Lake Anne Plaza

The original heart of Reston and, for anyone interested in how postwar America tried to reinvent the suburb, the most rewarding stop in the area. Opened in 1965 as the first village center of Robert E. Simon's new town, Lake Anne is a compact concrete plaza stepping straight down to the water, ringed by townhouses whose front doors face a pedestrian square rather than a road.

Highlights: Washington Plaza with its fountain and the 15-storey Heron House tower; the arched Van Gogh Bridge over an inlet of the lake; a used bookstore, small galleries, a tea shop and a handful of waterfront cafés with terraces over the water. A small museum documents Reston's founding. Kayak and pedal boat rentals operate from the lakeside in season.

The architecture is unapologetically 1960s modernist — raw concrete, sharp angles, deliberately un-suburban — and the district is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It reads as slightly faded rather than polished, which is part of its charm.

Practical: Free surface parking just behind the plaza. Sunday mornings bring a farmers market in season. Allow 45–60 minutes for a slow loop plus coffee.