The brainchild of visionary developer Robert Simon, the planned town of Reston was established in rural Fairfax County, Virginia beginning in 1961. Simon worked with leading architects and landscape architects to realize a community based on his seven principals for Reston that included an emphasis on a variety of housing types and prices, the conscious creation of a live/work community with leisure opportunities, the recognition of the dignity of the individual, and the belief that beauty is a necessity. Simon's project faced financial struggles and despite an eventual sale of the yet undeveloped portions of the site, many of the original neighborhoods, known as clusters, and the integrated pedestrian paths that knit them together, retain a high degree of integrity and architectural significance.
In collaboration with the William and Mary Center for Archaeological Research, Hanbury Preservation Consulting completed an initial survey of Reston that included thirteen individual resources and ten potential historic districts. Architects and landscape architects represented in the survey area include as Charles Goodman, Louis Sauer, Chloethiel Woodard Smith, Edmund Ault, Whittlesey and Conklin, and Lyles, Bissett, Carlisle, and Wolff. A survey report outlined the history of Reston's development and provided an analysis of surveyed resources.