Robert E. Simon
Robert E. Simon | |
---|---|
Born | New York City, New York, U.S. |
April 10, 1914
Died | Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist. Reston, Virginia, U.S. |
Residence | Reston, Virginia |
Alma mater | Harvard University |
Robert E. "Bob" Simon, Jr. (April 10, 1914 – September 21, 2015) was an American real estate entrepreneur, most known for founding the community of Reston, Virginia.[1][2][3] He was the maternal uncle of feminist historian and writer Elizabeth Fox-Genovese.[4]
Early life
Simon was born in New York City in 1914[5] to a family that immigrated from Germany.[6][7]
Reston
After graduating from Harvard University, Simon took over the family real estate management and development business. In 1961, with the proceeds from the sale of a family property, Carnegie Hall, Simon purchased 6,750 acres (27 km²) of land in Fairfax County, Virginia and hired Conklin + Rossant[8] to develop a master plan for the new town of Reston, Virginia, a planned community well known on the national level. (The town's name was derived from Simon's initials and the word "town".)[3][9] Simon's new town concept emphasized quality of life for the individual and provided a community where people could live, work, and play without driving long distances.
Simon returned to live in Reston in 1993[9] and helped celebrate Reston's 40th birthday in 2004.[10] In that same year a bronze statue of Simon was placed on a park bench in Washington Plaza on Lake Anne, the original heart of the community he built.[3][10]
Goals of Reston
Simon wrote in 1962 that:<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />
In the creation of Reston, Virginia, these are the major goals:
- That the widest choice of opportunities be made available for the full use of leisure time. This means that the New Town should provide a wide range of cultural and recreational facilities as well as an environment for privacy.
- That it be possible for anyone to remain in a single neighborhood throughout his life, uprooting being neither inevitable nor always desirable. By providing the fullest range of housing styles and prices – from high-rise efficiencies to 6-bedroom townhouses and detached houses – housing needs can be met at a variety of income levels and at different stages of family life. This kind of mixture permits residents to remain rooted in the community if they so choose – as their particular housing needs change. As a by-product, this also results in the heterogeneity that spells a lively and varied community.
- That the importance and dignity of each individual be the focal point for all planning, and take precedence for large-scale concepts.
- That the people be able to live and work in the same community.
- That commercial, cultural and recreational facilities be made available to the residents from the outset of the development – not years later.
- That beauty – structural and natural – is a necessity of the good life and should be fostered.
- Since Reston is being developed from private enterprise, in order to be completed as conceived it must also, of course, be a financial success.
— "A Brief History of Reston"[3]
References
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External links
- Reston Concept: The New Town
- Genesis of Reston - R.E.Simon 1966
- Guide to the Robert E. Simon, Jr. papers, 1960-2006
- James Rossant, master planner of Reston
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- Articles with hCards
- No local image but image on Wikidata
- 1914 births
- 2015 deaths
- American urban planners
- Reston, Virginia
- Harvard University alumni
- Businesspeople from New York City
- People from Reston, Virginia
- American centenarians
- American Jews
- American people of German-Jewish descent
- 20th-century American businesspeople
- 21st-century American businesspeople
- American business biography, 1910s birth stubs