The new Crystal City: Livable and fun. Image by the author.

Everyone’s concerned about America’s downtowns. With so many office workers still teleworking, central business districts aren’t filling with commuters like they used to. It’s a problem vexxing city leaders nationwide, and DC is no exception.

Turns out, history is a guide. About 15 years ago, Crystal City, Virginia suffered a similar decline in its base of office workers, providing a handy example of a place that looked into the face of urban planning apocalypse and came out better on the other side.

What happened to Crystal City?

In 2005 the US Department of Defense ordered 17,000 jobs to leave Crystal City, vacating more than four million square feet of office space out of the 11 million total in Crystal City at the time. Nearly 40% of the neighborhood’s office space was to be emptied out at the stroke of a pen.

With so many fewer workers, there wouldn’t be enough customers to keep Crystal City’s shops and other services afloat. Hotels would lack guests. Buses and trains would lack riders. Taxes would not pour in.

Civic leaders were justifiably concerned, and began to think about what kind of future the neighborhood might have.

By 2010 Arlington had a new Crystal City Sector Plan that charted out a shift from driving-oriented office district into a transit and walking oriented living district.

Image from the Crystal City Sector Plan. Source: Arlington County.

Streets would be converted from one-way to two-way to enable safer walking, Route 1 would transform from an elevated highway to a surface boulevard, buses in a dedicated transitway would carry people beyond the reach of Metro, new bike lanes would cover the neighborhood, and the Metro and VRE stations would expand to work better together.

Perhaps most importantly, new more diverse and taller buildings would bring in residents and workers to replace the lost commuters.

It worked!

Fast forward, and the new Crystal City is looking pretty nice.

New residences tower over the old office blocks. Retail that used to be confined to an underground mall has spilled out onto the surface, enlivening the once-barren Crystal Drive. The parking lots of 20th Century buildings now have people’s homes on them. The transitway is a reality. Plenty has been changed, and plenty more still may.

A possible neighborhood apocalypse unfolded to actually become animated sidewalks full of people.

What once was dreary 9-5 office blocks is now lively mixed-use urbanism. Image by the author.

And the office market? Fueled by the desirability of Crystal City as a place to do more than just work, it rebounded. Companies like Amazon and Boeing moved in with huge new offices.

A diverse portfolio

Not to suggest everything is perfect. Covid and the resulting teleworking trend hit Arlington just like they hit everywhere. Despite companies like Amazon and Boeing, the trend away from in-person office continues in Crystal City, with office vacancy rates once more up around 20%.

But Crystal City is undoubtedly in a better place today than it would’ve been had leaders stayed the old course and simply hoped to refill the old offices with replacement commuters. Its eggs aren’t all in the office basket anymore. Leaders still wish those offices were fuller and their taxes rolling in faster, but nobody worries Crystal City will become a ghost town anymore. It’s a diverse neighborhood now, not just a glorified office park.

According to recent GW grad (and GGWasher) Jacy Heidorn, “after graduating last spring, my now-roommate and I were looking for an affordable apartment with a decent amount of space and that was near public transit since neither of us have cars. Living in Crystal City has been great because there are so many places to eat, shop, and walk around, and we can quickly get to the Blue and Yellow Metro lines, which are awesome because they take two completely different routes into the city. I also have felt very comfortable walking around alone both day and night.”

Places people want to go, not just places they work. Image by the author.

The key to surviving office apocalypse was recognizing that Crystal City’s previous life as an easy-money office hub was over, and its future life as a true mixed-use neighborhood was ready to begin. To make that happen, leaders had the courage to change the buildings, the streets, and the rules governing them.

Maybe someday we’ll say the same about downtown DC.