VIKA's Landscape Architecture Group is Enhancing and Preserving Northern Virginia Green Space
Signature Park at The Mile, five acres of new public space in Fairfax County, VA
Current work at Signature Park, Barcroft Apartments, and Indigo at McLean Station is reshaping and restoring prominent community sites
Access to open spaces and trail networks is important to all communities.”
TYSONS, VA, UNITED STATES, August 20, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- VIKA Virginia, a site planning and civil engineering firm with a distinguished landscape architecture division, is designing and expanding open spaces, streetscapes and neighborhoods that inspire community use and connection across Fairfax and Arlington Counties. — Jeff Kreps, PLA, Landscape Architecture and Planning Division Manager
Signature Park at The Mile is proposed as the first public-private partnership park in Fairfax County, enabling the transformation of five acres into new public space. VIKA’s landscape architecture design creates a highly programmed, inclusive, and community-oriented park. At its heart, a central green will accommodate youth soccer, community gatherings, and audience space for the adjacent stage. A large destination playground welcomes children of all ages and abilities, the athletics terrace focuses on sports, and a picnic pavilion and food truck lane support casual dining. Signature Park is part of The Mile, a mixed-use development in Tysons, VA, and VIKA is providing landscape architecture, civil engineering, planning, traffic engineering and surveying services.
Barcroft Apartments, originally built in 1939, is one of Arlington County’s most significant affordable housing communities. VIKA’s landscape architecture design focuses on restoring and transforming the natural environment across the 62-acre site. The design preserves much of the historic tree canopy, introduces new pedestrian-scale understory trees, shrubs and perennials, restores turf grasses in open spaces, and knits the many site parcels into a cohesive neighborhood with new biophilic walkways, lighting, and seating. VIKA is providing landscape architecture, arborist services, civil engineering, traffic engineering, surveying, and subsurface utility engineering for the entire 62-acre site.
Indigo at McLean Station is a new transit-oriented affordable housing development, replacing a vacant office building with multi-family units to transform a central urban area of Tysons, Virginia into vibrant community space. The landscape architecture design creates a series of gardens for public use amongst a context of meadows and woods, providing both sun and shade opportunities with year-round color. A trail along the spine provides the initial segment of a planned connector trail. A play area, exercise station, and relaxing hammocks all create distinct destinations within the four-acre site. VIKA is providing landscape architecture, arborist, civil engineering, surveying, and subsurface utility engineering services.
“Access to open spaces and trail networks is important to all communities, both new and existing,” says Jeff Kreps, PLA, Landscape Architecture and Planning Division Manager at VIKA. “Thoughtful landscape design can create destination spaces that complement existing open space and foster a sense of belonging. These spaces can accommodate many needs, from active play and recreation to quieter spots for relaxation and reflection to central neighborhood gathering spots to the simple functional connection of one place to another. The impact of these open space types and the personal interactions within extends well beyond their physical footprints; their existence is at the core of the idea of community.”
VIKA is also involved in other notable projects transforming Northern Virginia, including Potomac Overlook at the former Key Bridge Marriott site and the adjacent Gateway Park; redevelopment of the Goodwill of Greater Washington site on Arlington Boulevard into the first co-located affordable housing, childcare, and retail location; and revitalization of Manassas Mall into a vibrant community space with residential, retail and entertainment options.
VIKA Virginia’s landscape architecture group continues to grow with Loren Helgason, Director of Landscape Architecture, and Ling Chen, Senior Landscape Architect, recently joining the firm, Jeff Kreps advancing to a new role of Landscape Architecture and Planning Division Manager, and ISA Certified Arborist Alex Adams joining the arborist team.
About VIKA
VIKA is a multidisciplinary consulting firm providing integrated site planning and civil engineering services to public and private sector clients. Founded in 1985, VIKA brings deep technical expertise and regional knowledge to projects served by its Virginia, Maryland, Washington, DC, and Florida offices. With full services including civil engineering and site design, landscape architecture and arboriculture, planning and entitlement, surveying and geomatics, transportation engineering, subsurface utility engineering, and dry utility engineering, the firm provides integration across disciplines and delivers projects that support sustainable growth and thoughtful transformation of our local communities.
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Katherine Ollinger
VIKA
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