Reston is a planned community in Northern Virginia. Robert E. Simon, Jr. was the founder of Reston, and he purchased the land with the proceeds from the sale of Carnegie Hall in New York City in 1961. Construction began in 1963 with the building of Lake Anne. Simon wanted Reston to be a place where individuals could remain their entire lives, thus many different types of housing were constructed. The focus of Reston, according to Simon, was to develop a place where people could live and work. Essentially he wanted Reston to be a way to live. A priority of this way of life was leisure time, so a wide variety of recreational choices were made available. In 1989 the Ernst and Young Visual Services Group Studio recorded interviews with the Reston Founders.
From the guide to the Reston founders video history collection, 1989-1990, (George Mason University. Special Collections and Archives.)