Seaside, Florida, is a town designed as an "ideal" community, where houses have front porches and verandas, picket fences, sleeping porches, where streets are carved and paved with brick, and sidewalks are made of pebbles and seashells. This resort town on Florida’s panhandle coast has had an extraordinary impact on the thinking of architects, developers, planners, traffic engineers, sociologists, environmentalists, and even political thinkers. As the first, the most widely published, and now at twenty-five by far the most esteemed and well-known example of the revival of traditional neighborhood design, Seaside has become the icon of the New Urbanism movement, and has been emulated extensively.

About The Author

Seaside Institute is a nonprofit organization founded in 1982 by Robert Davis. Committed to enriching the community of Seaside, Florida, the Institute builds on a foundation of engagement, arts, education, and innovation, and sponsors a variety of events and programs. These include poetry readings, workshops, literary events, town halls, chamber music performances, tours, dance recitals, seminars, and architectural forums. The Institute, with contributions from luminaries such as HRH The Prince of Wales and famed architect Witold Rybczynzki, created the volume Views of Seaside: Commentaries and Observations on a City of Ideas.

HRH Charles, The Prince of Wales, is heir to the British throne. The founder of The Prince Trust and 17 other Prince's Charities, and a patron of over 450 charitable organizations worldwide, his interests encompass a range of humanitarian and social issues. These include the conservation of historic buildings—a subject on which he produced the book A Vision of Britain: A Personal View of Architecture in 1989—organic farming, climate change, and environmental conservation.

Witold Rybczynski is an architect, author, and Emertius Professor of Urbanism at the University of Pennsylvania. Born in Edinburgh in 1943 to Polish parents, he grew up in Surrey and attended school in England and Canada. He holds both Bachelors and Masters degrees in Architecture from McGill University and has authored more than 50 works on architecture, housing, and technology. These include The Most Beautiful House in the World, Looking Around: A Journey Through Architecture, Waiting for the Weekend, Paper Heroes, and Taming the Tiger. Rybczynski lives with his wife in Philadelphia.

John Prescott is a British politician. From 1997 to 2007, Prescott was the Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. A former trade union activist and ship’s steward, he holds degrees from the University of Hull and Ruskin College. In 2008, his autobiography Prezza, My Story: Pulling no Punches was released. He also contributed to the volume Views of Seaside: Commentaries and Observations on a City of Ideas.

Robert A.M. Stern is an architect, writer, teacher, and principal of the Robert A.M. Stern Architects firm in New York. The Dean of the Yale School of Architecture, he was awarded the Topaz Medallion by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture and the American Institute of Architects, of which he is a Fellow. He has authored several books, including New York 1900, New York 1930, and Modern Classicism.