BLOG: Why is This Building So Ugly?

Everyone I talk to seems to agree that the new Ridgewood Apartment Building on Lee Highway is flat out ugly.

This is odd because it was originally designed by CMSS Architects under the direction of apartment developer Kettler, both of whom are known for high quality and sometimes innovative projects. CMSS designed Old Town Village, and Kettler has developed several luxury apartment buildings, including Metropolitan at Reston Town Center.   

The Ridgewood Apartments are marketed as a luxury community with rents starting at $1,500 for a studio. From what I hear, it is quite a nice place to live.  How then, could a luxury building designed under one of the areas most well-respected developers turn out to be a notorious eyesore? The answer highlights differences between planning efforts along major arteries like Lee Highway in Fairfax County versus Fairfax City.

The biggest issue with Ridgewood is that most people see it from the ugliest side.  The massive wall of apartment balconies that faces Lee Highway has no varying setbacks and is veneered with a hodgepodge of multi-colored siding and brick.  The front side of the building, which faces to the north, is much more attractive, with a greater mix of masonry and multiple building angles and step-backs. The second building, which is currently under construction just to the north, is a concrete structure, instead of wood, and will have some ground floor retail facing Government Center Parkway. This will be the heart of the development, making Lee Highway the backside. 

According to the county long-range transportation plan, however, this section of Lee Highway will be converted into a limited access freeway with interchanges at key intersections and other intersections removed. All recent developments along this stretch have dedicated a deep setback for a service road that would provide direct access to local neighborhoods, allowing many of the traffic signals to be removed. The result would give the road a character more like I-66. 

So, not only is the side of the property that faces Lee Highway the back side, but the intent is to screen the balconies on this façade from the highway aesthetic in the long term. The landscape is packed with fast-growing evergreens with the goal of creating a barrier between the building and the “highway." So if nobody will see it, then why waste money trying to make it look nice.

Meanwhile, the city is attempting to move forward with the Fairfax Boulevard Master Plan, which describes the future of Fairfax Boulevard (and Lee Highway) as a more pedestrian-friendly boulevard. Though the plan also includes service roads, they are intended to provide a space for on-street parking and improved pedestrian amenities. New mixed use buildings would face these “service roads” with retail on the bottom floor. The result would give the road more of a character of a grand boulevard and less of a freeway.

I have my doubts that the county effort to transform Lee Highway into a freeway will ever be completely realized. There is no funding for it nor any mention of it in any short-term planning efforts. It isn’t rare for these long-term vision projects to get continually pushed back as higher priority projects develop.   

As a result, we could be stuck with the massive unmaintained setbacks extending west from the city line (just behind K-Mart) and buildings designed with their backs toward a major thoroughfare, just as Ridgewood is. 

(Image note: The path in front of the Ridgewood is aligned with the future right-of-way for Lee Highway which includes the service road. Notice that the landscaping from the development stops at the path, and the area between the path and the road is an open grass swale).

Regarding Ridgewood, I’m reminded of my dad telling me how bears are just as afraid of us as we are of them to make me feel a little better about sharing space with them when we used to go camping (luckily we never saw a bear). Remember as you are driving down Lee Highway looking at the Ridgewood Building, that Lee Highway is just as ugly to Ridgewood as Ridgewood is to Lee Highway, and when the landscaping fills in, you won’t have to look at each other. 

And remember, that when the north building opens a year or so from now, it will bring us some higher end retail which will be a boone to the area.

One day you could be sitting in front of a sidewalk café in the Ridgewood development and you will have forgotten that the ugly south façade ever existed.