Transforming a Historic Prison through Public/Private Partnership

When it opened more than 100 years ago, Lorton Reformatory in northern Virginia was anything but an ordinary prison.

President Theodore Roosevelt, who commissioned the novel correctional facility in response to the deplorable conditions found in the Washington, D.C., penitentiary system, envisioned a place that featured a light-filled, open-air, minimally secure design where inmates could be rehabilitated through work.

Built in the 1920s by bricks formed by the hands of prisoners at the nearby Workhouse kiln, the reformatory, with its colonial revival architecture, contained gabled dormitories instead of cellblocks that faced a grassy central courtyard, making it look more like a university campus than a bastion of punishment. It served as a model for the Progressive Era’s take on corrections.

ULI Washington: Case Study: Liberty in Lorton on October 14

So, it was only fitting that when it came time to adapt and reuse the historic property after the prison closed, it also required creativity and an outside-the-box approach to its construction techniques.

Now, the repurposed reformatory site is blossoming into a vibrant urban community that when completed will feature 165 apartments, 157 townhouses, 24 single-family homes, and up to 100,000 square feet (9,300 sq m) of office and retail space—a $190 million development known as Liberty.

Much has changed since the prison’s inception. As the Progressive movement’s philosophies faded away, the reformatory increasingly took on more serious offenders, leading to the addition of higher-security facilities. Ironically, some of the same concerns that led to Roosevelt’s commissioning of the prison in 1908, such as overcrowding and violence, led to Lorton’s closure in 2001, according to congressional testimony. Fairfax County purchased the 2,300 acres (931 ha), renamed Laurel Hill after the home of Revolutionary War soldier Major William Lindsay located there, from the D.C. Department of Corrections for $4.2 million in 2002. It included not only the reformatory but also the Workhouse and agricultural land. In the years since, the majority of the site has been redeveloped into a master-planned community that includes housing, recreation, a landfill, a golf course, schools and the Workhouse Arts Center.

learn more at Urban Land

Chris Alexakisart, park, housing