A U.S. State Department building in Rosslyn might be going up for sale amid ongoing federal spending cuts.
The office building at 1801 N. Lynn Street, home to the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, was among 443 federal properties identified as “not core to government operations” in a federal list posted yesterday.
Irish pubs throughout Arlington and Falls Church are gearing up for St. Patrick’s Day festivities — some with week-long celebrations in store.
From parties with live Irish dancing and specials on Jameson to a Clarendon bar crawl, here are some nearby destinations where you can toast “sláinte” next week, leading up to Monday, March 17.
When Eddie Kaufholz and his family moved to Arlington nearly five years ago, they were not thinking about starting a business. They wanted to live in a place that was diverse, interesting and full of opportunity, with a school system they could rely on. Arlington fit.
In the years that followed, working out of a home office off Columbia Pike, he consulted with organizations across Northern Virginia and around the country: nonprofits, advocacy groups, mid-sized companies, agencies of various sizes. The work itself was good. But somewhere across all those projects, he started to notice a pattern.
”The agency model has gotten really bloated,” Kaufholz says. ”Layers, handoffs, middle management. The senior people who pitch the work often disappear once it starts. The idea with PILLAR was to strip all of that down; keep senior people on the work, approach each client with humility and care, do world-class strategy and execution, and pass the efficiency back to the client instead of absorbing it as agency margin.”
That thinking, slowly, became PILLAR, the Arlington-headquartered creative, communications and marketing agency Kaufholz founded.
PILLAR, he says, is built on an old idea. ”An idea that has always been possible but rarely practiced: that an agency should be structured to serve the work itself.” The team that delivers the work is assembled around the specific needs of each client and only stays as long as the work calls for them.
”The senior strategist on your kick-off call is the senior strategist writing your messaging,” Kaufholz says. ”Every person on a project is there because the work specifically calls for them.”
PILLAR’s recent work has spanned human rights, executive leadership, higher education, advocacy and direct-to-consumer ecommerce. The roster has included national nonprofits, a national multimillion-dollar direct-to-consumer brand and a number of institutions navigating significant moments of strategic change. The model is built to scale up to be the agency of record for a national brand, or to scale down to design a logo for a neighborhood nonprofit. PILLAR takes equal pride and care in both.
What Kaufholz did not understand when he started, he said, was how much the County itself would matter in making any of it possible. (more…)
Two alleged thrill-seekers are facing charges after reportedly sneaking onto the roof of a Ballston apartment building and parachuting off of it earlier this year.
Around 10 p.m. on Jan. 2, a 30-year-old and a 26-year-old are alleged to have jumped from the roof of the Meridian at Ballston Commons apartments, descending more than 200 feet before landing on N. Stuart Street.
A new Thai restaurant hopes fill the shoes of a longtime Chinese eatery that closed on Langston Blvd in November.
Thai O-Cha Express signed a lease at 4775 Langston Blvd in January and hopes to open there by early April, owner Chugiat Udommana told ARLnow. The space was previously home to Hunan Village for nearly 40 years.
Join Jadin O’Brien, Olympic athlete, 3x NCAA pentathlon champion and 10x All-American (heptathlon) winner for this in-person and virtual 5K. This event is sponsored by The Alex Manfull Fund to raise awareness and advance research on debilitating infection-associated neuroimmune disorders (including PANS and PANDAS) that affect young people. The 5K is part of the organization’s 36 Hours for PANS and PANDAS Advocacy in Motion event. Runners will receive a Finisher’s Medal, Technical (Drifit) Event Shirt and A Chip Timed Event. The event commemorates the life of Alex Manfull, who died at age 26 due to PANDAS. Susan and William Manfull established the Fund in their daughter’s name with the vision that no life ever again be cut short—or interrupted—by these illnesses. Learn more at TheAlexManfullFund.org.
Members of the Arlington government’s Tenant-Landlord Commission are aiming to forge deeper bonds with both its constituencies.
At the advisory panel’s Feb. 12 meeting, commission chair David Timm said the body was seeking to “cultivate some relationships” among tenant groups at some of Arlington’s larger apartment complexes.
A recent spike upward in the number of price cuts in the Arlington housing market could be connected to local and regional economic anxiety.
A key expert in the field tells ARLnow the data will be worth watching, but it is still too early to tell whether it is a one-time blip or the start of a more significant trend.
Arlington Public Schools’ recent decision to stop posting on the social-media platform X is getting some scrutiny from a School Board member.
Miranda Turner at the Feb. 27 Board meeting sought clarification of the reasons behind leaving the platform — formerly Twitter — and the 21,000 people who followed APS’s main X account (among smaller school-level accounts).
VDOT Warns of Text Scam — “Locals around the region may have received texts recently for ‘unpaid toll bills’ — be aware that this is part of a ‘smishing’ scam making the rounds nationwide. Smishing is a type of data phishing scam that uses text messages to lure people into giving personal information. The text going around gives a URL and tells the receiver to put the address into their Safari browser and open it.” [ALXnow, VDOT/X]
Resolution for Crash Victims — “Congressman Don Beyer… delivered floor remarks during debate on House Resolution 153, ‘Expressing condolences to the families, friends, and loved ones of the victims of the crash of American Eagle Flight 5342 and PAT 25, and for other purposes.’ The legislation passed without objection on a voice vote.” [Press Release]
DCA Aircraft Incidents — “The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating why multiple commercial flights about to land at Ronald Reagan National Airport, near Washington DC, repeatedly received midair collision alerts over the weekend when there were no other aircraft nearby.” [CNN]
F.C. Considers Tax Rate Cut — “Mayor Hardi said at Monday’s Falls Church City Council meeting that it was important to emphasize how the recent years’ strong commercial development gains in the City will make matters relatively smooth for the City taxpayers, with prospects for 5.9 percent growth in both the City and school budgets to go along with the 2.5 cent rate decrease. Sixty-five percent of the budget growth is coming from real estate, and half of that is from new construction, she noted.” [FCNP]
Garvey Calls for More Cooperation — “Looking at the current destruction of the federal government [former Arlington County Board member] Garvey sees cooperation among local governments as critical. She said, ‘local government is the only functioning government we are going to have,’ so it will be essential for local jurisdictions to work together.” [About Alexandria]
Beyer Skips Trump Address — “Congressman Don Beyer is skipping President Donald Trump’s address to Congress tonight (Tuesday, March 4)… Instead of attending the speech, Beyer said he plans to spend the week supporting federal workers and holding events for his constituents.” [ALXnow, Rep. Don Beyer/X]
Loudoun Data Center Revenue Boom — “Loudoun’s fiscal 2026 proposed budget includes nearly $795 million derived just from personal property taxes on data centers’ internal computer equipment. That single stream represents about a quarter of the county’s entire general fund revenue budget, and more than the county’s entire general fund personnel budget.” [WBJ]
It’s Wednesday — Expect showers and potential thunderstorms this afternoon, with a high near 64 and breezy south winds at 15-21 mph, gusting up to 37 mph. Precipitation chance is 100%, with rainfall amounts between half to three-quarters of an inch. Wednesday night, showers are likely with a possible thunderstorm, a low around 43, and south winds at 9-15 mph shifting west after midnight, gusting up to 22 mph. The nighttime precipitation chance is at 70%. [NWS]
Good Tuesday evening, Arlington. Let’s take a look back at today’s stories and a look forward to tomorrow’s event calendar.
The following articles were published earlier today — Mar 4, 2025.
Here is what’s going on Wednesday in Arlington, from our event calendar.
Expect showers and potential thunderstorms after 4pm, with a high near 64 and breezy south winds at 15-21 mph, gusting up to 37 mph. Precipitation chance is 100%, with rainfall amounts between half to three-quarters of an inch. Wednesday night, showers are likely with a possible thunderstorm, a low around 43, and south winds at 9-15 mph shifting west after midnight, gusting up to 22 mph. Precipitation chance is at 70%, with amounts between a tenth and a quarter of an inch, though higher amounts are possible in thunderstorms. See more from Weather.gov.
“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.”
– Milton Berle
The MonumentCam screenshot above is used with permission of the Trust for the National Mall and courtesy of EarthCam.
Thanks for reading! Feel free to discuss the day’s happenings in the comments.
