VIKA expands Northern Virginia green spaces with major landscape projects

VIKA Virginia is reshaping several high-profile sites in Fairfax and Arlington counties with landscape architecture work at Signature Park, Barcroft Apartments and Indigo at McLean Station. The projects add parks, trails, housing-linked open space and restored natural features across some of Northern Virginia’s most visible community sites.

Why it matters: - VIKA’s work is influencing how Northern Virginia adds open space, connects neighborhoods and supports public use in dense, fast-changing areas. - The projects pair landscape design with housing, transit and redevelopment, which can shape how residents move, gather and use shared space. - The work spans public-private park space, affordable housing communities and transit-oriented development across Fairfax and Arlington counties.

What happened: - VIKA Virginia is designing and expanding open spaces, streetscapes and neighborhoods across Fairfax and Arlington counties. - Signature Park at The Mile is proposed as Fairfax County’s first public-private partnership park. - The park would transform five acres in Tysons into public space. - Barcroft Apartments in Arlington County is getting landscape architecture work across its 62-acre site. - Indigo at McLean Station is adding new landscape design to a four-acre transit-oriented affordable housing development in Tysons. - VIKA also listed other projects in Northern Virginia, including Potomac Overlook, Gateway Park, the Goodwill of Greater Washington site on Arlington Boulevard and Manassas Mall.

The details: - Signature Park’s design centers on a large green that can host youth soccer, community gatherings and audience space for an adjacent stage. - The park plan also includes a destination playground, an athletics terrace, a picnic pavilion and a food truck lane. - Signature Park is part of The Mile, a mixed-use development in Tysons. - VIKA is providing landscape architecture, civil engineering, planning, traffic engineering and surveying for Signature Park. - Barcroft Apartments was originally built in 1939 and is one of Arlington County’s most significant affordable housing communities. - The Barcroft design preserves much of the historic tree canopy. - The plan adds pedestrian-scale understory trees, shrubs and perennials, restores turf grasses and links site parcels with biophilic walkways, lighting and seating. - VIKA is providing landscape architecture, arborist services, civil engineering, traffic engineering, surveying and subsurface utility engineering for Barcroft Apartments. - Indigo at McLean Station is replacing a vacant office building with multifamily housing. - The Indigo design includes gardens for public use, meadows and woods, and year-round color with sun and shade options. - A trail along the spine creates the first segment of a planned connector trail. - The Indigo site also includes a play area, exercise station and hammocks. - VIKA is providing landscape architecture, arborist, civil engineering, surveying and subsurface utility engineering services for Indigo at McLean Station.

Between the lines: - The projects show a broader shift toward using landscape architecture as part of housing and redevelopment, not just as an afterthought. - VIKA is emphasizing spaces that support both programmed activity and quieter community use, which can broaden who feels welcome in a development. - The firm is also positioning ecological restoration, tree preservation and trail connections as core design features. - Jeff Kreps, PLA, Landscape Architecture and Planning Division Manager at VIKA, said access to open spaces and trail networks matters for both new and existing communities and that thoughtful design can build belonging.

What's next: - Signature Park, Barcroft Apartments and Indigo at McLean Station remain current work for VIKA’s landscape architecture group. - The Mile, Barcroft and Indigo projects are expected to continue moving through design and development stages tied to their broader redevelopment plans. - VIKA’s landscape architecture team is also growing with new hires and role changes, including Loren Helgason, Ling Chen, Jeff Kreps and Alex Adams.

The bottom line: - VIKA is using landscape architecture to turn major Northern Virginia redevelopment sites into more connected, usable and community-focused places.