News

Seven Cottages Moved into the Seaside Lyceum: Academic Village is Coming Together!

In a little over one day, seven 500-square-foot cottages were crane-lifted over the academic village site and carefully placed on to their already constructed foundations.  It provided quite a bit of excitement during a relatively quite time in Seaside.  These seven cottages are laid out in a pattern that will encourage people to interact with each other and form a nice space for study and presentations.  

In the diagram drawn on the side of the model cottage by architect Dhiru Thadani and shown below, you can see the formation of the courtyard space created by the cottages. 

Still yet to come is the connecting boardwalks, ramps, living fence wall and some additional porch space.  Stay tuned!

 

The Academic Village is Under Construction

The Seaside Institute has started construction of its academic village. The project, which has been in development for almost two years, involves installing seven cottages within the Lyceum, an area within Seaside devoted to education and other civic activities. The cottages will house students and instructors who will travel to Seaside to participate in courses, seminars and workshops primarily in the areas of the arts, architecture/planning and health and well-being.

Programming will be geared to a wide range of people – from high school, college and graduate level students to senior adults– and course offerings will be open to both boarders and day students. The village provides much-needed housing for students and teachers, while allowing participants to enjoy a collegial living environment where discussions can continue after class is officially over.

While many classes will be intended for students who have already embarked on a course of study, other classes are designed to awaken new interests. This spring the Institute will launch a series called “Rediscover Your Inner Artist,” which will offer five-day courses in photography, plein air painting, drawing and room design.

The academic village was included as part of the Seaside plan in late 1998, although the inclusion of student housing within the Lyceum has been discussed by Seaside’s founders, Robert and Daryl Davis, since the early 80s.  Several charrettes were held over the years in an attempt to jumpstart plans for this phase of the Lyceum but financing proved elusive.

The Seaside Institute has launched an “Adopt a Cottage” fundraiser to pay for renovations to the interiors of the houses.  Those who sign on for the program will become founding members of the academic village and have naming rights to a cottage, including other benefits. Thus far, four cottages have been claimed. Construction of the village is expected to be completed this spring.

For more information about the Adopt-a-Cottage program or the upcoming spring series, please contact Seaside Institute director, Diane Dorney, at ddorney@seasideinstitute.org.

 

 

Seaside Prize Symposium Scheduled for February 1 in Seaside!

January 7, 2013

On Friday, February 1, 2013, a symposium featuring Seaside Prize winner former Senator and Governor Bob Graham will be held at 115 Seaside Avenue at 4:00 p.m. The topic of discussion should be of interest to all property owners along 30-A:  "Seaside/South Walton County: Reflections on the Region's Past and Future Opportunities."

South Walton County has often been the focus of state initiatives to balance conservation and development. Blessed with emerald Gulf water, pristine beaches and native pine forest, the region's location has been a magnet for tourist-related growth in both historic and new communities along 30-A.

When Florida’s governing agencies began focusing on managing the state’s growth, South Walton received special attention commensurate with its resources. Governor Bob Graham initiated studies and plans that focused on critical state resources. Governors Martinez and Chiles sought extensive land purchases for the preservation of unique ecosystems. The legislative creation of the South Walton Conservation and Development Trust ushered in an era that produced detailed plans to accommodate sustainable growth together coupled with the stewardship of public and private resources. Walton County government has used these initiatives to further refine local plans and regulations.

Recent years have brought new opportunities with the construction of a regional airport and experiences of recovering from natural and manmade disasters. The future challenges include understanding changing demographic dynamics and insuring that the region benefits from the massive recovery efforts stemming from the Gulf oil spill. Symposium panelists will reflect on their past experiences to provide insights and recommendations on a path forward for providing economic development and natural system preservation

Agenda

4:00 p.m. Welcome and purpose for the symposium:  Robert Davis, founder, Seaside.

4:15 p.m. Panel presentations: Jim Murley, moderator, DCA Secretary and Trust member.

4:30 p.m. Setting the stage:  Bob Rhodes, Jacksonville attorney and former executive vice president of the St. Joe Company:

4:45 p.m. Billy Buzzett: Personal and professional reflections, former DCA Secretary.

5:00 p.m. Chris Leinberger: National trends and opportunities

5:15 p.m. Rick Harper: Regional trends and opportunities, director, University of West Florida, Office of Economic Development and Engagement

5:30 p.m. Responses and Reflections: Senator Bob Graham and Robert Davis

5:45 p.m. Audience questions

6:15 p.m. Adjourn for light cocktails

 

Senator Bob Graham to be Awarded the Seaside Prize on February 2nd in Seaside

 

November 5, 2012 

Seaside, Florida – The Seaside Institute will award this year’s Seaside Prize to Senator Bob Graham. The Seaside Prize is awarded annually to individuals or organizations that have made significant contributions to the quality and character of our communities.

The ceremony will take place as part of the Seaside Prize weekend events, which will be held on the first weekend in February in Seaside, Fla.

Senator Bob Graham is the former two–term governor of Florida and served for 18 years in the United States Senate. This is combined with 12 years in the Florida legislature for a total of 38 years of public service. Bob Graham retired from public service in January 2005, following his Presidential campaign in 2004.

Largely due to the efforts by Senator Bob Graham, Florida became a beacon for managing growth thoughtfully. The 1985 Growth Management Act helped slow overdevelopment of Florida's most critical environmental resources and forced local governments to think about how growth and infrastructure needed to be planned together. Due to its success, the act became a model for other states.

As Senator, Graham was the earliest proponent of an airport for northwest Florida, a project that many thought could help the area’s economy grow beyond tourism, fishing and pulpwood.

Bob Graham is recognized for his leadership on issues ranging from education, economic development, healthcare, environmental preservation and his service on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence — including 18 months as chairman in 2001–2002.

After retiring from public life, Senator Graham served for a year as a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. 

In May of 2010, Senator Graham was appointed by the President to serve as Co-Chair of the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling.  This followed his service as a Commissioner on the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission and as the Chairman of the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism.  Currently he serves as chairman of the WMD Center, a 501c3 not for profit research organization which continues the work of the Commission.  

Senator Graham also serves as a member of the CIA External Advisory Board, as a member of the board of directors of several companies and as the chair of the Board of Overseers of the Bob Graham Center for Public Service at the University Florida. 

Senator Graham is also the author of several books including “America: The Owner’s Manual,” which teaches the skills of civic participation, and “Keys to the Kingdom,” a novel of suspense which draws upon his background in government and intelligence.*

Previous recipients of the Seaside Prize include the six founders of the Congress for the New Urbanism, architects Peter Calthorpe, Elizabeth Moule, Stephanos Polyzoides, Daniel Solomon, Andrés Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk; historian and scholar Vincent Scully; architects Christopher Alexander, Leon Krier, Robert A.M. Stern, Alex Cooper, Jaquelin Robertson, Donlyn Lyndon, Aldo Rossi, Giancarlo DeCarlo; writer and civic activist Jane Jacobs; Mayor of Charleston Joseph P. Riley, Jr.; Seaside town founders Daryl and Robert Davis; authors Witold Rybczynski and James Howard Kunstler; urban designer Allan B. Jacobs; Hank Dittmar, urban designer and chief executive of The Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment; Dhiru Thadani, urbanist, architect and author, and architect and planner Scott Merrill.

The recipients of the Prize have had a major influence on how our towns and cities can best be built and rebuilt to reflect and promote diversity, walkability, beauty, and sustainability. Seaside Prize recipients are considered the leaders of contemporary urban development and education.

For more background information about Senator Graham, visit http://www.bobgrahamcenter.ufl.edu/about/bob-graham.

 

Scott Merrill Wins the 2012 Seaside Prize

Seaside, Florida | November 8, 2011

Seaside, Florida – The Seaside Institute will award this year’s Seaside Prize to Scott Merrill, a nationally recognized architect with local ties to the place where the Seaside Prize originated. The Seaside Prize is awarded annually to individuals or organizations that have made significant contributions to the quality and character of our communities.

The ceremony will take place as part of the Seaside Prize weekend events, which is being held on Friday, January 27th and Saturday, January 28th in Seaside, Fla.

Architect and lead designer for Merrill Pastor and Colgan Architects, Merrill is a graduate from the University of Virginia and Yale University, where he earned his masters in architecture in 1984. Merrill began his career working for two Washington, D.C., firms, McCartney Lewis and Cass & Pinnell, followed by a stint in Seaside where he served as its town architect from 1988 – 1990.

During that period, Merrill designed the first row of rental cottages along the coast. Those cottages became known as the Honeymoon Cottages. He went on to design the Motor Court, the Seaside Chapel, several individual homes in Seaside, the Rosemary Beach Town Hall, and, as of yet, un-built mixed-use buildings in Alys Beach.

In 1990, Merrill started his own practice in Vero Beach, Fla.  George Pastor joined the firm in 1991. David Colgan started work there in 1994 and runs the branch office in Atlanta. Both became partners in the firm. 

Merrill's first project as a sole practitioner received a national AIA Design Award in 1990. In 2000, the firm's first group of buildings received a national AIA Urban Design Award. Their first public building received a national AIA Design Award in 2004 followed by the Arthur Ross Award from the Institute of Classical Architecture in New York that same year. Their projects have been recognized for their design 14 times by the Florida Association of the AIA.

Recent work includes projects in New Zealand, St Petersburg, Dammam, San Francisco, Abu Dhabi, Edinburgh, the Caribbean, New England, Canada, Great Britain, and Al Ain. Sites range from coastal plains, to Audubon easements and historic landscapes; from the desert to the sub-tropics; from historic districts, to central business districts, college campuses, ocean fronts, archipelagos, and mountainsides.

Much of this work has been in master plans by Miami land planners Duany Plater-Zyberk and Company and has included studies of courthouses, office buildings, university precincts, transportation facilities, public institutions, housing, hotels, churches, markets, conference facilities, and mixed use buildings. The studies involve urban infill, perimeter expansions, the development of brownfield sites, and new districts. They address the design of blocks, streets, squares, semi-public spaces, courtyards and alleys.

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Successful Seaside Prize Ceremony Held

Seaside, Florida | Feb. 1, 2011

[photos of the event can be found in the three embedded links below]

A record number of people traveled to Seaside, Fla., on January 28 and 29 to participate in the Seaside Institute’s annual Seaside Prize weekend. This year, Dhiru Thadani, a renowned architect and urbanist from Washington, D.C., was awarded the Prize.

In addition to the Prize ceremony, which was held in the newly-. almost-completed amphitheater located in the heart of Seaside in Central Square, two forums took place in the Lyceum meeting hall. A dozen new urban leaders, including Seaside town founders, Robert and Daryl Davis; Seaside town planners, Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Seaside Institute Fellows (former Prize winners) Ray Gindroz, Hank Dittmar, Dan Solomon and current Prize recipient, Dhiru Thadani, participated in lively discussions about the new urbanism movement, past, present and future. The Forum events were sold out weeks before the event, and overflow crowds were directed to the Seaside REP to watch streamed video of the discussions.

In addition to the Prize ceremony, which was attended by more than 200 people, the Institute sold tickets to a Leaders Wine and Dine luncheon, which was held at the former Davis residence on Seaside Avenue. The event was catered by Phil MacDonald (with coffee by Amavida). On the evening before, a Welcome Reception for CNU-Florida, in town for their annual meeting, was catered by Great Southern Cafe.

There were a few surprises at the Prize ceremony the greatest being that the weather was beautiful (a sunny 70 degrees by mid-day) and that it was held on the amphitheater stage – an iffy proposition up until the last minute as workers scrabbled to finish on time.

To celebrate its near completion, a ribbon-cutting took place at the start of the Prize ceremony. Though Leon Krier, the lead designer of the project, was not in attendance, many others who contributed to its reality were on-hand:  Tom Stein, Dan Parolek, Ty Nunn, Pam Avery, Leo Casas, Mick Dunn and Robert Davis. 

At the conclusion of the ribbon-cutting, Stein, who supervised the amphitheater construction and is a long-time friend of the Davis’s, unveiled the Seaside time capsule that will be buried under a stone slab in the middle of the amphitheater.  The time capsule will be filled with various items (thoughts anyone?) and is to be opened in 500 years. 

After Prize recipient, Dhiru Thadani, was introduced by his friend and well-known new urban leader, Andres Duany, Thadani gave an interesting presentation that included some images form his home town in India, work he has done in the past, and some recently drawn images he created during his January sojourn as an “escapee” with the Escape to Create program in Seaside.

Seaside locals David Dowler and Helen Gordon then presented a surprise gift to the Seaside’s founding couple to mark the town’s 30th anniversary. The closely guarded secret is a model of the Krier Tower that is to be built in the center of town on the current site of the Seaside post office marking the focal point not only for the Central Square but for the whole town. Funded by members of the large community the Davis’s are a part of, consisting of neighbors, employees, peers, family and friends, the 27” replica was created by Timothy Richards of Bathe, England.

To conclude the evening, local resident Jillian Tucker presented an 11-minute sneak preview of a documentary about Seaside that she intends to have completed this year. Tucker graduated from Brown University and is now a producer and editor in New York City.*

Following the program, the, now, slightly chilly crowd sauntered across the street to Bud and Alley’s where a dinner was held. 

*For more about the documentary, see www.seasidedocumentary.com.

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2011 Seaside Prize Held on January 28 and 29

Seaside, Florida — The Seaside Institute will award this year's Seaside Prize to renowned architect and urbanist, Dhiru Thadani. The Seaside Prize is awarded annually to individuals or organizations that have made significant contributions to the quality and character of our communities. The ceremony will take place as part of the Seaside Prize weekend events, which is being held on Friday, January 28th and Saturday, January 29th.

Since 1980 Thadani has practiced architecture and urbanism in Asia, Europe and North and Central America. He was born in Bombay, India, and moved to Washington, D.C. to attend the Catholic University of America from 1972-1978 where he received his undergraduate and graduate education in architecture. During his 33 years in Washington, D.C. Thadani has taught, practiced and worked to place architecture and urbanism in the public eye. Since its formation in 1993, he has been a charter member of the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) and was appointed to the board in 2005.

From 2000 to 2005, he served as chair of the CNU's Design Task Force and has undertaken and completed many initiatives. Thadani has been involved in new developments, urban retrofits, neighborhood revitalization and infill densification. For the past 20 years, he has been the lead designer for several real estate developments in first and third world countries. The developments range in scale from government-sponsored autonomous new towns for 500,000 inhabitants to smaller resort communities for 900 residents, as well as small-scale residential infill interventions in revitalizing neighborhoods. He is the author of "The Language of Towns & Cities: A Visual Dictionary," to be published by Rizzoli in fall 2010 and co-editor of "Léon Krier: The Architecture of Community," published in 2009 by Island Press.

Previous recipients of the Seaside Prize include the six founders of the Congress for the New Urbanism, architects Peter Calthorpe, Elizabeth Moule, Stephanos Polyzoides, Daniel Solomon, Andrés Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk; historian and scholar Vincent Scully; architects Christopher Alexander, Leon Krier, Robert A.M. Stern, Alex Cooper, Jaquelin Robertson, Donlyn Lyndon, Aldo Rossi, Giancarlo DeCarlo; writer and civic activist Jane Jacobs; Mayor of Charleston Joseph P. Riley, Jr.; Seaside town founders Daryl and Robert Davis; authors Witold Rybczynski and James Howard Kunstler; urban designer Allan B. Jacobs; and Hank Dittmar, urban designer and chief executive of The Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment. The recipients of the Prize have had a major influence on how our towns and cities can best be built and rebuilt to reflect and promote diversity, walkability, beauty, and sustainability. Seaside Prize recipients are considered the leaders of contemporary urban development and education.

The Seaside Institute is a non-profit organization, which promotes the building of sustainable communities in cities and towns through design and education. The Institute, through its members and programs, contributes significantly to the dissemination of the new urban/smart growth ideals and information. Located in the town of Seaside, Fla., the Institute helps people find solutions to improve their own communities. It sponsors a wide variety of programs to train and educate specialists and decision-makers, as well as the broader public, regarding the built environment.

For more information about The Seaside Institute, you may call 850.231.2421.

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