First planned in 1964, Reston is a community 15 miles from Washington, D.C. In 1990, a team from the international multidisciplinary firm Sasaki, led by Alan Ward, FASLA, provided landscape architecture for the first phase of Reston Town Center. Since then, Sasaki has provided planning and landscape architecture for additional phases of development. Since the central plaza and iconic fountain were first constructed, Reston has more than quadrupled in population size and commercial gross floor area. In all that time, the fountain, plaza, and nearby event pavilion have served as a civic anchor for this growing community.

A New Vision
In the last 30 years, the first generation of wear and tear, shifting public space use programs, and the lifespan of fountain equipment created the need for a refresh to continue to support a walkable, energized core. The pandemic served as a good time to invest in this public space for improvement, with the owner of this privately owned public space investing in a comprehensive refurbishment. The Sasaki team - led by Ward, Joel Smith, and Chris Hardy, PLA - revisited the central fountain and plaza design, adding new outdoor dining terraces and decks. The project was focused on creating a more occupiable, quotidian public space to serve residents while providing extra capacity for crowds spilling across the street during large events at the nearby Pavilion.

The fountain quickly became the primary investment and focus for the project. The fountain's mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) design was led by Martin Aquatic, who were charged with creating a simpler, lower-energy, more water-efficient fountain design, as well as reorganizing and rationalizing the fountain MEP room that had become complicated over three decades of use and repairs. The Sasaki team was charged with the masonry design, determining what of the original centerpiece and statue could be salvaged, and creating a new series of stone basins, sculpted water walls, and splash ledges to animate the water and create year-round visual interest.

 
Designing Locally
The client provided clear priorities throughout the design process, including the need to preserve as much of the original sculpture of the fountain topper - a bronze statue of Mercury by sculptor Saint Clair Cemin. This unique element was custom forged in a pedestal of Carrara marble from a quarry in Tuscany, Italy, but by the end of the twentieth century, the quarry's supply of the finest Carrara marble had been depleted. While a portion of the pedestal was feasible to cut, lift, and preserve, the larger pedestal base and bowl were crumbling from years of freeze-thaw, causing major cracks from initial minor architectural fault lines.

In addition, the complex network of pools, nozzles, multiple water source points, and drops created a very complex piping system that had operational challenges over the years, creating an undesirable image of deferred maintenance by the 2020s. The design team and client ultimately settled on a smaller fountain design with more contained pools but more movement and relief in the lower terraces through creative stone sculpting.

Finding The Perfect Fit
Looking to the future lifecycle of the fountain material - and to focus on sourcing from domestic quarries - the team ultimately decided to replace the bowl and pedestal with a natural stone more suited to Virginia's climate. Granite was selected, as it holds up better in freeze-thaw environments due to its crystal matrix and does not have the same risk from fracture planes.

One challenge was that some of the original marble pieces would remain part of the fountain, but granite visually differs from marble, making a close match imperative. During the design stages, a couple of granite options were specified, but the white granite submittals ultimately contrasted too much with the preserved topper. The Landscape Architects worked with the stone suppliers and general contractor to find a better solution, ultimately selecting Bethel White granite from a quarry in Vermont, whose color complemented the Carrara marble. The client, the design team, and the contractor all went to the quarry to pick the specific blocks for the stone, evaluating over 60 blocks to find the right pieces based on size, veins, and inclusions. Jet Mist granite was confirmed for the base, mined just sixty miles from Reston Town Center.

Cutting-Edge Technology
Once the stone had been selected, Lorton's team visited the site and made digital scans of the fountain that were used to generate three-dimensional models of the pedestal and bowl. These scans were passed along to Structural Stone to produce shop drawings. Lorton also managed the salvage of the existing materials, carefully removing the topper and the statue of Mercury and storing them for reinstallation.

The complex carving of the stone was a high priority. In the update, the client wanted more visual interest in the stone, since the fountain is off for almost half of the year. The redesign features an infinity wall on one side so kids can interact with the water. The team added a similar Caduceus texture where the water drops down several terraces. The complexity in the stonework allowed for a simple MEP system with just one primary pump, accomplishing the various effects with a very controlled infinity edge that enabled free drops, clings, and variety in splash with the textured relief on the face of the stone. Originally, the designer modeled the faded caduceus pattern in 3D, seeking millimeter-level resolution in the fade of the pattern. However, shop drawings and mockups revealed that the durable nature of granite's crystal matrix makes CNC routing have a coarser degree of resolution (3-5mm). In the end, the designer and fabricator had to collaborate on the graphic and approach, with Lorton using templates and sand blasting to get the effect.

Lessons and Legacy
One lesson learned had to do with transportation distances. The design team had hoped to minimize transportation-related emissions, but to get the qualification of craftsmanship to match the specifications, Rhode Island-based Structural Stone was the most qualified subcontractor. So, the Jet Mist was shipped to The Ocean State before returning to Reston, ultimately traveling over 900 miles. In hindsight, it would have been more efficient to specify a granite quarry closer to the desired fabricator than the desired site.

Hardy notes that the project proceeded with very few hiccups, from design to stone selection to fabrication and reinstallation. "We got through a lot of things quickly that could have led to long, protracted processes," he said. "You never know what's underground in a retrofit project; you're going to find stuff, but having [the general contractor's] proactive approach made it possible to get it done on a schedule that made the client happy."

The quality of the stonework was recently recognized by the Natural Stone Institute for a 2024 Pinnacle Award in the Public Landscapes/Parks/Memorial Category. The project returned an improved, more sustainable, and more occupiable place to the community of Reston as the pandemic receded. It was a large investment in the public realm - serendipitously timed - to provide a community benefit to a population eager to re-engage their civic space.

As seen in LASN magazine, August 2025.