DPZ Spring Newsletter 2025

This January, DPZ returned to Loreto Bay to update their code and meet with developers. This gave DPZ an opportunity to witness the village’s remarkable growth since the original 2003 planning process — as well as how true it is to the version that was drawn.

As planned in the original vision, on-site parking remains limited to its Main Street Paseo. This is seeing a successfully diminished reliance on cars, with most residents—whose average age is now over 60—opting to walk, bike, or travel by golf cart from parking areas to their homes. Bordered by the Sea of Cortez and the Sierra de la Giganta mountains, recreation and conservation are central to the community. Daily life for residents incorporates activities such as golfing, kayaking, swimming, and whale watching.

The range of non-residential uses has also flourished, with the village now home to three small markets, restaurants, offices, and more.

Read more about Loreto Bay and the update here.

On April 16th, the Northwest Arkansas (NWA) Council held their Spring Meeting to discuss the Regional Growth Strategy that DPZ has been helping to develop. Featured speaker DPZ Partner Matt Lambert presented the challenges and key priorities to be addressed.

DPZ is developing a suite of tools for the region’s diverse communities to coordinate and adopt that will set the region on a path to sustainable, fiscally responsible growth. The toolkit will offer codes and strategies that communities in the region can select based on their unique needs.

Learn more about the plan here.

This past February, DPZ Partners Galina, Marina, and Senen were honored to participate in the 31st annual Seaside Prize weekend. Prize recipients Ellen Dunham-Jones and June Williamson were recognized for bringing awareness to the problem of suburban sprawl within academic circles.

Galina described her longstanding association with Ellen and June in analyzing sprawl and identifying tools to repair its damaging effects. Marina shared our recent study for Walton County to better understand and manage the exponential growth expected in the coming decades.

Finally, Senen gave his Green By Design presentation on Seaside, Rosemary Beach, Alys Beach, and Watercolor as part of the program.

Read more about the event and its participants here and here.

This March, DPZ helped host the Emerging New Urbanists (ENU) group as part of their Urban De-Code Miami program. The weekend-long event explored urban interventions, transformations and innovations in South Florida communities.

DPZ Associate Judith Bell helped ENU organize the activities. On Saturday a tour of Downtown Kendall, led by Lizz and Joe Kohl of Dover, Kohl & Partners, was followed by a walk along the Underline, guided by Kimley-Horn’s Stewart Robertson. After a working lunch, an interactive workshop at the DPZ Miami Office touched on a number of topics, including charrette techniques and public engagement. On Sunday, Judith led a tour of DPZ’s Campo Sano and Bermuda Villages that inspired discussion on effecting change at various urban scales.

For more information about ENU and this event, visit their website.

On Saturday, April 26, several DPZers attended the ICAA Florida Chapter’s 13th Annual Addison Mizner Awards in Coral Gables. The event paid tribute to the remarkable legacy and lasting impact of the late architect and UM professor, Teófilo Victoria, the posthumous recipient of the World Accomplishment Award.

In presenting the award to Teófilo’s life and business partner, Maria de la Guardia, Lizz delivered an eloquent memorial in his honor. Longtime DPZ colleague, collaborator, and supporter, Teófilo was also Seaside’s first Town Architect.

Maria was also on hand at the ICAA-FL gala to accept a number of prizes won by their firm, DLGV Architects. Earlier in the day, she had led a tour of DLGV prize-winning residential projects in Coral Gables that had several DPZers in attendance.

Read Lizz’s tribute to Teófilo here.

Andrés and Lizz give insightful interviews in this PBS documentary on the master planning efforts by Speck Dempsey for the transformation of Downtown Hammond, IN.

Citing lessons learned from his decade with our firm, DPZ alumnus Jeff Speck highlights the key moves needed to restore Hammond’s once walkable, lively streetscapes.

Watch the full documentary here.

It is not common knowledge that DPZ community Norton Commons near Louisville, KY, is heated and cooled by geothermal energy.

This recent study by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Geothermal Technologies Office documents the prerequisites, the impacts, and the cost savings associated with employing this tecnology.

Read more about the case study here.

The ambitious topic of “Utopia” is the theme of Texas Architect magazine’s Winter 2025 issue.

Quoting Octavio Paz and Thomas Jefferson, architect and University of Houston Associate Professor of Architecture, Tom Diehl, draws parallels between the modernism of Paolo Soleri and the New Urbanism of DPZ, as well as delving into the utopian pursuits of other designers.

In this kind of theoretical piece more frequently seen in the early 1990s, Seaside is compared and contrasted with Arcosanti.

Read the full article here.

Venerable British publication, Country Life, recently tackled the pressing housing crisis in the UK, citing the reported need for 1.5 million houses within the next four and half years.

The article points to the success of King Charles’ Duchy of Cornwall’s leadership at Poundbury. Once derided as old-fashioned and pastiche, today Poundbury is considered a mixed-use model of innovation in building sustainably, creating jobs, and providing affordable housing.

Two DPZ towns in Scotland, Tornagrain and Chapelton, are included to demonstrate the influence of Poundbury’s legacy. Aside from the benefits of building compactly, these towns respond to a diversity of housing options and walkable lifestyle choices.

Read the full article here.

The early 20th-Century town-planning projects of John Nolen were a primary source of inspiration that helped shape Florida’s Growth Management principles in the 1990s.

A recent Governing Magazine article highlights Nolen’s plan for Venice, FL, and how its City Beautiful street layout both influenced New Urbanist thinking — as reflected in DPZ’s design of Seaside — and later showed remarkable flexibility in accomodating unanticipated post-Depression modernism.

Read the full article here.

The Design Walk in the Naples Design District took another step forward in January with the unanimous approval by the City Council in their capacity as the CRA Board.

As Gulfshore Business reported, DPZ Associate Xavier Iglesias presented the final schematic design proposal and answered the board’s questions. The project now moves into implementation as the City seeks to coordinate this pilot block design with the adjacent improvements to the 1st Ave South streetscape, connecting the Design Walk with the recently completed Gulfshore Playhouse.

For more details, read the full article here.

The Spring 2025 issue of Coastal Living once more features our 30-A projects in their best Beach Towns cover story. This time they go beyond the usual vacation destination checklist to identify why Seaside, Rosemary Beach and Alys Beach remain compelling to repeat visitors. Spoiler: it’s the urbanism.

Interviewed are Daryl and Micah Davis on the early ideas that produced Seaside and the current thinking about its future. Alys Town Architect and official first resident, Marieanne Khoury Vogt, shares her perspective on how the town has evolved as more owners are spending more time there. Included is a sidebar of key coastal New Urbanist communities in the US that lists the DPZ villages of I’On and Habersham in SC.

Read the full excerpt here.

If you have attended a recent DPZ charrette you have probably seen a master plan that features a new housing block type that Andrés has been shaping and fine-tuning for several years.

The block, typically square in shape, consists of a double layer of lots. The outer layer fronts the primary street network, and the inner layer of homes enclose a shared open space. In between, an alley or shared mews connects the rear of each lot to the side streets. A flexible variety of configurations enable multiple pedestrian passages. The result is an extremely porous urban fabric that prioritizes pedestrian safety while delivering a more cost-effective infrastructure with a grid of fewer major streets.

Recently CNU’s Public Square showcased Urbanism for a Difficult Future by Korkut Onaran in collaboration with Andrés. The book details the climate-response concept of the “Adaptation Village” with early explorations of this new block type.