Location
THATCamp will be held in the Research Hall building at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. The Center for History and New Media is located on the fourth floor of the Research Hall building. This Campus Map and the Google Map below shows you the location of Research Hall: in the southeast quadrant of campus across York River Road from the Shenandoah Parking Deck and across Patriot Circle from the Aquatic Center. Some sessions will also be held in the Nguyen Engineering building next door to Research Hall.
View THATCamp CHNM in a larger map
Hotels
We have reserved a block of hotel rooms for THATCampers at the Mason Inn at a special rate of $103 per night. The Mason Inn is located on the Fairfax campus of George Mason University, about a five-minute walk from THATCamp. Parking at the Mason Inn is free for registered guests. Book your room at the Mason Inn here by May 15 to get a reserved room at the THATCamp rate.
For other hotels, see also GMU’s Local Hotel Information. Remember that these hotels are a fair distance away from THATCamp, so you’ll also need to coordinate transportation, and if you drive, you’ll have to allow for parking costs ($14 per day in the nearby Sandy Creek deck). If you’d like to share a room, feel free to post a request for a roommate to the THATCamp blog or to Twitter with the hashtag #thatcamp.
Getting to George Mason University’s Fairfax Campus
See GMU’s page of Directions for general transportation options to the Fairfax Campus. You can fly in to Dulles (IAD), which is the closest to GMU, or to Reagan (DCA), which has a Metro stop. Another alternative is the Baltimore airport (BWI). From any airport, you can reserve space on the SuperShuttle to your hotel or to GMU campus; the cost from Dulles or National will be about $28. From National you can take the Metro to Vienna and take a free shuttle to GMU from there (see below section on public transport). You can also take an Amtrak train in to downtown Washington’s Union station and take the Metro from there to the Vienna stop; see below for directions from the Vienna metro.
Getting to the Center for History and New Media by public transportation
The closest Metro station to the Center for History and New Media is the Vienna/Fairfax-GMU station at the end of the Orange line. You can take the free Metro to Mason shuttle (which also runs Mason to Metro) or the CUE Bus (which costs $1.70 without a GMU ID) from the Vienna station to George Mason University. Note that the Metro to Mason shuttle does not run on Saturday and Sunday. On Friday, however, you can take the Metro to Mason shuttle to the Sandy Creek stop and look for the nearby Research Hall building. The CUE Bus runs on both Saturdays and Sundays, but be warned that the bus does not run early enough on Sundays to get you to GMU before 10am. Any CUE bus, Green or Gold, 1 or 2, will drop you off at the north side of the GMU campus, a fair distance from CHNM in the Research Hall building. Follow the sidewalk from the CUE bus’s GMU stop south, past the clock tower, and continue walking south until you arrive at the Research Hall building on your left.
Getting to the Center for History and New Media by car
Heavy traffic due to high school graduations
If you are driving to GMU Campus at any of the times below, it is strongly recommended that you avoid parking on the south end of campus and instead use the Rappahannock River Parking Deck or the Field House lots to avoid the majority of the graduation parking and traffic. Avoiding Braddock Road and accessing campus via University Drive or Roberts Road is also strongly encouraged.
Friday, June 15
7:30am – 9:30am
11:30am – 2:00pm
4:00pm – 6:00pm
Saturday, June 16
5:00pm – 7:00pm
9:00pm – 11:00pm
From Washington via I-66W, take exit 60 at Route 123 South, Chain Bridge Road. Follow Route 123 through the City of Fairfax, and turn left at Braddock Road. Take your first left onto Roanoke River Road. Bear right at the fork in the road onto Patriot Circle. Follow Patriot Circle around past the Aquatic Center and turn left at Sandy Creek Way into the Shenandoah Parking Deck. See the Campus Parking Map to locate the Shenandoah Parking Deck. Parking in any GMU deck costs $3 per hour or $14 per day on both weekdays and weekends. The Research Hall building is just across the drive, and the Center for History and New Media is on the fourth floor.
If you would rather take a cab, try Fairfax County Taxicab: call 703-722-0710 or reserve online; you will certainly need to call ahead for a cab. Remember, too, that you can post a request for a ride on Twitter with the hashtag #thatcamp or even on the blog.
Regarding the Metro to Mason shuttle: it leaves Vienna Metro pretty much every half hour on the mark — 9:00, 9:30, 10:00, etc.
Yep, but only on Friday. On Saturday and Sunday (see above under Getting to CHNM by Public Transport) only the CUE busses run in summer.