Known For
Founding Seaside, Florida as the first New Urbanist community and revolutionizing American approaches to walkable, mixed-use town development.
About
Robert Davis inherited 80 acres on Florida's Panhandle in 1978 and spent the early 1980s developing Seaside, an intentionally designed community that rejected sprawling suburban models in favor of narrow gridded streets, front-porch bungalows, and integrated retail and civic spaces. A Harvard Business School graduate and Miami-based award-winning developer before founding Seaside, Davis employed a patient, phased growth strategy—selling 20 to 30 lots annually and reinvesting profits into infrastructure—that allowed the community to appreciate substantially over decades while establishing itself as the birthplace of New Urbanism. His architectural vision, shaped by childhood beach vacations and executed with planners Andrés Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, earned recognition from Time magazine as the era's most astonishing design achievement and influenced global town-planning movements. Davis founded the Congress for the New Urbanism and currently chairs the Seaside Institute while leading Arcadia Land Company, a firm specializing in town building and land stewardship. He holds the Rome Prize, Florida's Governor's Award, and has served on state environmental and growth management committees that shaped South Florida's sustainable development policies.