If you drove down Blenheim Boulevard this month and saw excavators tearing into the old Joseph Willard Health Center, did you think the change was just starting? The ceremony on Wednesday, Sept. 30, looked like a beginning. City and county officials lined up at the podium, and Fairfax City Mayor Catherine Read called it "such a momentous day," FFXnow reported.
Measured by what residents actually use, though, the groundbreaking fell in the middle. The health services in that building left about a year ago. The senior center and recreation programs it is meant to hold won't arrive until fall 2029. For the three years in between, the most direct change for most people in the city is a closed walking path and a closed stretch of sidewalk.
The building came down after its services had already moved
Fairfax County announced in March 2025 that the Willard Health Center at 3750 Blenheim Blvd would temporarily close on Oct. 1, 2025. Its services didn't move to a single replacement clinic. They were spread across the county's existing network.
- Clinical services such as immunizations, maternity care, pregnancy services, TB/STI/HIV testing and newcomer screenings moved to appointments at county health clinics. That network included the Franconia-Springfield location, which opened in October 2025.
- Speech and hearing services at Willard temporarily ended in October 2025, and clients were directed to the Mount Vernon and Herndon-Reston Speech & Hearing clinics.
- Vital records moved to the Annandale, Herndon-Reston and Mount Vernon district offices, and Franconia-Springfield was added once it opened.
- WIC left even earlier. It moved to other county WIC locations in December 2024.
The county's clinic directory now lists four public health centers, in Annandale, Herndon-Reston, Mount Vernon and Franconia-Springfield. None of them is inside city limits. The county address on Main Street at 10777 is an administrative office, not a clinic. The project presentation shown to residents on Sept. 3, 2026, lists the same four sites and names no temporary clinic at the construction site.
That building had a long history before the excavators arrived. The city's project page says it was built in 1954 as an elementary school and converted to a health center in the 1970s. A 2017–2018 feasibility study found its layout and building systems had reached the end of their useful life. The health center stopped seeing patients last October. The demolition this fall is the last step of that move.
Green Acres stays the center of city recreation until 2029
Fairfax City's recreation programs have not moved yet.
Green Acres Center at 4401 Sideburn Road is still listed as the home of the Young at Heart Senior Center, Parks and Recreation registration and reservations, and recreation classes. Patch reported on Sept. 30 that Young at Heart will move into the new building when it opens, not before.
Green Acres has carried the city's recreation load for a long time. The project page describes it as a former school, built in 1961 and used as a community center since 2002. It is a 40,000-square-foot building on a 10-acre city-owned site, with the senior center, an exercise facility, a small gym, multipurpose rooms, athletic fields, a playground, courts and a bocce court. Part of the building is leased to a child care provider. A 2015–16 feasibility study recommended building a new community center somewhere else. That recommendation finally broke ground this fall, roughly a decade later.
The Stacy C. Sherwood Center next door at 3740 Blenheim Blvd is the steady piece. FFXnow reported that its operations are not affected by the construction. The city's project page has also identified Sherwood as the destination for some Green Acres programs. No public source yet gives a course-by-course map of which classes move or when. Until the city publishes one, Green Acres and Sherwood remain the two places city recreation happens.
What happens to Green Acres after 2029 is also undecided. The city's Green Acres Feasibility Study page lists the options that were considered. They include continued community-center use, renovation, moving uses elsewhere, or a different use entirely. City schools held an option to use the site for a future school if needed. No reuse has been chosen.
The phases, and what each one means at street level
The construction schedule shown in September runs in stages. Most of them happen behind the fence.
| Phase | Window | What changes for nearby residents |
|---|---|---|
| Utility relocation | September to December 2026 | Underway now |
| Demolition of existing buildings | October to November 2026 | The 1950s Willard building comes down this fall |
| Mass excavation | Winter 2026 to spring 2027 | Digging for the two-level underground garage |
| Structure goes up | Summer 2027 to spring 2028 | The new building rises next to Sherwood |
| Façade, roofing, interiors | Winter 2028 to summer 2029 | Most of the work moves indoors |
| Completion and move-in | Fall 2029 | Young at Heart and city recreation move in |
Some older documents still show earlier dates. The city's project page lists construction starting in August 2026 and finishing in summer 2029. The county's March 2025 closure notice predates the current schedule. The fall 2029 move-in comes from the September presentation and the October reporting, and it is the newest timeline available.
The September presentation lists the impacts the team plans to manage. They include traffic, pedestrian and bicycle safety, coordination with the Blenheim transportation project, dust and runoff, parking, noise and site safety. No published source spells out lane closures on Blenheim Boulevard or which parking spaces near Sherwood will be affected.
The walking closures are the change people will feel most
Except for people who used Willard's clinics, the clearest daily change is on foot. The city says the walking path between the Sherwood Center and the police station, which connects to the Layton Hall Apartments, is closed. So is the sidewalk next to the former Willard building along Layton Hall Drive. The city expects the construction zone to stay in place for about three years, through fall 2029.
The city labels this section of its page as walking routes from Layton Hall to schools. It posts a detour map and encourages families who normally use the paths to plan a little extra travel time. That detour will be part of the school-day walk for roughly three school years.
What arrives at the end
When the fence comes down, the new building will be about three times the size of the 30,000-square-foot Willard building it replaces. It will total 100,000 square feet and hold both county health offices and a permanent home for city recreation. FFXnow listed these features:
- A fitness center, a full-size gym and a track
- Classrooms, common areas and a dedicated youth area
- A rooftop plaza
- The Young at Heart Senior Center, moving from Green Acres
- A two-level underground garage, which officials said would meet parking needs
The new building will connect to the Sherwood Center. Grimm + Parker is the architect and The Christman Company is the general contractor. The project costs $127 million. Under this year's agreements, the county pays $73.4 million of the construction cost, the city covers the rest, and the two split operating costs once the building opens.
The full-size gym is a meaningful upgrade over the small gym at Green Acres. City parks director Stacey Sommerfield summed up the goal at the ceremony, telling FFXnow, "We are so excited to bring all our services under one roof." Until fall 2029, those services stay where they are now, at Green Acres on Sideburn Road and at Sherwood on Blenheim Boulevard.
If you own a home near Blenheim Boulevard or Sideburn Road and want to talk about how a construction project running through 2029 fits into the timing of a sale, the Matt Elliott team can walk you through it. Request a Free Seller Consultation.
