Seaside is an unincorporated master-planned community on the Florida panhandle in Walton County, between Panama City Beach and Destin. Being one of the first cities in America designed on the principles of New Urbanism, the town has become the topic of slide lectures in architectural schools and in housing-industry magazines, and is visited by design professionals from all over the United States. The town rose to global fame as being the main filming location of the movie The Truman Show. On April 18, 2012, the American Institute of Architects's Florida Chapter placed the community on its list of Florida Architecture: 100 Years. 100 Places as the Seaside – New Urbanism Township.HistoryThe idea behind Seaside came from 1946, when the grandfather of future founder Robert S. Davis bought 80acre of land along the shore of Northwest Florida as a summer retreat for his family. In 1979 Davis inherited the parcel from his grandfather, and aimed to transform it into an old-fashioned beach town, with traditional wood-framed cottages of the Florida Panhandle. Davis, his wife Daryl, and architectural partners Andrés Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk of Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company (DPZ), toured the south studying small towns as a basis for planning Seaside.
