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hey I went to One Loudoun today and I feel some kind of way about it. It’s an example of “Green Day urbanism”—purists say Green Day isn’t “punk” but it gets you into the harder stuff. So it goes here— (1/x) 
my partner grew up a few miles from here, but in 90s middle class suburbia. One Loudoun wants you to know you’re downtown—in a county of 400k, there is very little historic urbanism, save for Leesburg and a few small towns
This is where I make some grumble about this being prefab and inauthentic and not DC. I’m less worried about the newness—people need time to get their grubby fingerprints all over a place— (3/x)
it’s the scale that worries me: One Loudoun’s streets are big and wide, which doesn’t feel great for walking, especially on a windy winter morning when there aren’t a lot of people out (4/x)
I imagine this place is hoppin on Friday night, but what about the rest of the time? good public space should feel comfortable even when you’re just Three Teens On A Bench (5/x)
I love these custom street signs, but these mean it’s a private street, and I’m looking over my shoulder for private security. I’ve been kicked out of a lot of places for taking photos 😬
this is a mural of the historic rail line that served Loudoun County, which is cool. I wish it wasn’t in an alley because it looks expensive and people should get to see it
that same alley has the backs of houses on one side, and the fronts of houses on the other. it’s confusing, and the people on each side will have very different expectations for what happens in this space
that said, One Loudoun has a big residential section, which might be my favorite. this street is still very wide. but the houses are well detailed, sidewalks on both sides, and— (8/x)
there’s a nice linear park with a historic barn, and a strong street edge on both sides. I love these little guys behind the barn, like, I have a Pinterest board devoted to them (10/x)
these little guys (okay they’re like 2500sf) have nice brick detailing, little porches, and are on tight lots. they could fit nicely in parts of Silver Spring, Takoma, etc except it’s largely illegal to have lots this small
single-family homes and townhomes on the same street! sidewalks! on street parking! to think this is *35 MILES* outside of DC. I like it, and I’m bummed we can’t do this closer in (12/x!?)
so because these little guys are where they are and not, say, inside the Beltway, there are lots of BIG TRUCKS scooting around One Loudoun, which I get—you have to leave this place at some point (13/x)
props where props are due to Loudoun for building this thing—but because it’s where it is, a decent walkable place still runs into a massive highway, which is no fun on foot
tl;dr One Loudoun will look grungy and “authentic” in time; I’m jelly of competent urban housing we can’t build closer in; these roads are too big and I drove three blocks because it was cold
btw what is Green Day urbanism? I wrote about it for Next City back in 2012. We can argue about whether Green Day is punk or not, I just know “Good Charlotte urbanism” didn’t sound as good (16/16) nextcity.org/daily/entry/ga…
