The William Nicoson papers contain material on Reston redevelopment, mostly promotional. The collection includes maps, charts, publications, slides, and newsclippings. The collection also includes information on federal housing agencies and documentation on new towns in the United States, France, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

Series one is titled Correspondence. The series contains different correspondence to and from William Nicoson. The correspondence covers a variety of topics such as the Interstate Land Development Company, Low-Income Households in New Towns, Chapel Hill Study and William Nicoson's personal correspondence. The series is dated from 1965 to 1980 and is contained in boxes 1 through 3.

Series two is titled Reston. The series includes information about the development on Reston, including the Reston Town Center, Lake Anne Elementary School and newsclippings from newspaper in Reston and outside of the area. The series is dated from 1960 to 1985 and is contained in boxes 3 through 5.

Series three is titled Federal. The information in this series is from federal programs and agencies including Congress about the development of new towns. The material covers a variety of topics such as U.S. Government Memorandum on Tax Reform Act from 1969, U.S. Senate Report on New Towns and Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The series is dated from 1960 to 1980 and is contained in boxes 5 through 8.

Series four is titled International. The series covers a variety of international new towns from France, Sweden, the United Kingdom and others, mostly European nations. Most of the information is brochures, maps and statistics from the international new towns. The series is dated from 1957 to 1979 and is contained in boxes 8 through 12.

Series five is titled Newsclippings. The articles in this collection are mostly from newspapers about different new towns both nationally and internationally. Also in the series are articles written by different people involved in new town development. The series is dated from 1960 to 1985 and is contained in boxes 12 through 14.

Series six is titled General Information. The information in this series covers a variety of topics such as Richmond Metropolitan Authority, Town and Country Planning Association and New Communities Development Handbook. Also included are booklets, advertisements, slides and maps. The series is dated from 1954 to 1999 and is contained in boxes 14 through 20.

Series seven is titled Newspaper Columns. This series consists of paper and digital files containing original drafts and research materials for newspaper columns written by William Nicoson that were originally published in the Reston Connection during the late 1990s and early 2000s. The series contains materials dating from 1982 to 2007 and comprises box 21 through 25.