Seaside, icon of the new urbanism

Abstract

The town of Seaside case study brings home to questions related to the Congress for the new urbanism, founded in 1993. This town, the second designed by the architects Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater Zyberk is based upon revising partterns of the traditional way to build small communities in America. Both, the urban tissues and the building prototypes have been considered. Following the process used by the architectural firms to conceptualize, develop and implement urban design projects the plan for Seaside is analysed. The town was carefully programmed, designed and built. Thus, the present paper describes the interactions between the developer, the architects and the community involved, concluding that the good interaction among them is the clue for the success of any project. As a matter of contolling the urban development a code was created in a first version. Afterwards this code is unfolded to urban design more generic elements in order to fit different situations. It is denominated smar code and up to now it reached the ninth version. The plan for Seaside emphasizes the importance of the triangle drama binding the developer, architect and community to achieve a high quality project. Being successful Seaside stimulated many other initiatives along side the Gulf of Mexico panhandle.