Robert E. Simon Jr., a New York real estate developer who founded Reston, Va., in the early 1960s as America’s first planned alternative to the postwar suburban sprawl of commuter towns with cookie-cutter houses on look-alike streets, died on Monday at his home in Reston. He was 101.

His death was confirmed by his stepdaughter Lynn Lilienthal.

At a time when millions were fleeing crowded cities for what some sociologists called a colorless life in suburbia, Mr. Simon envisioned a Northern Virginia community that blended the serenity of an Italian hill town, the urban attractions of San Francisco’s Embarcadero and the social equality of a utopia in Finland.

Heir to a fortune, he sold his interest in Carnegie Hall, and in 1961, assembled financing and bought some 7,000 acres of woods and fields in Fairfax County, 20 miles west of Washington. He laid out a town of open spaces, homes and apartments that would be affordable to almost anyone, racially integrated, economically self-sustaining, pollution-free and rich in cultural and educational opportunities.

He planned seven shopping plazas, each serving a “village” of 10,000 to 12,000 residents; 35 houses of worship; 21 schools; an industrial park to employ half of Reston’s work force; and a downtown area with transportation, medical, hotel and entertainment facilities. Reston — its name incorporated its founder’s initials — would also have a 35-acre artificial lake surrounded by town houses, shops and recreational green spaces.