A proposal to transform Tysons Corner into “Northern

A proposal to transform Tysons Corner into “Northern Virginia’s downtown” is getting a skeptical response in some quarters. The owners of 2.5 million sq. ft. Tysons Corner Center, the largest shopping mall in metropolitan Washington, have asked RTKL to design an expansion that would put office and residential towers on the mall’s huge perimeter parking lots. “We see it as a seminal project,” RTKL partner Paul Shaw was quoted as saying in the May 15 Washington Post. However, reporter Peter Whoriskey wrote, “Other mall redevelopment projects have demolished parts of the centers so streets can run through. But Tysons Corner Center is considered too successful for such drastic changes.” The center’s bulk is one factor that may make it extremely difficult to turn Tysons Corner into a pedestrian-oriented mixed-use center, said Mary E. Madden and R. Geoffrey Ferrell of Ferrell Madden Associates.