BizReport -
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Published on: 10/1/2002
Last Visited: 12/3/2002
"I'm in mourning about the whole Mario-shutting-down thing," said Christie Hart Newton, director for entrepreneur services at the venture capital firm Draper Atlantic in Reston.
Her firm is at 11600 Sunrise, the building Morino developed to be a high-tech hothouse for technologists, young chief executives and would-be millionaires.These days, Hart said, the common "chill-out room" is a big empty space -- she calls it a gulf.Few play foosball anymore, and people do not show up for free massages."The feeling used to be 'We're upbeat and young and we're going to conquer the world,' " she said.Now it is quiet."There's a sadness in the building," she said.Workers used to take their lunch outside and sit in the sun, she said.These days they eat at their desks.
One recent morning Hart saw a former local telecommunications-company chief executive walking by himself in Reston.There used to be a line of people waiting to meet him everywhere he went, she remembered.Now, no one approached him and he seemed to walk aimlessly.She said she thought about saying hello, but what was there to say after that?