Tysons, also known as Tysons Corner, is a census-designated place (CDP) in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States, spanning from the corner of SR 123 (Chain Bridge Road) and SR 7 (Leesburg Pike). It is part of the Washington metropolitan area and located in Northern Virginia between McLean and Vienna along I-495.

Tysons is home to two super-regional shopping malls, Tysons Corner Center and Tysons Galleria, and the corporate and administrative headquarters of Alarm.com, Appian, Booz Allen Hamilton, Capital One, Freddie Mac, Hilton Worldwide, ID.me, Intelsat, M.C. Dean, Inc., MicroStrategy, and Tegna Inc.

As an unincorporated community, Tysons is Fairfax County's central business district and a regional commercial center. It has been called a quintessential example of an edge city. The population was 26,374 as of the 2020 census.

History 19th century Known originally as Peach Grove, the area received the designation "Tysons Crossroads" after the Civil War. William Tyson, a Maryland native from Cecil County, purchased a tract of land from A. Lawrence Foster. Tyson served as postmaster of the now discontinued Peach Grove Post Office from 1854 to 1866.

20th century As recently as the 1950s, Tysons was a quiet rural intersection flanked by a few small stores and a fruit stand operated by the Tyson descendants, who sold apples and apple cider from the corner of their property. In 1963, the Tysons area moved from a country crossroads to a giant commercial urban area with the awarding of contracts at the interchange of VA Route 7 and VA Route 123.

In 1962, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved the Tysons Corner Shopping Center, now Tysons Corner Center, which was planned to be within a triangle bordered by Chain Bridge Road, Leesburg Pike, and the Capital Beltway. Developers proclaimed it the largest enclosed mall in the world when it opened on July 25, 1968.

21st century

In the early 21st century, an influx of technology companies into Northern Virginia led to new office buildings and hotels to the landscape. The rapid growth of Tysons in comparison to other locations near the Capital Beltway has been the topic of numerous studies. One factor was the aggressive promotion of Tysons by Earle Williams, for many years the CEO of the defense contracting firm Braddock Dunn & McDonald. Tysons serves as a downtown of Fairfax County, with one quarter of all office space and one eighth of all retail in the county, despite occupying just 1% of the county. It is an auto-oriented edge city with severe traffic congestion, and faces competition from the urban areas of Arlington and newer suburban edge cities such as Dulles.

In 2008, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to begin a 40-year plan to urbanize Tysons around the coming four stops of Washington Metro's Silver Line in the vein of neighboring Arlington County's Rosslyn-Ballston corridor. A preliminary estimate from the Fairfax County Department of Transportation suggested that $7.83 billion in transportation infrastructure projects would be necessary to transform Tysons Corner into a high-density urban center from 2010 to 2050, most of which would be allocated to both construction phases of the Silver Line. Existing plans call for construction of a grid layout for streets around the rail stations, projected to cost $742 million. An additional $1 billion will be spent on further transit and street grid projects from 2030 to 2050.Tysons will need $15 billion – 'with a B' The Washington Post

In November 2012, the county approved Arbor Row, a mixed-used development of office and residential high-rises, ground-floor retail, and underground parking near the Tysons Corner (now ) station. In April 2013, the county approved Scotts Run Station South, a development containing 17 buildings, including six office and residential buildings, one hotel, and ground-floor retail near the McLean Station. This development alone will be larger than Reston Town Center.

Ahead of the Washington Metro Silver Line opening in mid-2014, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and the Tysons Partnership, a nonprofit association that represents the area's stakeholders, began rebranding the area as simply "Tysons", dropping "Corner" from the name. The change started as a matter of convenience, but later took hold to market the change in the area's character, according to members of the board. The change was unofficial at the time, and either "Tysons" or "Tysons Corner" could be used in addresses. But in November 2015, the U.S. Census Bureau announced the CDP's name would officially be changed to Tysons as of the next summer.

Tysons is seen as a modern prototype of an edge city. In its 40-year history, it has been given substantial redevelopment offers for the next 20 to 30 years. The area has seen growing interest as plans to make it an urban center were begun in 2010. Private-sector development in the United States in combination with political groups have begun the planning process behind the redevelopment of Tysons. Two forces are at work in the creation of an edge city, as it can be beneficial to both parties. With the redevelopment process taking place there has been an aggressive push to bring in businesses to Tysons. Edge cities such as Tysons have specific regional accessibility that has been enhanced by major projects funded by federal and state governments. One of the bigger enhancements to transportation specifically to Tysons was the construction "of the Washington Dulles International Airport and an associated access road and the Capital Beltway but also expansions to state roads".

The plan remains to see Tysons become Fairfax County's downtown core. So far, "eight districts have been delimited, with four centered on new metro stations being transit-oriented development districts". Future plans for transportation around the area continue to be made. "The aims of the plan are for 75% of development to be within half a mile of metro stations, an urban center of 200,000 jobs and 100,000 residents, a jobs balance of 4.0 per household".

Tysons was one of the inspirations for, and figures prominently in, Joel Garreau's pioneering study of the edge city phenomenon.Joel Garreau, Edge City: Life on the New Frontier, (New York: Random House 1992) Among the reasons for calling Tysons an edge city is that, in contrast to typical "bedroom" suburbs, people commute into it in the morning and away from it at night, with a daytime population greater than 100,000 and a nighttime population of fewer than 20,000. Planners envision up to 200,000 jobs and 100,000 residents in coming decades.

Geography Tysons is located at (38.918485, −77.229833) at an elevation of 486 feet (148 m). Located in Northern Virginia at the intersection of Virginia State Route 123 and State Route 7, Tysons is west of downtown Washington, D.C., and northeast of Fairfax, the county seat.

The community lies in the Piedmont upland, about south-southwest of the Potomac River. The highest natural point in Fairfax County, at above sea level, is in Tysons. Wolftrap Creek, a tributary of nearby Difficult Run, forms the community's northwestern border. Two of the creek's tributaries, Moomac Creek and the Old Courthouse Spring Branch, flow north through northwest Tysons. Scott Run, a tributary of the Potomac, flows north through eastern Tysons.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the community has an area of , of which is land and is water.

As a suburb of Washington, D.C., Tysons is a part of both the Washington metropolitan area and the larger Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area. It is bordered on all sides by other Washington suburbs, including McLean to the north, Pimmit Hills to the east, Idylwood to the southeast, Dunn Loring to the south, Vienna to the southwest, and Wolf Trap to the west.

Climate Tysons' climate is characterized by hot, humid summers and generally mild to cool winters. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Tysons has a humid subtropical climate, abbreviated "Cfa" on climate maps.

Demographics

The community was first listed as an unincorprated community under the name Tysons Corner in the 1950 U.S. census. It was not listed in the 1960 U.S. census or the 1970 U.S. census before reappearing as a census designated place in the 1980 U.S. census. The name was changed to Tysons for the 2020 U.S. census.

Racial and ethnic composition +Tysons CDP, Virginia – Racial and ethnic compositionRace / Ethnicity (NH = Non-Hispanic)Pop 2000Pop 2010Pop 2020% 2000% 2010% 2020White alone (NH)12,36810,81612,45566.71%55.11%47.22%Black or African American alone (NH)7039231,6333.79%4.70%6.19%Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH)2326100.12%0.13%0.04%Asian alone (NH)3,2835,3828,52817.71%27.42%32.33%Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander alone (NH)132070.07%0.10%0.03%Other race alone (NH)37751780.20%0.38%0.67%Mixed race or Multiracial (NH)9737961,2885.25%4.06%4.88%Hispanic or Latino (any race)1,1401,5892,2756.15%8.10%8.63%Total18,54019,62726,374 100.00%100.00%100.00%

2020 census As of the 2020 census, Tysons had a population of 26,374. The median age was 35.4 years. 16.4% of residents were under the age of 18 and 12.2% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 98.3 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 96.5 males age 18 and over.

100.0% of residents lived in urban areas, while 0.0% lived in rural areas.

There were 13,030 households in Tysons, of which 22.3% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 36.6% were married-couple households, 26.5% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 30.5% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 40.8% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.

There were 14,222 housing units, of which 8.4% were vacant. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.0% and the rental vacancy rate was 7.7%.

+ Racial composition as of the 2020 census Race Number Percent White 12,886 48.9% Black or African American 1,684 6.4% American Indian and Alaska Native 44 0.2% Asian 8,545 32.4% Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander 8 0.0% Some other race 826 3.1% Two or more races 2,381 9.0%

2010 census As of the 2010 census, there were 19,627 people, 9,481 households, and 4,754 families residing in the community. The population density was . There were 10,637 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the community was 60.9% White, 27.5% Asian, 4.9% African American, 0.2% American Indian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 1.9% from other races, and 4.5% from two or more races. Hispanics and Latinos of any race were 8.1% of the population.

There were 9,481 households, out of which 23.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 39.8% were married couples living together, 2.9% had a male householder with no wife present, 7.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 49.9% were non-families. 40.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 18.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.07, and the average family size was 2.87.

The age distribution of the community was 18.4% under the age of 18, 6.6% from 18 to 24, 40.4% from 25 to 44, 23.5% from 45 to 64, and 11.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35.8 years. The gender makeup of the community was 47.7% male and 52.3% female.

The median income for a household in the community was $94,083, and the median income for a family was $131,717. Males had a median income of $85,645 versus $66,019 for females. The community's per capita income was $64,294. About 2.8% of families and 4.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 1.3% of those under age 18 and 14.3% of those age 65 or over.

Economy