Crystal City is an urban village in Arlington County Virginia. Crystal City is home for numerous defense contractors, the United States Department of Labor, Public Broadcasting, the EPA and many satellite offices for The Pentagon. While Crystal City only has more than 6,000 residents, more than 60,000 people work a normal business schedule in Crystal City.

Crystal is not a "planned community", in the sense that developers did not design and follow a master plan. Nonetheless, Crystal City is a community with a plan. In the middle of the last century, the area now called Crystal City had few residents. The area east of Aurora Highlands had several motels which served National Airport (which later came to be known as Reagan National Airport). Many train-tracks served the busy Potomac Yard station (now a shopping center) and warehouses were located in the vicinity.

But in 1963 things began to change with the construction of several office buildings and condominiums. One of the first of these condos was Crystal House, so named for an ornate crystal chandelier in the lobby. Subsequent buildings followed with similar names such as Crystal Gateway and Crystal Park. It only made sense to call the new urban village Crystal City.

The builders at Crystal City largely followed a pattern of building that was considered avant-garde at the time. These structures feature the grand sweeping curves of textured concrete with plenty of glass. The proportions of the lobbies and common areas are large and airy and the buildings themselves seem to flow along the city streets and complement the abundant landscaping details.

Crystal City is bounded by some of the busiest commuter arteries of Northern Virginia. While the buildings here are both residential and office, the broad circulating avenues of Crystal City allow traffic to flow through Crystal City and at the same time encourage underground pedestrians to shop by foot. In Northern Virginia's 100 degree summers, the rains of spring and the icy cold of winter, this is a big benefit to residents of Crystal City.

While the underground shops and passages of Crystal City remain, today Crystal City is slowly being redeveloped into a more traditional urban feel. Restaurants and shops are starting to open at street level. Arlington County is encouraging the redevelopment by change some traffic patterns to make streets like Crystal Drive function as city streets, rather than as circulating roads.

Even with these changes, today it is still easy for residents each of Rt. 1 along the Crystal Drive corridor to walk from the north side of Crystal City almost all the way to the Eclipse at Center Park entirely underground. Crystal City together with nearby Aurora Highlands and Pentagon City is an ultra convenient place to live for folks who work in Arlington, the Pentagon or Washington DC. Contact us today to learn more about this neighborhood and its many unique advantages.

About the Author --- Will Nesbitt is the principal broker of Condo 1 Alexandria and Will Nesbitt Realty. Will specializes in condos, townhouses and single family residences in Alexandria, Arlington, Fairfax County, Crystal City, and Kingstowne. Will resides in Belle Haven Estates just outside Alexandria VA in Fairfax County.