Around Town

A road near Penrose Park is once again a hot spot for Mexican food, with the opening of a new truck serving up gorditas.

It was during the pandemic when the corner of S. Courthouse Road and 6th Street S. became the home of La Tingera, a popular birria taco food truck that would often see long lines. Then, in late 2021, it moved to a permanent location in Falls Church and started earning regional recognition.


Sponsored

Every year, for just a few minutes, one of Arlington’s most iconic works of public art comes to life exactly as its artist intended.

On Saturday, Aug. 1, at approximately 9:32 a.m., visitors will gather in Rosslyn to witness the annual shadow alignment at Nancy Holt’s Dark Star Park (1979–84). At that precise moment, the shadows cast by the sculpture’s spheres and poles align with permanent shadow forms embedded in the ground—a phenomenon Holt designed to commemorate the anniversary of Rosslyn’s founding.

The alignment lasts only a few moments, but it has become a beloved Arlington tradition, drawing residents, visitors, artists and architecture enthusiasts alike to experience the intersection of art, astronomy, and history. If the weather cooperates, the park transforms into a striking demonstration of how light, time and place can become part of a work of art.

Created between 1979 and 1984, Dark Star Park was Arlington’s first County-commissioned public artwork and remains one of the nation’s earliest examples of integrated public art—where sculpture, landscape architecture and the surrounding environment function as a single work. Rather than placing an object within a park, Holt made the entire park the artwork, incorporating spheres, pools, steel poles, tunnels, earthworks and carefully positioned plantings into an immersive landscape.

Nancy Holt (1938–2014) was a pioneering artist whose work spanned poetry, film, photography, land art and large-scale public sculpture. Throughout her career, she explored perception, time and humanity’s relationship with the natural world. Dark Star Park remains her most significant urban installation and one of the few major works by the artist that can be experienced in an accessible city setting.

Whether you’ve attended for years or have never visited before, Dark Star Park Day offers a rare opportunity to experience a public artwork that changes with the movement of the sun—and reminds us that some of the most memorable moments in art happen not inside a museum, but out in the world around us.

Dark Star Park Day

When: Saturday, Aug. 1, beginning around 9 a.m.; shadow alignment at approximately 9:32 a.m.
Where: Dark Star Park, 1655 N. Fort Myer Drive, Rosslyn

 


Around Town

Just over a year after a car plowed into Ireland’s Four Courts, seriously injuring several people and sparking a devastating fire, the pub is set to reopen.

Four Courts is planning to reopen to the public this coming Thursday, managing partner Dave Cahill tells ARLnow. Some private reopening events are likely to take place between now and then, in part to make sure staff get up to speed.


Around Town

Cyclists will ride almost 350 miles from Kitty Hawk, North Carolina to Arlington in the second annual Memorial 2 Memorial bike ride this month.

“The purpose is to have fun, celebrate Air Force heritage, promote fitness and recruiting, and importantly, support wounded Airmen, Guardians, and their families,” Robert “Surf” Beletic, the ride’s director, told ARLnow.


Event

Join DC Road Runners and Potomac Valley Track Club for our annual Family Night at the Track and Meet of Miles. The event is open to runners of all ages and paces as well as nonmembers.

This event hosts 400 meter and 800 meter races for kids ages 1-8, as well as multiple 1-mile heats for participants of all ages. There is also a 3K race that is open to participants of all ages.


Opinion

Today marks the halfway point of a five-day September heat wave.

A high temperature of 98 is forecast today, with “feels like” temperatures reaching into the 100s. Relief is expected Friday, as high temperatures dip into the upper 80s.


News

Potomac on Drought Watch — “The Potomac River, which supplies 78 percent of the drinking water for the more than 5.1 million people who live and work in the Washington area, is running low enough that officials are watching for drought… Officials are producing reports on weather, water demand and the river’s flow twice per day — and, if needed, can release water from upstream reservoirs.” [Washington Post]

Residents Try to Stop Six-Plex — “A group of Arlington neighbors is trying to stop a local developer from building two 6-plex residential buildings in a wooded area of their Alcova Heights neighborhood. The residents contend the developer’s two expanded housing permit applications for the 6-plex buildings do not comply with the county’s minimum lot width requirements of 60 feet and are not based on current lot lines and measurements. Among the neighbors’ concerns is the significant loss of mature tree canopy.” [Patch]


News

(Updated at 10 a.m.) A person has life-threatening injuries after a long fall in the Ballston area.

The incident happened around 7 a.m. at the intersection of Fairfax Drive and N. Quincy Street. Police initially responded there for a trespasser climbing a rope at the construction site.


News

Someone fired gunshots across from the Ballston Metro station tonight (Friday).

Police were dispatched to the scene at Fairfax Drive and N. Stuart Street around 8:20 p.m. for a report of a shooting. They arrived and reportedly found shell casings on the street in front of the Subway restaurant but no one injured.