Landscape Information
This 0.4-acre park is located at the wedge-shaped intersection of Fort Myer Drive and North Lynn Street at the southern end of the Rosslyn neighborhood. In 1979 Arlington County commissioned artist Nancy Holt to transform the derelict site—a former gas station and warehouse—into a park. Holt conceived the project, completed in 1983, as “a work of art in itself.”
Bisected by Fairfax Drive, the park comprises northern and southern sections. The former slopes from the base of the Park Place office building, which was constructed concurrently and includes a colonnaded open-air entry, designed by landscape architect Peter Walker. Holt framed the park with a crescent-shaped earthen berm to screen traffic and provide enclosure, in which she embedded two concrete tunnels into the landform. One tunnel measures three feet in circumference and—accessed from Fort Myer Drive by way of a modest staircase—provides views into the park. The second, ten feet in circumference, is embedded in the berm, providing pedestrian access from the northwest. From this tunnel, curvilinear crushed stone paths frame lawn panels punctuated by monumental concrete spheres paired with circular reflecting pools. The concrete tunnels frame views of the spheres, which were dubbed “fallen stars” by Holt. They are each bored through and aligned with one another, becoming framing devices. This northern section is shaded by twelve willow oaks, laid out in Holt’s plan.
The southern section, absent of trees, occupies a triangular traffic island edged to the west by a sidewalk. The modest parcel includes spheres and four tall steel poles. Every year at 9:32 a.m. on the first of August, their shadows align with flat metal forms embedded in the groundplane. This astrological event commemorates the date Rosslyn was established by William Henry Ross in 1860.
