In 1981, along a sleepy stretch of Highway 30A in Walton County, Florida, a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens changed the world.  Led by Andrés Duany, a young, visionary architect, they sparked the revival of the lost art of placemaking, and the fruit of their labor is a village known around the world as Seaside.

From humble beginnings arose an international movement, called New Urbanism, which promotes a return to building compact, walkable communities that have a variety of places to live, work, shop and play, all within easy walking distance of each other.  Based on the same principles that were used to create many of the world’s most-beloved places, New Urbanist communities employ human-scale architecture and civic spaces to establish a unique sense of place and to foster the bonds of community.  The resulting social fabric instills a higher quality of life and creates places that enrich, uplift, and inspire the human spirit.

Andrés and his wife, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk caused a paradigm shift in the planning profession by not only returning to true placemaking, but by fundamentally changing the way in which communities are planned.  They pioneered the use of intense planning sessions, called “charrettes,” wherein all stakeholders in a project, including developers, government officials, and private citizens, gather together and create jointly-authored plans.  The charrette process has been recognized and adopted by communities around the world as a way to not only dramatically reduce the length of the planning process, but to empower citizens with a true voice in the design of the communities in which they live.

Andrés and Elizabeth co-founded the Congress for the New Urbanism, and they have co-written several books including “Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream”, which is hailed as, “an essential text for our time.”  Their award winning firm, Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company (DPZ) is the world’s preeminent New Urbanist planning firm, and through it they have planned hundreds of communities across five continents.

In the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the governor of Mississippi sought out Andrés to help heal his devastated state.  Andrés organized and led over 100 architects and planners in the Mississippi Renewal Forum which generated plans for all of the municipalities along the Mississippi coast.  In New Orleans, DPZ served as neighborhood planners for the rebuilding of the French Quarter, the Central Business District and Gentilly. 

In 2005, along a sleepy stretch of Highway 11 in Trussville, Alabama, a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens gathered together to change the world.  Led by Andrés Duany, the internationally renowned father of New Urbanism, we celebrated the revival of the lost art of placemaking, and the fruit of our labor is a village that will be known around the world as Trussville Springs.