The Hyde Park is Ballston’s first condominium.  After a decade of civic study and community debate about land use near the new Metro Subway’s Orange Line, the Ballston Sector Plan was adopted by Arlington County in 1980, setting in place the zoning framework for Ballston’s urban density. The Hyde Park tower was built at the southernmost tip of the area to be zoned as Ballston.  It now anchors an important “gateway” into Ballston at North Glebe Road where it intersects both North Quincy and North Henderson. 

Built as a luxury rental apartment building with garage parking, the Hyde Park’s developers (The Freed family) and architect (Vlastimil Koubek) began construction in 1972 on a mixed-use tower of 12 residential floors plus one commercial floor at street level in anticipation of future Ballston growth.  It opened in 1974.   

In the early years, the Hyde Park must have stood out incongruously: the International-Style, monochromatic tower was at first surrounded by leafy neighborhoods of 2-story suburban homes, garden apartments and low-rise commercial buildings for miles around.  Just across Glebe Road, the Parkington Shopping Center (an early precursor to strip malls that was popular after World War II ) was winding down to make way for what is now the Ballston Common Mall, e*Trade Bank Tower and the Kettler Capitals’ Iceplex.  

In 1980, the same year as the final approval of the Sector Plan and only months after the Orange Line opened in Ballston, the Hyde Park was converted into condominiums by the Chicago-based Stein and Co., thus quietly becoming the first condominium in an area now famous for them.  Within a decade, Ballston gained several other fine condominium towers. A decade after that, Ballston experienced an exciting maturity as elegant hotels and chic new condominiums, office towers, restaurants and urban amenities crowded into Ballston’s “zone.”

Even now, more luxury residential towers are on the drawing board or at one of the various stages of the County’s lengthy approval process.  In the mainstream media and popular culture, “a condo in Ballston” implies upwardly mobile cache and an urban sensibility informed by Arlington’s “smart growth” philosophy.  Ballston is now cited as national model for transit-oriented development.  

For the Hyde Park Condominium, being early to the table meant occupying the sunny southern corner of Ballston.  Arlington’s zoning regulations set strict sightlines and height setbacks for the Ballston neighborhood that now protect the Hyde Park’s sweeping views in every direction.  Covering about 4 acres, the Hyde Park’s verdant grounds include a second-story recreational outdoor plaza that also serves as a green roof above the large parking structure.  Few downtown condominiums – in Ballston or elsewhere on the Metro – have as much “green buffer” property as the Hyde Park.    

Our Historic Neighbors

While the Hyde Park tower awaited the arrival of Ballston, other “International Style” residential buildings were erected across Arlington and marked time modernly in respective neighborhoods.  From 1964 through 1976, the County witnessed the arrival of tall, monochromatic brick and steel towers – as residential buildings --  and most often with large banded windows or wall-size glazing arranged in sleek, contemporary tiers.  These buildings often share long balconies with sliding glass doors and minimalist structural details. 

Along with the “Hyde Park” on the vintage list of International Style landmarks in Arlington is the distinctive “Prospect House,”  which sits behind Iwo Jima and overlooks the Mall.  “The Representative” hovers over the Pentagon on scenic Arlington Ridge.  Nearby are “Ridge House” and “Horizon House,” which overlooks Army Navy Drive.

Rising above green Arlington Forest is “The Chatham,” also designed by Vlastimil Koubek.  “The Chatham” was built by the Freeds before they undertook the “Hyde Park” tower.  On the Metro line, Virginia Square’s “Tower Villas” was the first condominium built within its Metro-based sector plan. 

With care and wise stewardship, these older modern buildings will always stand in testimony to the optimistically modern thinkers who built them.