Where placemaking meets paradise
By : J. David Chapman/July 24, 2025
Most people come to Seaside, Florida, for the beach. I come for the sidewalks. There’s something almost magical about this little Gulf Coast town—not just the emerald water and white sand, but the way the town itself feels. You can walk everywhere. You want to walk everywhere. From morning coffee to evening ice cream, every journey happens on foot or by bike, along tree-lined streets, brick sidewalks, and front porches alive with life and conversation.
As someone who spends much of my time thinking—and writing—about how we build community through the built environment, it’s hard not to see Seaside as more than a vacation spot. It’s a working case study in what planners call New Urbanism. Designed in the 1980s by Andrés Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Seaside rejected suburban sprawl and embraced walkability, mixed-use development, and human-scaled design. The result? A town that invites connection, encourages gathering, and fosters a sense of place.
You’ll find families biking to Modica Market for groceries, readers lounging outside Sundog Books, and neighbors catching up from their front porches. Civic spaces—like the central amphitheater and post office—are nestled into daily life, not separated from it. Cars are present, but they don’t dominate. Streets are narrow, speed limits are low, and pedestrians always have the right of way.
Back home, I’ve worked to bring some of these principles into our own suburban downtowns—encouraging projects and policies that prioritize people over parking, community over convenience. I even wrote a book about it. But Seaside is a reminder that these ideas aren’t just theoretical or nostalgic. They’re real. They’re doable. And they work.
It’s easy to dismiss a place like Seaside as a vacation-only novelty. But the truth is, the same design that makes a beach town enjoyable also makes everyday towns livable. Seaside proves what’s possible when we build for people first and allow public life to flourish.
This week, my car has barely moved. My legs are tired, my spirit is full, and my front porch view might be the most valuable piece of real estate I’ve found all year. I will return home to my suburban downtown reenergized to continue reimagining the transformation that has been underway for the last ten years—and just might inspire the next ten.
J. David Chapman, Ph.D., is chair of finance & professor real estate at The University of Central Oklahoma (jchapman7@uco.edu).