Vienna Town Green
Vienna, VA
Completed in 2007, the Vienna Town Green is Vienna’s new central park and gathering space directly abutting Maple Avenue/Route 123 and the Washington & Old Dominion Trail.
A sloping lawn serves as seating for the new amphitheater and is home to summer library programs, a concert series, and unstructured play space. A separate, formal green is protected by a low stone seat wall. Adjacent to the four-lane road, an extensive plaza serves as the front door to the community and host for many activities.
As Project Manager for the Town Green, Ms. Lardner won the project based on her initial drawing of what she envisioned for our urban park at the Town’s core. The initial drawing became the design of the Town Green, capturing everything we had hoped for. The park is a masterpiece of common sense with whimsy and charm built in.
In an atmosphere of doubt regarding the development of the Town Green, her calm and graciousness created trust among the Town residents, businesses and elected officials.
Because of her ability to bring people together to work towards a common goal, the Town Green is now the focal point of our community.’ We feel privileged to know and to have worked with Ms. Lardner. Her designs are meant to last many lifetimes and to be identifying parts of our community. She is a wonderful asset to all landscape architects and an advocate for community design and involvement.’ Catherine Salgado, Director and Project Manager, Vienna Parks and Recreation, VA.
A story in The Washington Post stated "The project will turn on its head the traditional notion of how a community develops: Colonial-era towns rose around their greens, and many Northern Virginia communities have built a town center first and counted on development to follow.
Vienna’s green will be reclaimed from the growth that established the 116-year-old town."
It is very powerful to create public space right in the heart of the town. Unlike plazas where shoppers rest at malls, the Vienna green is a true public space, reclaimed from the strip and owned by the public. On the site of a former commercial building and surface parking lot, the southern end of the block was reunited with its northern end, home to two historic buildings. Integrating the two seamlessly and creating open space in the heart of the strip - Vienna’s downtown, demonstrate how our suburban-built communities can be reclaimed. Constructed with a limited budget, a passionate client and highly sophisticated community, the project represents responsible stewardship of all resources—living and budgetary.