Developers in Northern Virginia built out large suburbs of mixed high, medium and low density housing: suburbs with broad streets and trendy, new shopping centres and malls. However they found young educated professionals were choosing the old city downtowns like Alexandria and Arlington over their new developments. This was a wealthy market that the developers did not like missing out on. A new development in Northern Virginia is Lansdowne. It contains the normal spiralling suburb but with sections that have artificially constructed town centres.

Parking is off the side of the town centre so the restaurants and shops are pedestrian friendly. There is a tall clock tower, a small atrium for music, and central park area. Surrounding the town square is high density housing and light commercial buildings. This is being designed for the single young professionals. I like it.

The goal is to give it a European feel, but like Las Vegas, the buildings are new, clean and air conditioned. Plus there are touches of modern American landscaping.

One of the most successful upscale big stores is Wegmans. This is a Dutch company but is run out of Rochestor, NY. The stores are slowly making their way south from the US NE and one recently opened in Ashburn, VA near the AOL Headquarters. These are heavily trafficked by the working professionals of North Virginia.

Where Wegmans differs from other big box stores is that they design them inside like a town square. It looks like a cross between the Montreal fishmarkets and a European town centre. Both Lansdowne and Wegmans are probably aimed directly at people like me. I like them. They are well designed and executed.