New Urbanism is now a pervasive model

Alys Beach pictured at right, Loreto below right

Seaside was the start of what has become one of the most significant models for development of the built environment. While its roots are in Walton County, Florida along the beautiful Emerald Coast, the impact of new urbanism can be found in neighborhoods and communities throughout the country and abroad.

Duany, Plater-Zyberk (DPZ) developed the concepts involved and has pretty much owned the space since designing Seaside in 1980. Recently, they returned to Walton County as designers of the newest project in the County, Alys Beach. This new urbanism community has also embraced regional green building standards of construction.

I was surprised to learn that Alys Beach is a DPZ design. The community is starkly white, apparently influenced by styles seen in Bermuda and Antigua, Guatemala. Perhaps purposefully different from the DPZ-designed Seaside and Rosemary Beach, what is off-putting is the very fact that it is so completely disconnected from the other vernacular references in the area. To buy in, lots are offered at $400K and finished residences at $1.9M.

From a style perspective, another new coastal project that was influenced by DPZ has greater appeal. Loreto is connected to the historical fishing town of the same name on the east coast of Baja California Sur, Mexico. My attention was drawn to Loreto by a recent article in the New York Times. Several years ago the government of Mexico identified a number of areas that would be developed as tourist destinations. Somewhat belatedly, investment in Loreto has begun, driven by the vision of The Trust for Sustainable Development, a group from Vancouver, British Columbia. Loreto will ultimately have 6K homes on 8K acres situated between mountains and the Sea of Cortez. Prices in Loreto range from $300K to $900K - approximately $350 per square foot.

Closer to home, I've had the opportunity to explore other New Urbanism communities in Wisconsin and Utah. Middleton Hills is another DPZ-designed community, located west of Madison in the city of Middleton. Architecturally, styles include contemporary interpretations of prairie, craftsman and bungalow. One of the intended consequences of new urbanism and its use of traditional neighborhood design is an increased sense of community. A resident of Middleton Hills recently observed that it took 2 hours to walk around the community of 400 homes, not because of the rolling topography but because of the success of the place as a community and the conversations with neighbors that bear witness. As elsewhere, consumer response has been very strong. Available homes are listed at $150 - $250 per square foot.

The first sign of New Urbanism appeared in Utah when a neighborhood was built at South Mountain, at the south end of the Salt Lake valley, more than ten years ago. More recently and more dramatically, Kennecott Land (part of Rio Tinto) kicked off the development of 80,000 acres on the West side of the Salt Lake valley with its Daybreak community. The entire 80K acres has been master planned by Calthorpe Associates, a California planning and design firm that has embraced new urbanism and sustainable design. One of the progressive requirements in place at Daybreak is that all builders have to build Energy Star homes. Consumer demand has been strong and values fall in the range of $150 - $200 per square foot.

Finally, DPZ has also had a hand in designing a mixed-use infill project called Cottonwood Mall on the east side of the Salt Lake valley. This project replaces a tired shopping mall and is owned by Capital Growth Properties. Take a minute to view the extensive list of projects that DPZ has designed using the interactive map on their Web site.

In the next post I will look at the limitations of new urbanism as a development model reflected by experiences to date.