Friday, March 2, 2012

Seaside, Florida

As I've mentioned, a few weeks ago I visited Seaside, Florida. It had been a longtime dream of mine since reading all of the media buzz in the early 90s and then later studying the master-planned community in architecture school. More recently it was the setting of the fantastic Jim Carrey movie "The Truman Show". Founded by Robert Davis on 80 acres along the Florida panhandle coastline inherited from his grandfather, the town became one of the first of many planned communities designed in "new urbanism" mode and certainly the most famous. The master plan was created by Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk of the Miami firm, Arquitectonica. Meant to evoke the seaside resort towns of the past, Seaside was built to a prescribed scale with a set of strict guidelines to build to for those who bought into the community. And buy they did, the settlement was a successful and spawned a movement that trickled world wide to varying degrees of success and quality.The first part of planning was walkability. One can walk from their cottage to the beach or the commercial center, the pool, tennis courts or church in a matter of minutes. Once you arrive in Seaside, there is no need to move your car. Besides, pedestrians have the right of way and you travel faster by foot, let alone being able to find parking.But the town is not urban but rather a small town of low scale. Houses, no matter their style (although most subscribe to a pseudo-victorian cottage style), must have a front porch and sit a certain distance from the street. Lot sizes are small to allow for walkability and so you are forced at once into this community. Following this, the houses are true cottages and although many of the later ones push this boundary and are larger than the originals, I think it safe to say these are all very small houses. Even the backs of the houses are open to pedestrian alleys between streets. Many of the houses have a guest cottage which face these alleys and so if you stay one in (as I did) this is your way home. Yes, the walkway is sand as we're just a block off the beach here, as is everything. All properties must also be bounded by a white picket fence. According to the guidelines though, no 2 may be alike on the same street. This ensures that the community has variety within the strict guidelines. The houses were built by the lot owner rather than by a single developer and by a number of different architects, so you can imagine the variety that exists architecturally.The town center is still in the works, as buyers build-up their lots, but there are a number of shops and restaurants as well as the usual amenities such as bathrooms, beach changing rooms, chuch, town hall and even a post office seen above (the most photographed building in Seaside). I loved this modern building on the main town square. Like all of the buildings in the center of town, there is commercial space on the ground level with offices or apartments above.Behind the town center is a charter school which makes the resort town feel alive year round. The panhandle, as I found out, is very different than Southern Florida; they have winter! This is a seasonal resort (think late spring through fall) and though the weather was warmer than in DC, lets just say I wasn't spending much time on the beach.Scenic coastal highway 30A separates the town from the beach by a short block which is naturally filled with the most impressive houses.The road sits 2 rows of houses back from the beach with one of the pedestrian alleys between. These houses follow a different planning guideline and because of the additional pedestrian traffic are more private than houses above the highway. Many are designed in a post modern Greek-revival style differing from the houses north of 30A.
I hope you will join me as I explore this town through a series of posts with my many many pictures and that you enjoy it half as much as I did!

19 comments:

Ann said...

beautiful pictures!

ArchitectDesign™ said...

Thanks, Ann!

Parnassus said...

Since so many of the founding principles are laudable, why does this place really creep me out? It looks like a stage-set for the next Stepford Wives movie.

I'll try to keep an open mind and concentrate on the good points as I learn more about Seaside through your subsequent posts.

ArchitectDesign™ said...

parnassus, in person it doesn't feel as 'plastic' as it does in some of the photographs that you see. I think you would feel differently in person and hopefully my pictures will reflect this and change your mind.

Karena said...

I would love to visit this lovely seaside town Stefan. The architecture does differ and the landscaping and access to the beach is perfect! Do you know the range of prices on these homes?


xoxo
Karena
Art by Karena

ArchitectDesign™ said...

Karena, unfortunately because of the popularity of the town they're incredibly expensive. However, many double as rentals and can be had inexpensively (particularly out of season like I did). The website for seaside has a link to one of the major realtors of the area.

Anonymous said...

Duany and Plater-Zyberg are most definitely NOT part of Arquitectonica, but rather founders of Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company.

ArchitectDesign™ said...

Anon - according to the book 'Seaside' by Steven Brooke, Duany and PZ were working at Arquitectonica at the time of their work at Seaside. I remember this from school as well and later they went on to form their own firm as I've been led to believe. Correct me if I'm wrong of course.

ArchitectDesign™ said...

Anon - Duany was indeed a founding partner of Arquitectonica in 1977 along with his wife Plater-Zyberk. They later founded DPZ in 1980.

NYarch said...

Seaside and Rosemary Farm I believe are two of the better new-urban planned communities of the era in this stretch of the Panhandle. Later planned towns around the country didnt really do this quite as well, but all have become extremely expensive to live in, not what the original intentions were, but still there are far more truly great things going on here than not. Seaside is superb.

ArchitectDesign™ said...

NYarch - yes -a lot of these planned communities turned out to be AWFUL. I LOVED rosemary's beach because it is more urban. It was built 10 years later though. Hope to get a post up about it next week. There was a new community just being built next door called Ally's beach which will blow rosemary's beach out of the water!

Todd said...

What a great post, Stefan! I think it looks like a charming place to visit and your pictures are beautiful as always. This makes me want to plan a long weekend trip.

Russ Manley said...

I've been there, and it's a nice, if somewhat claustrophobic little town. The walkability is a very nice feature, which deserves to be imitated more widely. Unfortunately, this is a town strictly for the 1 percenters - the working class need not apply.

Anonymous said...

Fun, I finally visited these areas last month as well. I got an amazing inside tour of Allys Beach. Just go into the sales office and they will provide you with a pile of reading material and a tour inside the decorated sales home.

Mark D. Ruffner said...

I've always wanted to visit Seaside, and now your posting is one more incentive to do so. I especially like the Greek Revival buildings — they appear to have very strict color codes built into the guidelines.

Reggie Darling said...

Great post, and thanks for the first phase of your architectural tour of Seaside, a place I hope to visit one day. Looking forward to the series! RD

Hels said...

GREAT LOCATION!!! I have written and given papers on a lot of planned towns, starting in mid C19th Britain and continuing with early C20th Australian towns. But nothing modern.

You say that Seaside Florida became one of the first of many planned communities designed in the new urbanism mode, but I am not sure what that means and I don't know which seaside resort towns of the past it aspired to evoke.

I love the cottages, the town's walkability and the pedestrian alleys. Only time will tell if the shops, restaurants, chuch, town hall and other communal facilities are well used.

Renée Finberg said...

can you believe i have never been?
this post makes me want to visit.

hugs

Anonymous said...

Thanks for yet another intreating and original post! I love them all -- full of information and lovely photos. Yay.

Mrs. H

Some Cozy Night