Shirlington, Virginia
Encyclopedia
Shirlington is an unincorporated
urban area, officially called an "urban village", in the southern part of Arlington County
, Virginia
, United States
, adjacent to the Fairlington
area. The word "Shirlington" is a combination of "Shirley" (from the Shirley Highway
or Interstate 395
) and "Arlington".
Shirlington is billed as "Arlington’s Arts and Entertainment District" and is largely mixed-use development
based on New Urbanist
principles. It is mostly middle-class residential, but like most of Arlington County has been experiencing an economic
renaissance and is now home to many upscale dwellings and retail
and service establishments that also serve the nearby Fairlington
, Parkfairfax
, Nauck and Long Branch Creek areas.
, a tributary of the Potomac River
. The land rises toward Fairlington in the south and Nauck in the north.
The area is bounded by I-395 on the east except for a small section of the city of Alexandria
that lies to the west of the interstate. The only structure in that section, the Shirlington Gateway office building, has an Arlington address and is usually considered a part of Shirlington.) To the north and west, starting in the east, Shirlington is bordered by South Glebe Road, 24th Street South, South Shirlington Road, South Four Mile Run Drive, and South Walter Reed Drive. On the west and south, starting in the west, Shirlington is bounded by South Arlington Mill Drive, the Arlington County Environmental Services facility, and the west side of Park Shirlington Apartments.
Most residential, commercial, and retail development lies south of Four Mile Run while the area to the northeast, which is sometimes considered part of neighboring Nauck, is more light industrial.
department store opened a 150000 square feet (13,935.5 m²), $2.5 million store, its second suburban branch. However, by the 1970s, Shirlington was an aging traditional shopping center facing competition from shopping malls.
In the 1980s, Shirlington was partially renovated to create a "traditional main street
" along South 28th Street (now Campbell Avenue) with two office buildings at one end and a big box store and a cinema at the other. However, Shirlington remained small.
By 2000, Arlington County authorities, who had previously concentrated on development of areas adjacent to Washington Metro
rail lines, began giving more attention to areas not served by Metro, such as the Columbia Pike
corridor and Shirlington. The property's owner and the county spurred the creation of a Shirlington Phased Development Site Plan (PDSP) and the associated Shirlington Design Guidelines. A conceptual design for the area was established and almost 1000000 square feet (92,903 m²) of new mixed-use development was envisioned. Emphasis was placed on making the area pedestrian friendly with automobile parking located behind the commercial buildings. This plan was approved by the Arlington County Board in 2001.
The development, a public-private partnership between developer Federal Realty Investment Trust of Rockville, Maryland
(the operator of several other regional town-center-like developments such as Bethesda Row, Pentagon Row
, and Rockville Town Center) and the county, began in the mid-2000s. As the plan was implemented, South 28th Street was extended westward and a building to house both the Signature Theatre and the Shirlington Library was constructed. Several new residential and parking structures were added as well.
where nationally-broadcast programs such as PBS Newshour and Washington Week
are filmed. WETA-FM radio and some USPTO
satellite offices are also located in the town. The non-profit Analytic Services
(ANSER) and the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International are headquartered there. The design firm HNTB Corporation has major offices in Shirlington as well.
(I-395) for which the town is named and is accessible from Shirlington Circle (Exit 6 on I-395). The town is served by the Shirlington Bus Station, the only enclosed public bus station in Arlington and the principal transfer point for Metrobus
and Arlington Transit
(ART) bus service in South Arlington.
Shirlington is the site of the trailhead
of the Washington & Old Dominion Railroad Regional Park
rail trail
that travels along the route of a railroad that closed in 1968,, Shirlington Park, and Jennie Dean Park.
connecting I-395 (Shirley Highway) with several surface roads in Arlington County and Alexandria
. Although the circle is named after Shirlington, roughly half of it is located in Alexandria. The circle resembles roundabout
interchanges common in the United Kingdom
and Ireland
but rare in the US.
The circle includes multiple access points including ramps (slip roads) to and from I-395 (Exit 6) both north and southbound as well as a reversible direction ramp that provides access to and from the reversible high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes
that run in the center of I-395. Four surface streets intersect with the circle; going counterclockwise (in the direction of traffic) from the north, they are:
Traffic generally follows roundabout rules, i.e, traffic inside the circle has the right-of-way and traffic entering the circle must yield. However there are also traffic light
s and stop signs regulating traffic flow and the I-395 off-ramps enter the circle from the interior of the circle, requiring a left merge into the traffic circle.
The current circle and traffic arrangement have existed since a 1969-1972 reconstruction of Shirley Highway which widened the previous circle to allow for access to the then-proposed the Four Mile Run Expressway.
A High occupancy/toll lanes (HOT lanes) project proposed for I-395 in the 2000s would direct additional traffic onto the circle and require the addition of a new entrance and exit to the circle and six new traffic lights.
grocery store, a public library, and a theater in the complex.
Plans for a new location for the library were approved in late 2000. In 2001, the Arlington Mill Drive location was razed and the Shirlington Library moved to a temporary location in the lower section of the Village at Shirlington shopping center fronting on Arlington Mill Drive (2786 South Arlington Mill Drive). This location housed the library until a flood in the restaurant above it caused the library to close in November 2006. The current Library, a 15000 square feet (1,393.5 m²) facility at 2800 South Stafford Street (since changed to 4200 Campbell Ave) underneath the Signature Theater, which was under construction from August 2005 opened in March 2007.
Unincorporated area
In law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not a part of any municipality.To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, a city, town, or village with its own government. An unincorporated community is usually not subject to or taxed by a municipal government...
urban area, officially called an "urban village", in the southern part of Arlington County
Arlington County, Virginia
Arlington County is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The land that became Arlington was originally donated by Virginia to the United States government to form part of the new federal capital district. On February 27, 1801, the United States Congress organized the area as a subdivision of...
, Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, adjacent to the Fairlington
Fairlington, Virginia
Fairlington is an unincorporated neighborhood in Arlington County, Virginia, United States, located adjacent to Shirlington in the southernmost part of the county on the boundary with the City of Alexandria...
area. The word "Shirlington" is a combination of "Shirley" (from the Shirley Highway
Henry G. Shirley Memorial Highway
The Henry G. Shirley Memorial Highway consists of a portion of Interstates 95 and 395 in the U.S. state of Virginia. Shirley Highway was the first limited-access freeway in Virginia...
or Interstate 395
Interstate 395 (District of Columbia-Virginia)
Interstate 395 in Washington, D.C., and Virginia is a 13 mile long spur route that begins at a junction with Interstate 95 in Springfield, Virginia and ends in northwest Washington, D.C. It passes underneath the National Mall near the United States Capitol and ends at a junction with U.S...
) and "Arlington".
Shirlington is billed as "Arlington’s Arts and Entertainment District" and is largely mixed-use development
Mixed-use development
Mixed-use development is the use of a building, set of buildings, or neighborhood for more than one purpose. Since the 1920s, zoning in some countries has required uses to be separated. However, when jobs, housing, and commercial activities are located close together, a community's transportation...
based on New Urbanist
New urbanism
New Urbanism is an urban design movement, which promotes walkable neighborhoods that contain a range of housing and job types. It arose in the United States in the early 1980s, and has gradually continued to reform many aspects of real estate development, urban planning, and municipal land-use...
principles. It is mostly middle-class residential, but like most of Arlington County has been experiencing an economic
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
renaissance and is now home to many upscale dwellings and retail
Retail
Retail consists of the sale of physical goods or merchandise from a fixed location, such as a department store, boutique or kiosk, or by mail, in small or individual lots for direct consumption by the purchaser. Retailing may include subordinated services, such as delivery. Purchasers may be...
and service establishments that also serve the nearby Fairlington
Fairlington, Virginia
Fairlington is an unincorporated neighborhood in Arlington County, Virginia, United States, located adjacent to Shirlington in the southernmost part of the county on the boundary with the City of Alexandria...
, Parkfairfax
Parkfairfax, Virginia
Parkfairfax is a neighborhood in Alexandria, Virginia, United States, located in the northwestern part of the city near the boundary with Arlington County...
, Nauck and Long Branch Creek areas.
Geography
Shirlington lies in the valley of Four Mile RunFour Mile Run
Four Mile Run is a stream in northern Virginia that starts near Interstate 66, at Gordon Avenue in Fairfax County and proceeds southeast through Falls Church to Arlington County in the U.S. state of Virginia...
, a tributary of the Potomac River
Potomac River
The Potomac River flows into the Chesapeake Bay, located along the mid-Atlantic coast of the United States. The river is approximately long, with a drainage area of about 14,700 square miles...
. The land rises toward Fairlington in the south and Nauck in the north.
The area is bounded by I-395 on the east except for a small section of the city of Alexandria
Alexandria, Virginia
Alexandria is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of 2009, the city had a total population of 139,966. Located along the Western bank of the Potomac River, Alexandria is approximately six miles south of downtown Washington, D.C.Like the rest of northern Virginia, as well as...
that lies to the west of the interstate. The only structure in that section, the Shirlington Gateway office building, has an Arlington address and is usually considered a part of Shirlington.) To the north and west, starting in the east, Shirlington is bordered by South Glebe Road, 24th Street South, South Shirlington Road, South Four Mile Run Drive, and South Walter Reed Drive. On the west and south, starting in the west, Shirlington is bounded by South Arlington Mill Drive, the Arlington County Environmental Services facility, and the west side of Park Shirlington Apartments.
Most residential, commercial, and retail development lies south of Four Mile Run while the area to the northeast, which is sometimes considered part of neighboring Nauck, is more light industrial.
History
Shirlington began when Joseph Cherner, automobile dealer and banker, established the Shirlington Corporation to build a shopping center for nearby Fairlington and Parkfairfax. He began with a 23+1/2 acre site on which the first store opened in June 1944. In 1959, the Lansburgh'sLansburgh's
Lansburgh's was a chain of department stores located in the Washington, D.C. area. The clientele were lower- to middle-income consumers.-History:...
department store opened a 150000 square feet (13,935.5 m²), $2.5 million store, its second suburban branch. However, by the 1970s, Shirlington was an aging traditional shopping center facing competition from shopping malls.
In the 1980s, Shirlington was partially renovated to create a "traditional main street
Main Street
Main Street is the metonym for a generic street name of the primary retail street of a village, town, or small city in many parts of the world...
" along South 28th Street (now Campbell Avenue) with two office buildings at one end and a big box store and a cinema at the other. However, Shirlington remained small.
By 2000, Arlington County authorities, who had previously concentrated on development of areas adjacent to Washington Metro
Washington Metro
The Washington Metro, commonly called Metro, and unofficially Metrorail, is the rapid transit system in Washington, D.C., United States, and its surrounding suburbs. It is administered by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority , which also operates Metrobus service under the Metro name...
rail lines, began giving more attention to areas not served by Metro, such as the Columbia Pike
Columbia Pike
Columbia Pike may refer to:*Columbia Pike , U.S. Route 29 from White Oak to Ellicott City*Columbia Pike , State Route 244 in Fairfax and Arlington CountiesSee also Columbia Turnpike....
corridor and Shirlington. The property's owner and the county spurred the creation of a Shirlington Phased Development Site Plan (PDSP) and the associated Shirlington Design Guidelines. A conceptual design for the area was established and almost 1000000 square feet (92,903 m²) of new mixed-use development was envisioned. Emphasis was placed on making the area pedestrian friendly with automobile parking located behind the commercial buildings. This plan was approved by the Arlington County Board in 2001.
The development, a public-private partnership between developer Federal Realty Investment Trust of Rockville, Maryland
Rockville, Maryland
Rockville is the county seat of Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It is a major incorporated city in the central part of Montgomery County and forms part of the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area. The 2010 U.S...
(the operator of several other regional town-center-like developments such as Bethesda Row, Pentagon Row
Pentagon Row
Pentagon Row is an outdoor shopping and upscale residential center with storefronts facing South Joyce Street. It is adjacent to the Fashion Centre at Pentagon City.Pentagon Row features an ice skating rink in its courtyard during the winter months....
, and Rockville Town Center) and the county, began in the mid-2000s. As the plan was implemented, South 28th Street was extended westward and a building to house both the Signature Theatre and the Shirlington Library was constructed. Several new residential and parking structures were added as well.
Economy
Shirlington is home to WETA-TVWETA-TV
WETA-TV is a Public Broadcasting Service member public televisionstation for the Washington, D.C., area. Its studios are in nearby Arlington, Virginia...
where nationally-broadcast programs such as PBS Newshour and Washington Week
Washington Week
Washington Week is a public affairs program on PBS. Unlike panel discussion shows that focus on debate as a means of discussing topics, the program follows a path of moderation and discussion...
are filmed. WETA-FM radio and some USPTO
United States Patent and Trademark Office
The United States Patent and Trademark Office is an agency in the United States Department of Commerce that issues patents to inventors and businesses for their inventions, and trademark registration for product and intellectual property identification.The USPTO is based in Alexandria, Virginia,...
satellite offices are also located in the town. The non-profit Analytic Services
Analytic Services
Analytic Services is a not-for-profit institute based in Arlington, Virginia which provides analysis and studies in the areas of national security, homeland security, and public safety...
(ANSER) and the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International are headquartered there. The design firm HNTB Corporation has major offices in Shirlington as well.
Transportation
Shirlington lies on Shirley HighwayHenry G. Shirley Memorial Highway
The Henry G. Shirley Memorial Highway consists of a portion of Interstates 95 and 395 in the U.S. state of Virginia. Shirley Highway was the first limited-access freeway in Virginia...
(I-395) for which the town is named and is accessible from Shirlington Circle (Exit 6 on I-395). The town is served by the Shirlington Bus Station, the only enclosed public bus station in Arlington and the principal transfer point for Metrobus
Metrobus (Washington, D.C.)
Metrobus is a bus service operated by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority . Its fleet consists of 1,480 buses covering an area of in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. There are over 300 bus routes serving 12,216 stops, including 2,398 bus shelters. In fiscal year 2009,...
and Arlington Transit
Arlington Transit
Arlington Transit is a bus transit company that operates in Arlington County, Virginia. It includes part of the Pike Ride service along Columbia Pike, shared with WMATA. Most of its services are designed to connect city neighborhoods with nearby Metro stations...
(ART) bus service in South Arlington.
Shirlington is the site of the trailhead
Trailhead
A trailhead is the point at which a trail begins, where the trail is often intended for hiking, biking, horseback riding, or off-road vehicles...
of the Washington & Old Dominion Railroad Regional Park
Washington & Old Dominion Railroad Regional Park
The Washington & Old Dominion Railroad Regional Park is a popular and unusually-shaped regional park in Northern Virginia. The park's primary feature is the Washington & Old Dominion Railroad Trail , an asphalt-surfaced paved rail trail that runs through densely populated urban and suburban...
rail trail
Rail trail
A rail trail is the conversion of a disused railway easement into a multi-use path, typically for walking, cycling and sometimes horse riding. The characteristics of former tracks—flat, long, frequently running through historical areas—are appealing for various development. The term sometimes also...
that travels along the route of a railroad that closed in 1968,, Shirlington Park, and Jennie Dean Park.
Shirlington Circle
Shirlington Circle or Shirlington Rotary (38°50′26"N 77°5′6"W) is a roundabout interchangeRoundabout interchange
A roundabout interchange is a type of interchange between a controlled access highway such as a motorway or freeway, and a minor road, in which the slip roads to and from the motorway carriageways converge at a single roundabout, which is grade-separated from the motorway lanes with bridges...
connecting I-395 (Shirley Highway) with several surface roads in Arlington County and Alexandria
Alexandria, Virginia
Alexandria is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of 2009, the city had a total population of 139,966. Located along the Western bank of the Potomac River, Alexandria is approximately six miles south of downtown Washington, D.C.Like the rest of northern Virginia, as well as...
. Although the circle is named after Shirlington, roughly half of it is located in Alexandria. The circle resembles roundabout
Roundabout
A roundabout is the name for a road junction in which traffic moves in one direction around a central island. The word dates from the early 20th century. Roundabouts are common in many countries around the world...
interchanges common in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
but rare in the US.
The circle includes multiple access points including ramps (slip roads) to and from I-395 (Exit 6) both north and southbound as well as a reversible direction ramp that provides access to and from the reversible high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes
High-occupancy vehicle lane
In transportation engineering and transportation planning, a high-occupancy vehicle lane is a lane reserved for vehicles with a driver and one or more passengers...
that run in the center of I-395. Four surface streets intersect with the circle; going counterclockwise (in the direction of traffic) from the north, they are:
- Shirlington Road, which forms the border between Arlington County and Alexandria to the north of I-395. (The road, however, enters Arlington County just to the north of the interchange.)
- Campbell Avenue (formerly 28th Street South) in Arlington County.
- Quaker Lane (State Route 402), which forms the border between Arlington County and Alexandria to the south of I-395.
- Gunston Road in Alexandria.
Traffic generally follows roundabout rules, i.e, traffic inside the circle has the right-of-way and traffic entering the circle must yield. However there are also traffic light
Traffic light
Traffic lights, which may also be known as stoplights, traffic lamps, traffic signals, signal lights, robots or semaphore, are signalling devices positioned at road intersections, pedestrian crossings and other locations to control competing flows of traffic...
s and stop signs regulating traffic flow and the I-395 off-ramps enter the circle from the interior of the circle, requiring a left merge into the traffic circle.
The current circle and traffic arrangement have existed since a 1969-1972 reconstruction of Shirley Highway which widened the previous circle to allow for access to the then-proposed the Four Mile Run Expressway.
A High occupancy/toll lanes (HOT lanes) project proposed for I-395 in the 2000s would direct additional traffic onto the circle and require the addition of a new entrance and exit to the circle and six new traffic lights.
Shopping
The center of Shirlington is occupied by the extensive Village at Shirlington retail, service, and residential complex which includes a series of buildings along Campbell Avenue (formerly South 28th Street). It was originally opened in 1944, as Shirlington Shopping Center, one of the earliest suburban shopping centers in the United States, and today provides most of the town's retail shopping. There are numerous restaurants, saloons, a Harris TeeterHarris Teeter
Harris Teeter is a chain of supermarkets based in Matthews, North Carolina, just outside Charlotte. , the chain operates 207 stores in eight Southern states: North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, Maryland, Delaware, and the District of Columbia.Harris Teeter is a...
grocery store, a public library, and a theater in the complex.
Entertainment
Shirlington is home to the Signature Theatre, a Tony-Award-winning regional theater company, the Classika Theater, Theatre on the Run, and the AMC Loews Shirlington 7 cinema.Library
Shirlington has been the site of a public library for over 60 years. The first library was called Fairlington Library after the nearby development of Fairlington which predated Shirlington and was opened in 1947 in the Shirlington Trust Building at 2780 South Randolph Street. The library expanded twice in the 1950s until moving to a location purpose-built for Shirlington Library at 2700 South Arlington Mill Drive in the early 1960s.Plans for a new location for the library were approved in late 2000. In 2001, the Arlington Mill Drive location was razed and the Shirlington Library moved to a temporary location in the lower section of the Village at Shirlington shopping center fronting on Arlington Mill Drive (2786 South Arlington Mill Drive). This location housed the library until a flood in the restaurant above it caused the library to close in November 2006. The current Library, a 15000 square feet (1,393.5 m²) facility at 2800 South Stafford Street (since changed to 4200 Campbell Ave) underneath the Signature Theater, which was under construction from August 2005 opened in March 2007.
