Fairfax County Government Center

The Fairfax County Government Center is a complex housing offices of the Fairfax County government.

The complex currently consists of three buildings: the Government Center building, the Herrity Building, and the Pennino Building.

As early as 1977, it was obvious that the Massey Building was not big enough to house all the functions of county government, which forced the county to rent private office space in the City of Fairfax to house its bureaucracy.[1]

On December 6, 1977, James W. Todd, president of Gulf-Reston, offered a 150-acre site in Reston as a possible site for the relocated government center.[2]

In July 1979 the county purchased 183 acres of the 263-acre Smith-Carney site west of the City of Fairfax for $4.1 millon from Benjamin Smith, Jr. and Jack W. Carney with the intent of locating the majority of governmental functions on the site.[3][4]

At this point, the BoS faced the problem of how to actually pay for their shiny new government center. Issuing general obligation bonds to pay for the construction of the new facility would require a voter referendum that, if not defeated outright, would give much ammunition to their political enemies.

A scheme was devised whereby the county would give $41.2 million of cash and other compensation as well as permission to build a mixed-use development of high-rise office building, hotels, town houses and garden apartments to the Charles E. Smith Companies and the Artery Organization.[5]

On August 3, 1987, the BoS voted 8-1 to accept the scheme to build the Government Center.[5]

References

  1. ↑ Cue, Eduardo. "Fairfax to Move County Seat?" The Washington Post (1974-Current file): 2. Nov 10 1977. ProQuest. Web. 6 Feb. 2014.
  2. ↑ Grubisich, Thomas. "Reston Offers Fairfax County Site for Offices." The Washington Post (1974-Current file): 2. Dec 07 1977. ProQuest. Web. 6 Feb. 2014.
  3. ↑ Grubisich, Thomas. "'A Tremendous Deal'." The Washington Post (1974-Current file): 1. Jul 29 1979. ProQuest. Web. 6 Feb. 2014.
  4. ↑ Federal Construction Council. Quality Planning in Times of Tight Budgets: Summary of a Symposium. Rep. no. 97. Washington, D.C.: National Academy, 1990.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Hockstader, Lee. "Fairfax Board Approves Deal for Government Center." The Washington Post (1974-Current file): 2. Aug 04 1987. ProQuest. Web. 6 Feb. 2014.