East Beach

Norfolk, Virginia

A 90-acre beachfront area was redeveloped into a mixed-use traditional neighborhood development. Developer LeylandAlliance worked with the City of Norfolk and the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority to build a 700-unit seaside neighborhood with a variety of housing types including 20 percent rental apartments and accessory dwelling units, a public beach, and a range of public spaces. 

The pre-existing housing on the site was built by the federal government in 1960 and was in bad condition by the early 1990s. The city demolished the existing housing and relocated residents (facing considerable criticism), and decided to use the expanding tax base of a redevelopment to pursue a goal of assisting low-income residents find better housing. 

DPZ CoDesign planned the new neighborhood in a 1994 public charrette. The irregular layout of the development allows for the preservation of existing trees on the site. 

Similar Projects


Hammond Downtown Master Plan

Hammond, Indiana

Based on the past sixty years, one would expect Hammond, Indiana, to continue shrinking and its downtown to stagnate indefinitely.


Martin Luther King Plaza #thisisCNU

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The Hawthorne neighborhood in Philadelphia has come back to life—catalyzed by Martin Luther King Plaza, the redevelopment of a former high-rise public housing project.


Beach Town, Las Catalinas

Las Catalinas, Costa Rica

The 21-acre Beach Town in Las Catalinas, Costa Rica, combines the intricate urbanism of a European hill town with the architecture of Latin America and the development programming and process of a US new urbanist neighborhood.