Construction of a new nine-story office building at Virginia Square is now complete, ending a decade-long process of redeveloping the site near the Arlington Central Library.
Thirteen years after the Arlington Funeral Home closed in 2011 and was expected to be replaced by an office building at 3901 N. Fairfax Drive, developer and construction company Skanska announced last week that those plans have finally come to fruition.
The 18,500-square-foot building features a 740-square-meter public plaza and 930 square meters of retail space on the ground floor, and promises a “future-focused workplace” with an emphasis on fresh air, natural light and outdoor spaces.
“The dynamic interior and exterior spaces of 3901 Fairfax are the ideal setting to foster innovation and collaboration in one of the most desirable corridors in the Washington DC metropolitan area,” said Mark Carroll, executive vice president of Skanska’s DC operations. “Working with Arlington County, we were able to incorporate feedback from the surrounding community into the design and sustainability features of 3901 Fairfax, creating an impressive building and public space.”
The Arlington County Board had already approved a development plan for the site in 2012. However, the existing buildings were demolished, the development plans remained on hold for years, and the site instead became a parking lot for the nearby Mercedes-Benz dealership.
Skanska purchased the property in 2019 and announced plans to begin construction on the site in 2021.
The design for the new building is largely based on the original site plans approved all those years ago, with a similar shape and floor-to-ceiling windows, a Skanska spokesperson previously told ARLnow. Notably, it lacks a 12,985-square-foot black box theater that was included in the original plans but was removed with county approval in 2018.
Located between the Ballston and Virginia Square subway stations and south of Quincy Park and the Central Library, the building includes a fitness center, private tenant terraces and a penthouse conference room that opens to a 3,500-square-foot rooftop deck.
“3901 Fairfax was built to redefine traditional office space, using materials such as low-carbon concrete and a dedicated outdoor air system to maximize the sustainable impact we create through our business,” said Dale Kopnitsky, General Manager and Executive Vice President, responsible for Skanska’s DC operations.
“Using our jointly developed Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator (EC3 tool), the embodied carbon value was 31 percent below the industry baseline EC3 for 2021,” he added. “We are proud to provide this dynamic and sustainable workspace for the Rosslyn-Ballston Corridor.”
