Seaside, Florida, is one of the modern triumphs of urban planning, and it is often referred to as the beginning of New Urbanism. It was the brainchild of Robert Davis, a builder and developer from Miami. His initial idea was to revive woodframe cottages traditional in Florida, adapted to the sea climate. He asked architects Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk to help plan a community based around these buildings. Davis and the architects traveled throughout Florida and the southeast to photograph and document this style of building in order to develop the concepts that would be used in the community.
Davis already owned 80 acres of land, purchased by his grandfather, and this size was perfect for the type of small town for which these cottages were suited. Eighty acres corresponds to a town that is completely walkable and thus encompassing one of the most important principles of New Urbanism. This is one of Seaside's defining features - daily life may be conducted without driving at all.
In 1982 the first two houses were built. At the time, convential wisdom would have dictated that houses that shared a publicly-accessible beach in a neighborhood with strict architectural restrictions wouldn't sell easily. At the same time, the master plan for the town and the Seaside Urban Code were drafted, incorporating the idea that the community should share a coherent sense of place while preserving the heterogeneity of its citizens. The streets were designed to be beautiful and more conducive to walking than to driving.
One of the most important aspects of Seaside is the effort made by its designers to engender community. The beach, for example, is shared, accessible at the ends of streets which feature pavilions to serve as gateways. These pavilions are among Seaside's most iconic features. Public beaches, rather than beachfront property, bring residents together, as do the pedestrian-friendly streets. The idea of community is another important tenet of New Urbanism and one of the most significant factors in Seaside's popularity for vacationers and homebuyers.
The community succeeded immensely from the beginning. There are over three hundred houses in the town today, and homes there command high prices. Besides residences, there is a downtown whose goal is to form a point of congregation for its citizens. Its origin was a simple farmers' market, which still exists today, a collection of booths with canvas umbrellas selling food and handicrafts. A central square is planned that will serve as a place to provide daily necessities and recreation for residents.
Today Seaside is largely a resort town; many of its cottages are available for rent for the summer. As such, it has drawn criticism - while on one hand it is held to be a perfect example of New Urbanism, on the other hand, its inhabitants appear not to work at all, and the town contains a high compliment of the rich among its permanent residents. Some critics have called it a fantasy, picture perfect but unrealistic as a model for city design. However, increasing numbers of people are becoming permanent residents, and property values are quite high - even the smallest cottages sell for half a million dollars.
Seaside is notable especially for having many big-city amenities and strong commercial presence within a small town. It was constructed slowly to avoid the strip mall-and-subdivision mentality familiar to many of its new residents, who hailed from the suburbs. It features a large amount of green space and a great deal of public land. Compact, walkable residential neighborhoods yield a feeling of community, in contrast to isolation and alienation, so commonly felt to be defining characteristics of suburban life.
Despite Seaside's status as primarily a vacation spot, it originated many concepts seen today in planned communities and neighborhoods experiencing revitalization projects. Ordinances requiring trees along the streets and encouraging foot traffic, for example, are increasing in popularity, largely based on Seaside's model. Its impact on city design today can hardly be overestimated.