Seaside at twenty

The town remains a remarkable and influential achievement two decades after its founding. In many ways Seaside, Florida, is antithetical to what many would consider to be the ideal new urbanist icon. It is a “greenfield” project, far from any metropolitan area or urban growth boundary, with no connection to transit, its landowners consist almost entirely of the well-to-do, and it is a resort with only a tiny year-round population. Moreover, its architecture has been attacked by the architectural media as nostalgic and/or retrograde. So why is Seaside, in our opinion, the most influential development in recent decades? Located on only 80 acres of a fairly isolated part of the Florida panhandle, Seaside bears witness to the power of a vision. The vision sprang from developer Robert Davis and architects Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, surely one of the most fortunate collaborations in modern planning. It is easy to forget how radical Seaside was in its design. At the time, virtually nobody was creating real vernacular architecture, let alone attempting anything at the scale of an entire town based on traditional urban forms. Seaside also articulated the ideas of urban and architectural codes that have become so important to many practitioners of the New Urbanism. Although not located in an urban area, Seaside is urban by virtue of its pedestrian scale, mix of uses, and most importantly, the way it shapes the public realm. As such, the town helped to redefine the meaning of urbanism. Whatever one thinks of Seaside’s architecture, it is one of the most delightful urban places to be built from scratch in many decades. Its financial and marketing success proved to many developers and planners that building a town based on traditional urban forms is possible. This lesson was not confined to builders of new towns. Many a champion of cities looked at the success of Seaside and realized that the same principles could be applied to urban revitalization. The Prince of Wales was inspired by Seaside. So was Joe Riley of Charleston, one of the great mayors of our times. Seaside’s genesis goes back to the late 1970s, when the developer and architects researched the forms of small southern towns. The design and codes were created over a four year period, from 1979 to 1983. The sales office and first houses were built in 1981, using a street plan similar to the one that has been built out today. That was Seaside’s founding year. Seaside is still a work in progress — the town center is filling in at a relatively slow pace. At 20, Seaside has a growing civic infrastructure, including a school and church, and its street life, culture, and business community are maturing with the years. Happy anniversary, Seaside. May the trend you helped to launch continue to prosper and grow.