Tysons Vita on The Plaza

Vita Apartments view from Tysons Corner Metro Station 

Tysons Vita, topping out at 350ft is a new high-rise luxury residential building located in Mclean, Virginia.  It is currently the tallest building in Tysons Corner and one of the tallest in the Washington D.C. Metropolitan area.

The building will feature many amenities that have become accustom to new construction such as direct access to Metro (via overhead pedestrian walkways) and a rooftop pool with panoramic views. The views from the top floors enable you to see sites from all three jurisdictions in the area. The National Cathedral in D.C. as well as Bethesda, Maryland are visible with the naked eye and looking Northwest, Reston Town Center sits in the distance. The building will also include direct access to Tysons Corner Center one of the most profitable shopping malls in the country. 

The 450 units scheduled to deliver this spring are part of a larger project situated at Tysons Corner Center that is being branded as "The Plaza". The entire project consists of 3 buildings surrounded by a large pedestrian plaza linking the existing Tysons Corner Center to the Tysons Corner Metro Station. Besides Vita the development includes a new high-rise Hyatt Hotel and an office building named Tysons Tower. 

Virginia's first ShakeShack located on the plaza

The development of the Plaza is the first initial attempt to modernize Tysons Corner Center and give it more of a town center vibe, a trend that is being duplicated across the country. As it stands now the plaza includes Virginia’s first ShakeShack and an outdoor ice-skating rink. Eddie V’s Prime Seafood is scheduled to open later this year and additional retail in the Hyatt hotel will follow soon after that.  

Left: Tysons Tower

Tysons Corner in its current form is a place were many people work but few live. As a result, Vita is just one of many new residential buildings popping up in the area since the arrival of Metro's Silver line. However, much of the features that are accustom with urbanization are lacking in this development. Since Chainbridge Road (123) sits directly behind the development much of the retail components will not be located at street level but, rather above ground at the plaza level. This is counter-productive to the process of transforming Tysons Corner from an auto centric business district into an urban downtown. Although, given the current conditions of the intersection of Route 123 and Tysons Boulevard I don’t think Kettler the developer of the project had much of a choice.

Tysons Corner Center Master plan 

Lastly, while these three buildings might seem like a colossal undertaking, they are only the first phase of what is to be a four-phase project. Macerich the property owner of Tysons Corner Center has a massive plan in the works to position more office and residential buildings around the existing mall. Their plan calls for a transformation of the property’s current 9-5 environment to a 24/7 live, work, play atmosphere. The plan will likely take 10-15 years to complete.

Here is a link to a live development feed of the project 

Plaza ice-skating rink and new mall entrance