INNOVATION and the WORKSHOP

something Food Truck

ISSUE #4 MAY 14, 2012

VIENNA CHORAL SOCIETY SUPPORTS THE ARTS

THETYSONSCORNER.COM PAGE 2

COVER PHOTO BY

AVRIL O’NEIL

INVENTORS WORKSHOP

ALL PHOTOGRAPHY AND

GRAPHICS WITHIN THIS

PUBLICATION RIGHTS

RESERVED TO THE ARTIST

PAGE 3

HIGH TECH

CORRIDORS AND

THE STATUS QUO PAGE 4

FOOD TRUCK WATCH

SOMETHING STUFFED PAGE 8

INNOVATION AND

THE WORKSHOP PAGE 9

VCS CONCERT FOR

FAIRFAX ARTS PAGE 6

WE ARE LOOKING

FOR WRITERS PAGE 6

THE INFLUENCE

OF WORK SPACE PAGE 13

AVOIDING

RETROFIT COSTS

OF URBAN

FARMING PAGE 16

THETYSONSCORNER.COM PAGE 4

This past week Richard

Florida wrote an interesting

article New York City: The

Nation’s Second Leading Tech

Hub which has some great

graphics on how New York

City is converting its

economy from a financial and

style economy to include

several multi-million dollar

startup tech firms. The story

concludes that this rebirth of

new industries is going to

lead to some much larger

industries for the city in the

decade to come. I have to

agree. While a vast majority

of these start-ups will lose

money, it only takes one

Facebook, Google, or Apple

to create an entire industry

for a region. The density and

total number of startups all

but ensures that a future

tech giant will come from the

field.

I’ve always considered the

Northern Virginia area to be

rich in knowledge in the High

Tech, IT, and computer

engineer field however our

technical prowess is starting

to be usurped by the creative

prowess of more innovative

cities. In other words we are

kind of stuck in a rut, and

might be taking for granted

the steady stream of federal

work.

HIGH TECH CORRIDORS

AND THE STATUS QUO

PAGE 5

This area is still considered one of the most

educated regions of the country. Silicon

valley is argued by most to be #1, and

Seattle/Takoma has some rights to the title

as well. I have always considered this region

to be the Silicon Valley of the east,

supported by the top tier institutions of

higher education as well as the best school

districts in the Country. This is backed by

our educational attainment in Fairfax where

55% of residents hold a bachelor’s degree,

and 25% hold a masters or greater. That

means almost 250,000 residents in this

county hold at least a masters degree. While

there are regions of the

country that have higher

percentages in higher

education, none of them

include a study area of nearly 1

million residents.

For example, Palo Alto, in the

heart of Silicon Valley has a

hugely educated population

where 74.4% of residents hold

a bachelor’s degree, and 43%

hold a masters or greater.

However, Palo Alto has a

population of 64,000 residents.

While impressive by

percentage, this means only

27,500 residents hold at least a

masters degree, one ninth of

Northern Virginia. When

compared with Santa Clara

County as a whole, the

bachelors percentage becomes

lower than NOVA with only

40.4% holding a bachelor’s

degree, and 16.4% at least a

masters degree.

When one considers the

population, and the

percentage of educated

residents, Fairfax County

demonstrates why so many

large firms find an employee

base unparalleled in the rest of

the nation.

What about our affluence?

While there is significant class

disparity in this region,

compared to the majority of

the country Northern Virginia

remains one of the most evenly

dispersed wealth bases. It isn’t

that we have a few select rich

residents (though there are a

few). It is that we all enjoy a

fairly consistent income

indicative of upper middle

class levels.

We have the overall wealth,

the highly educated populous,

and the overall diversity of

different knowledge/skills

from the amalgam of people.

These are huge indicators of

why this area has been

successful in drawing both

corporations and a steady

inflow of new residents.

Unfortunately, while we don’t

need to fear an end to the

good times, we are becoming

dangerously dependent on

maintaining this status quo.

Fairfax which was known as a

small business hub and a high

tech start up corridor for year

has dwindled to a prototypical

corporate structure. Which is

fine, it helps keep our area

consistent. However there is

nothing that keeps these

corporations loyal to our area

except for the current

characteristics. There is no

guarantee in 20 years that they

will remain, and in this vacuum

we have not birthed any new

industries organically in the

same method that New York

City and Palo Alto have

accomplished. This region has

become too comfortable with

the steady good life to the

point that very few want to

take new risks and go for the

big home runs.

Menlo Park, the birth place of

American innovation and the

industrial workshop of Thomas

Edison, began after the late

19th century economic crisis in

central New Jersey. The land

became so undervalued that

Edison who had only $10,000

from the sale of his first

invention could purchase the

35 acre industrial park

outright.

It shows that the biggest

pushes forward in history found

genesis in moments of

collapse. Perhaps Defense and

Government contracts slowing

down is just the shock this area

needs, though I think

anticipating the benefits of

growing might avoid the birth

pangs that New Jersey

experienced.

The Tysons Corner is a

website in its infancy,

started in 2011, created

to discuss the local issues

specific to eastern Fairfax

including the regions of

Tysons Corner, Falls

Church, McLean, Vienna,

and Merrifield. Our goal is

to provide a deeper

analysis of progressive

topics centered around

the new urbanism

concepts of a 21st century

Northern Virginia. We

have seen the region grow

from a quiet suburban

community to a cultural

and economic contributor

of the east coast rivaling

other more established

cities. The area for many

years grew without

direction leaving a

disconnected community

of micro-developments

without any coordinated

design concept. Our goal

is to create a unified,

or cacophonous, voice of

residents and interested

parties to discuss what the

future vision for the

region could or should be.

We look to fill the

questions that many have

and provide the depth of

coverage that is difficult

for overall news

publications to provide.

We are currently

looking for interested

bloggers who are

looking for a forum to

discuss their ideas as a

writer for TTC. This

could be done as an

exclusive TTC format

or as a cross post with

other independent

blogs. If you are

interested in reaching

a large base of readers

specific to this region

think about joining.

Please feel free to contact us;

navid@thetysonscorner.com

THETYSONSCORNER.COM PAGE 6

The Vienna Choral Society is

preparing for their Concert For A

Cause, May 19th, to support arts

education in Fairfax County. As

a product of the Fairfax County

arts program I believe that the

arts are a way of grounding the

youth and teaching them the

benefits of both analytic and

aesthetic thinking. Music is a

science and an art. While it is

physically defined by the

wavelengths of audible sound,

the measured tempos of a

cadence, and decibel volume

emitted it is more gutturally

experienced in the emotion that

sound can invoke. In movies,

while the acting and characters

engage the viewer in the story,

it is the music and soundtrack

that pulls you in to the fictional

world. It is important that we

provide the opportunity for the

next generation to continue this

legacy.

The Concert will perform a Tour

Through Musical History, From

Seikilos to U2. If you have a

child that may have an interest

in chorus or band or any

performing arts, this is a great

opportunity to show them the

role that a community can take.

The performance will be at the

UUCF in Vienna at 7:30pm on

Saturday and all are welcome.

Help support the future of our

arts programs by attending and

follow the Vienna Choral

Society’s blog for more

information VCS blog.

VIENNA CHORAL

SOCIETY

SUPPORTS THE ARTS

PAGE 7

Photo: Fiber Optic Toy,

By AudioTribe

THETYSONSCORNER.COM PAGE 8

FOOD TRUCK WATCH Something Stuffed Follow us on twitter for daily food truck alerts

The newest food truck to the Tysons Corner

lunch market appears to be a hit. Something

Stuffed brings a mix of asian and latin influences

to create some really unique eats. The menu is

dynamic and changes just about each time they

come out, but on this occasion I enjoyed a

Bulgogi Empanada and a Vietnamese pork

empanada.

I wasn’t the only one who had to see what the

new truck had to offer, the line was well formed

before I got there. The chili was a popular item,

which you can get with two empanadas for 12

bucks, pretty solid deal. It appears the

Something Stuffed girls will be coming around

Tysons either once a week or twice a week, so if

you haven’t tried them out yet keep on the

lookout.

Photo: Pure Abstract, Digital Art,

© Ben Heine 2012

PAGE 9

In modern terms a workshop has taken

on a negative connotation as a factory

of human labor, but the original

concept had much nobler intent. In a

renaissance workshop craftsman and

artists would combine their skills to

better understand the physical and

optical world with mathematics and

its relation to our visual

representations. In the industrial era

workshops became a space for

innovators and inventors to create

new machines and processes creating

a better understanding of function

and user experience. In the post-

industrial era this concept faced

emerging technology as the creative

designs and concepts engaged with

the robotic factory.

THETYSONSCORNER.COM PAGE 10

In each of these shifts of design

method the scale of the problem

and solution grew. The

renaissance workshops focused

very much on individual studies,

the improvement of gears, tools

and processes for individual

applications and artisan

patronage. The industrial era

focused on creating mass

produced goods that would

reduce the costs of durables and

addressing an existing need. The

post-industrial era created

emerging markets through cutting

edge technology which would

become integral in the daily lives

of all humanity. The negative

impact of these shifts was the

disintegration of the

design/innovation process which

solved smaller complications in

lieu of the big home run solution.

Today we see the disintegration

in the form of junk technology

and true technology. Junk

technology being devices that are

trinket in form and often times

childish, and true technology

being solutions to massive world

wide problems. Innovation has

given way to small and large

invention. In many ways there has

become little incentive for large

companies to create more

efficient systems if they believe

that large scale invention will

make their original product

obsolete. While this is true with

some elements of the world

(telecommunication certainly

comes to mind) it is not true in

many physical sciences and

products which have lagged.

So why has technology been

defined as only “high tech”? It

begins with research and

development funding. A large

corporation could find hundreds

of small innovations that could

sell well but does not have

explosive growth potential.

Therefore they invest large funds

into fewer concepts in the hope

that one could create a complete

paradigm shift. The net result to

the public becomes a market in

which we can converse around

the world in a split second, but

systems in our own lives remain

inefficient (cheese on the bottom

of a toaster over, planter pots

that lose half of their water from

the bottom, etc).

There have been moments which

have proven that innovation

remains addressing market needs.

The creation of the

collapsible/briefcase bike,

vertical planting walls/seat walls,

and residential rain barrels are a

few that come to mind. These

have been widely celebrated as

concepts that were long overdue.

PAGE 11

This was the

best salad I have

ever eaten.

If this is the case, and these products have

become quite profitable for their creators,

why doesn’t this happen more often? The

world is corporatized, very few of us work

for independent and creative organizations,

and when we do it is in a very niche

concept. It is almost unheard of to see a

workplace with multiple, diverse knowledge

sets sitting together working on a problem.

It is even more rare for those people to be

in direct contact with a client or person who

sees a gap in the available solutions. When

we see the world through only one set of

possible answers, we view the problem with

horse blinders and become oblivious to

possible innovation by other means.

We are witnessing a new class of technology

rising in urban settings where the very

spatial layout of the cities are helping foster

discussions between various disciplines, and

at the convergence of the creative class

(inventors) and the technical class

(innovators) we are attaining products that

actually benefit everyday people. What

makes Apple and Google so brilliant is the

fact that they have understood this for a

long time. You must have technically

proficient, financially reasonable, and

aesthetically beautiful products to meet

what the market expects.

This provides an avenue and a reprieve from

the now traditional post-industrial process

via the virtual communication between

disciplines. By reducing the cost of owning a

physical facility to its bare essentials, think

tanks or crowd sources can now be utilized

to both gather problems and solve them.

The new workshop creates an opportunity to

integrate telecommunication and crowd

sourcing into this gathering and solution

process, and it allows the technical design

to focus on the creation itself. Because of

the reduction in the space necessary and

the limited partnership of the community

through incentives not salary, the scale of

operations is far smaller and could

theoretically occur on a grass roots level.

The few instances of innovation we are

encountering could be indicators that we

are standing at a watershed in a true

renaissance of technology and the design

process.

Photo: Yamaguchi Frame Building School,

By Dancing Weapon of Mass Destruction

THETYSONSCORNER.COM PAGE 12

THE INFLUENCE OF CROWD SOURCING ON THE DESIGN PROCESS

The modern cubicle form office

has been an effective method of

reducing the space allotment for

employees and reducing the costs

of operations, but employees

routinely complain about the

confining nature of the layout.

Studies have shown that the very

arrangement while being efficient

decreases the productivity and

quality of work created. Some

corporations which promote

original thought and

communication have evolved to

the use of open and free flowing

spaces, clustered project teams,

and integrated disciplines to

analyze problems through multiple

points of view.

The benefits of this new concept

of office layout has been reviewed

for decades and the empirical data

generally shows that employees

are happier and more productive.

However beneficial this has been

to the commercial world,

innovation in mechanical and

design processes have lagged. The

problem has become a separation

between the creative and

technical perspective.

Designers have become

increasingly unaware of practical

applications and manufacturing

processes have become increasing

reliant on exact specifications.

This works well when research and

development funding can support

several iterations of quality

control, but when a solution is

needed for smaller constraints this

method becomes inefficient.

It is rare to find a designer who

can build or a builder who can

design to proficient levels. So what

will the office layout become in

order to address this trend?

PAGE 13

THE INFLUENCE

OF

WORK SPACE

THETYSONSCORNER.COM PAGE 14

OFFICE LAYOUT CONSTRAINTS

• MOST DISCIPLINES ARE

SEPARATED BY FLOORS OR

ROOMS

• WORK SPACE IS EXPENSIVE,

FORCING CONSERVATION OF

OPEN/COMMON AREAS

• PHYSICAL MATERIALS AND

OBJECTS ARE UNAVAILABLE

TO DESIGNERS AND REPLACED

WITH COMPUTERS

• LACK OF PRODUCTION SPACE

TO PHYSICALLY TEST DESIGN

CONCEPTS

SOLUTIONS MUST HAVE

• TECHNICAL RESOURCES AND

PHYSICAL RESOURCES

• 20 OFFICE SPACES

• 8 WORKSHOP SPACES

• MAXIMUM OF 2500 SQUARE

FEET

• ANY UNIQUE FURNITURE

SHOULD INCLUDE AN

EXAMPLE IMAGE

We’d love to see your

concepts of what an office

that meets these needs

would look like?

Sketch it, put it in cad, or

render it up. All we care

about is the concept not the graphics.

PAGE 15

DEFINING THE SPACE

WE SPEND

1/3 OF OUR LIVES

My experience in land development has taught

me a lot about planning, developers, and the

economics of a project but one thing I have

always questioned is why more clients would

throw away money that could be available to

them with proper design. I saw projects that

would excavate 200,000 cubic foot ponds, but

for the same cost could have implemented a

rainwater cistern that has an equivalent cost,

achieves permitting requirements, and

reduces the potable water usage required for

functions such as irrigation. I watched as they

constructed 5 foot wide parking islands with

plants that everyone knew would die shortly

there after instead of providing adequate

space and saving money in the long run by

losing 1 parking space. Recently I have seen a

new asset that most developers and planners

haven’t opened their eyes to, roofs.

When LEED was introduced to the construction

field by the U.S. Green Building Council a lot

of developers first reactions were, how do we

skirt the requirements to get the most points

possible and make our building more

marketable? One of the first elements that

almost every project introduced was a green

roof. It is exactly what it sounds like. Roofs

are designed to incorporate small ground

cover form landscaping (grasses, flowerbeds,

small shrubs) which helps reduce the runoff

which is generated from rain storms. The

concept actually does work pretty well as long

as the plants are appropriately installed and

once in a while someone checks on it.

Unfortunately it ignores the potential of this

roof space. Luckily all it takes is a bit of

imagination to fix that.

A typical urban building roof can be anywhere

from a half acre to two acres of completely

under utilized space, outside of a few

mechanical and HVAC functions. Anywhere

except for on top of a building, this land

would be considered an asset, something that

could be rented or sold for some sort of rate.

For years this space was obviously devoid

of any marketable function, but with the

introduction of green roofs they became

prime land, well elevated, drained and in

direct sunlight perfect for agricultural

uses. Forget the fact that it is up in the

air and this would become a very

intriguing location for a small time farmer

or perhaps space for restaurants to grow

their own produce within an elevators

distance. Talk about farm to table.

Considering that the green roof is going in

place anyways, wouldn’t any return on

this be a vast improvement from the $0

revenue that they currently attain?

PAGE 16 THETYSONSCORNER.COM

PAGE 17

So what would an architect need to

incorporate if this was a design

criteria up front? One might

consider putting in a separate

freight elevator, though I would

argue that the regular freight

elevator could do the job, but the

best way might be the simplest. If

window washing apparati where

utilized to serve both functions it

would add no extra construction

cost and still provide for the needs

of a small time farmer. The client

could attain a marketable space

with a marginal and negligible

rise in cost. So what is

marketable? Well it’s nothing to

write home about, most large scale

farm rentals go for approximately

$100 dollars per acre per year. Why

is it so cheap? Because most farm

lands are measured in the

hundreds, if not thousands, of

acres. When you start renting out

at that scale you can still make a

good return even with a low cost

per acre average.

Clearly the market for this form of

farming will be high end urban

suppliers, ie restaurants,

independent grocers, and

individual farmers market vendors.

Providing this nearly no transport

cost agricultural land drastically

improves their profit margin. The

roof land would clearly favor

higher return cash crops that

industrially are not possible due to

labor needs. An entrepreneur could

see the profitability of these prime

locations, low rental rates, and the

fact that their small operation

would not be machine based for a

large part anyways and turn the

opportunity into a great source of

income.

So why even have the green roof?

Storm water runoff pollution is a

big problem for watersheds, and

caused serious problems to the

fisheries and wildlife of the

Chesapeake Bay in the middle part

of the last century. The regulations

in place are widely supported by

both political parties and are not

likely to be revoked in our lifetime,

therefore some form of control is

needed. When you are building

high density projects, where land is

at a premium, putting your storm

water management on a roof is still

the most cost effective, especially

when you consider ALL storm water

management practices require

extensive maintenance.

With a rate of $200 per year per

acre you could find a market. Heck

if you have a restaurant downstairs

you might be able to incorporate a

higher lease rate into that space if

it comes along with planting access

to the roof which could fetch an

increase in lease rates on the order

of $200 per month. Regardless,

let’s ignore the actual return, as

any return is greater than 0, and

focus on the cost saving. By

creating a passive maintenance

crew to the green roof, the

building management can avoid

costly annual maintenance when

some plants are left without

inspection. The leaser becomes a

zero cost partner in ensuring the

health of the green roof. How

much can this save? The

replacement or remediation of

green roofs can easily surpass

$10,000 per acre per year if not

properly maintained, which is a

bargain compared to contracting an

outside maintenance crew. The

passive inspection, regardless of

what the leaser pays, helps save

real money.

Every new project requires an

intensive cost analysis which is

performed on everything from

energy usage to marketability to

grounds keeping costs. When it

comes to multi-hundred million

dollar buildings everything is

checked ten times over to make

sure all assets are profitized.

Developers shouldn’t just stop at

the top floor though when they

could be making money and saving

a whole lot more up on the roof.