SEASIDE 25^TH ANNIVERSARY

September, 2006 

Seaside is very similar and also very different from what we thought it would be.

Seaside as built is very similar physically to the plan of 25 years ago--perhaps more than any of our plans since. The deviations that did occur, such as the “temporary retail” shacks on the gulf front are not at all bad. Indeed, it is possibly better than the open square that we originally proposed.

Also different is the Athenaeum Square, which was coded to be similar to Jackson Square in New Orleans, but which has emerged as building types akin to the lawn at the University of Virginia--it is neither better nor worse, just different. Generally, over time, as the house lots became more expensive, the building envelopes envisioned by the code became more filled out. The early houses were smaller and articulated into pavilions; the later ones are boxier and in my opinion, conducive to better urbanism. Even the hard-to-implement parts of the plan:  the live-work units, the public school, the chapel, have been achieved. Perhaps the most difficult of all, the Krier Tower, is now closer to reality than ever.

Other differences were due to the personality of the founders as surely as any of the technical aspects of the plan and code. Robert and Daryl were true architectural connoisseurs and Seaside now has a series of brilliant architectural pieces that exceed the code standards. The Rossi, Stern, Chatham, Gorlin, Mockbee, Machado-Silvetti, Hall, Burke, Massengale, Solomon and Merrill buildings (I am listing only the better known names—not just the better buildings) led Seaside to become a kind of architectural mecca, quite independent of the urbanism. This was not expected by me. It was too much to hope for.

Another unexpected asset: Robert, and particularly Daryl, became great incubators of commercial talent. Seaside has spawned scores of private businesses, some starting as humbly as a barbecue or a flea market table, which have now become the backbone of the town center. It is a credit to the Seaside plan that it had the capacity to absorb them. We did envision that Seaside would expand to the north, and when Watercolor came along it was able to attach to Seaside. Today, in this little patch there is more first-rate architecture and urbanism than anywhere else in Florida, not excluding older and larger cities.

Seaside’s inception intercepted the then-emerging development pattern of high rise coastal condominiums, with the inland abandoned to undervalued second-rate uses and parking lots. Seaside extended the value of waterfront in depth, and as a result created not just a more human and ecological pattern but it created great wealth. This has been distributed not just among the Davis siblings but broadly among realtors, restaurateurs and most hearteningly the contractors and their craftsmen. Seaside, as a result of Robert and Daryl Davis’s fanaticism, gradually raised the standard of craftsmanship until it was proven that people will pay for quality design and construction.

The crews with which Seaside first started its buildings could hardly hammer a nail or hang sheetrock. straight—the usual. Twenty years later the crews, not only at Seaside but throughout the Panhandle, have become masters of a craftsmanship unsurpassed anywhere in the U.S. This excellence has created wealth for the working people as they charge well for it. The very latest houses at Seaside are like cabinets. And the workmanship has decanted the subsequent towns of Rosemary Beach and Alys Beach—which are perhaps even better in their craftsmanship.

That Seaside's influence became widespread was not expected. I remember when I heard the Prince of Wales, Ernesto Buch and Leon Krier, at various times, state that Seaside was a very important project. This we had not factored in our plans. Importance is one thing but influence is another. The influence has been helped along by the much-criticized part of Seaside: that it is a resort and that the houses are available for rental. It is as a result of the rental program that hundreds of thousands of people have been able to spend time at Seaside and experience what it means to live in a compact, diverse and walkable community. Living a place is crucial to understanding urbanism because, unlike architecture, urbanism cannot be properly assessed from photographs or even from a short visit. It requires that you to get up in the morning and walk out to find the coffee, and bread and paper and then having the independence all day long of family members with plenty to do—then shopping for dinner and staying up and, in some cases very late, at the bar.

Many people (developers included) who have not had the chance to live this kind of life have taken the experience back home and implemented what they learned far away from the Florida beaches. Also, to be a resort, Seaside attempts an ideal. After all, no one goes on vacation to live as one does daily. Resorts are compelled to be better—utopian even. We continue to design them because they are the closest that we urbanists have available as experimental sites. The idealism of a resort gives such clarity to the concept that, together with sequential residence by its renters, has caused Seaside to become a veritable propaganda machine. A full-time community of everyday living such as Kentlands cannot be quite as effective. The criticism of Seaside being a resort I understand, but I think that on the balance I prefer its role as a powerful demonstration project.

Most unexpected was the way that Seaside took over our lives. Robert and Daryl have lived in Seaside and defined the role of town founder, providing the software of society and culture as well as the hardware of buildings and infrastructure. They also proved that it is better business to do one such project for 30 years than three conventional ones for ten each. This has had influence in the development industry. As for Lizz and me, the whirlwind of New Urbanism has taken over our lives. Without Seaside we may have become architects of a different sort.  We like to think of the many designers that Seaside has touched. The process of sequential building design has involved scores of young architects whose careers are better for it. For us as teachers this is very satisfying.