 and the average family size was 2.86.
The age distribution of the community was 17.8% under the age of 18, 8.0% from 18 to 24, 40.3% from 25 to 44, 23.7% from 45 to 64, and 10.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 92.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90.8 males.
The median income for a household in the community was $74,151, and the median income for a family was $94,227. Males had a median income of $69,659 versus $49,321 for females. The community's per capita income is $47,292. About 5.5% of families and 7.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 8.3% of those under age 18 and 13.2% of those age 65 or over.
Economy
Tysons Corner is Fairfax County's central business district, with the largest concentration of office space in Northern Virginia. The CDP includes a technology industry base and network infrastructure; around 2007 about 1,200 technology companies were headquartered in Tysons Corner. During that period the technology sector made for about 31.6% of the jobs in the Tysons Corner submarket and 20.2% of the companies in the submarket. Around 2007 Tysons Corner had 25,599,065 square feet of office space, 1,072,874 square feet of industrial/flex space, 4,054,096 square feet of retail space, and 2,551,579 square feet of hotel space. Therefore Tysons Corner has a grand total of 33,278,014 square feet of commercial space. The Fairfax County Economic Development Authority is headquartered in the CDP.[12]
Spacenet is headquartered in Tysons Corner.[13][14] Firms with offices in Tysons Corner include BAE Systems,[15] Ernst & Young,[16] Northrop Grumman,[17] PriceWaterHouseCoopers.[18] Xerox,[19] and Vie de France.[20]
In 1995, AOL was headquartered in the Tysons Corner CDP,[13][21] near the town of Vienna.[22] Qatar Airways operated its Washington, D.C.-area office in Tysons Corner,[13][23] although it later moved to Washington, D.C.[24]
Government and infrastructure
Freddie Mac has its headquarters in the Tysons Corner CDP.[13][25]
Future
In 2008, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to begin a 40-year plan to urbanize Tysons Corner around the coming four stops of Washington Metro's Silver Line to the area, in the vein of neighboring Arlington's Rosslyn-Ballston corridor.[6]
Tysons Corner, in many ways already the second city of the Washington metropolis, is poised to become much bigger...
- ...Height limits around Metro stops could allow [more] buildings up to 250 feet, which is lower than in Chicago but higher than in much of downtown Washington, where 160 feet is a typical maximum.[26]
Tysons Corner serves as a "downtown" of Fairfax County, with one quarter of all office space and one eighth of all retail in the county. It is an auto-oriented edge city with severe traffic congestion, and it faces competition from the urban areas of Arlington and newer suburban edge cities such as Dulles.
Fairfax County plans to urbanize Tysons Corner by adding multiple modes of transit, pedestrian-friendly street design, and ground-level retail; however, recent decisions to build above-ground tracks and stations instead of underground tunnels have resulted in controversy.[27]
References
- ^ a b "American FactFinder". United States Census Bureau. http://factfinder.census.gov. Retrieved on 2008-01-31.
- ^ "US Board on Geographic Names". United States Geological Survey. 2007-10-25. http://geonames.usgs.gov. Retrieved on 2008-01-31.
- ^ A Shopping Nexus Outside Washington Plots a Future as an Urban Center
- ^ Virginia Business Online: Virginia’s 800-pound gorilla
- ^ About Washington DC
- ^ a b c Tysons plan looks at success, pitfalls of Rossyln, Ballston
- ^ http://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/daytime/2000/tab03.csv
- ^ http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/library/branches/vr/timeline2.htm
- ^ http://www.gfhs.org/local_lore/senese_01.htm
- ^ "US Gazetteer files: 2000 and 1990". United States Census Bureau. 2005-05-03. http://www.census.gov/geo/www/gazetteer/gazette.html. Retrieved on 2008-01-31.
- ^ Paul E. Ceruzzi, Internet Alley: High Technology in Tysons Corner, 1945-2005 (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press 2008).
- ^ "Area Business Report." Fairfax County Economic Development Authority. Retrieved on May 12, 2009.
- ^ a b c d "Tysons Corner CDP, Virginia." United States Census Bureau. Retrieved on May 7, 2009.
- ^ "Contact Us." Spacenet. Retrieved on May 12, 2009.
- ^ "CS Information Technology, McLean, VA." BAE Systems. Retrieved on May 12, 2009.
- ^ "Our Locations." Ernst & Young. Retrieved on May 12, 2009.
- ^ "Company Locations." Northrop Grumman. Retrieved on May 12, 2009.
- ^ "Below is a list of offices for United States of America." PriceWaterHouseCoopers. Retrieved on May 12, 2009.
- ^ "[http://www.xerox.com/downloads/usa/en/g/GSA_Price_List%20_Group75.pdf EFFECTIVE MARCH 4, 2009 WITH TEMPORARY PRICE REDUCTIONS PER MODIFICATION PO-0032]." Xerox Corporation. Retrieved on May 12, 2009.
- ^ "Contact Vie de France." Vie de France. Retrieved on May 12, 2009.
- ^ "AMERICA ONLINE INC." The Washington Post. April 17, 2005. Retrieved on May 7, 2009.
- ^ Sugawara, Sandra. "America Online to Reduce Rates; Firm Faces Subscriber Boycott, Pressure From Competitors." The Washington Post. October 13, 1994. Financial B09. Retrieved on May 7, 2009.
- ^ "Washington." Qatar Airways. November 21, 2007. Retrieved on May 7, 2009.
- ^ "Washington." Qatar Airways. Retrieved on May 7, 2009.
- ^ "Contact Us." Freddie Mac. Retrieved on May 12, 2009.
- ^ Whoriskey, Peter (April 22, 2005). "Soaring View Of Tysons Centers on A Downtown". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7443-2005Apr21.html. Retrieved on 2008-01-09.
- ^ Gardner, Amy (December 2, 2007). "Tunnel Loses Backers as Landowners Unite for Growth". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/01/AR2007120100757.html. Retrieved on 2008-03-23.
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