Character of Place: Creating Desirable Neighborhoods

Architects and developers discuss how to build neighborhoods that people actually want to live in.
In November 2023, the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art hosted the national conference Enduring Places. For three days, 225 participants from around the country gathered in Charleston, South Carolina and engaged in a diverse offering of talks, panel discussions, working sessions, and tours focused on three themes: craftsmanship, preservation, and sustainability.
Drawing on his recent book “Increments of Neighborhood: A Compendium of Built Types for Walkable and Vibrant Communities,” Moderator Brian O’Looney, along with fellow panelists, explored the challenges of and opportunities in creating a variety of building types and sizes to meet housing and development demands, while still producing beautiful and desirable buildings and spaces, that are responsive to the local historic context and tradition.
About the Series:
From April to June 2024, the ICAA will be releasing all of the recordings from Enduring Places. Sign up for the ICAA's biweekly newsletter, World of Classicism, to be notified when other installments are released in the coming weeks: bit.ly/ICAAemails
About the Speakers:
Daniel J. Doyle joined The Beach Company in 2004, with the role of expanding the company’s multi-family residential real estate portfolio throughout the southeast. Today, as Chief Operating Officer and Director of Development, Dan is responsible for all acquisition, development, marketing, asset, and property management functions of The Beach Company. He has 30 years of real estate industry experience, with the majority spent in the multi-family development and management sectors.
Brian O’Looney, AIA LEED-AP is a design architect, masterplanner, and a Principal at Torti Gallas and Partners. He led a team compiling a compendium of over 140 built types for walkable communities, Increments of Neighborhood, recently released by ORO Editions. Brian has guided award-winning mixed-use/ income/tenure, neighborhood-scaled, and transit-oriented designs across the United States serving metropolitan New York City (Somerville, NJ; South Orange, NJ), Chicago (Aurora, IL; Lombard, IL; Vernon Hills; IL), Atlanta (Herndon Square; Oakland City) Dallas (Oak Cliff, Plano, Frisco) and Washington, DC (North Bethesda MD, Columbia Heights DC, Petworth DC; and Potomac Yard, VA). His work promotes neighborhood desirability through considered architectural design of economical housing construction across all building scales, fostering community buy-in that creates long-term value for clients and ultimately, the preservation of housing stock.
Robert J. Turner was the development manager for two island developments: Spring Island, a 3,300-acre project with an emphasis on conservation, and Callawassie Island, an 880-acre planned unit golf course development. In 1992, Bob became the owner and partner of the Newpoint neighborhood, a new urbanism project that quickly gained national recognition and honors for its traditional design and architecture.
Bob led a public-private partnership with the town of Port Royal. The joint venture, Village Renaissance Inc., was instrumental in revitalizing many sites throughout the town, leading to a prestigious Congress for the New Urbanism Award.
Bob’s latest development project is Habersham, a 282-acre traditional neighborhood with 1,400 units along the waters of the Broad River in Beaufort. In 2004, the National Home Builders Association awarded Habersham the platinum award for “Best Neighborhood Design in America.” Habersham has also been awarded “America’s 100 Best Master-Planned Communities” four times by Where to Retire Magazine as well as “Best Neighborhood” by the Beaufort Gazette since 2011. In 2015, Southern Living Magazine awarded Habersham “Community of the Year,” and in 2018 Coastal Living Magazine awarded Habersham one of the “Top 20 Best Places to Live on the Coast.” Bob was also a founding board member of the National Town Builder’s Association.
Mike Watkins is the founder of Michael Watkins Architect, LLC, an urban design and architecture firm that designs places that foster community. Their work includes master plans for new communities, revitalization and extension plans for existing communities, design guidelines, town architect services, and urban design charrettes. The firm is the Town Architect for Norton Commons in Louisville, among other communities.
Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company hired Watkins to open their DC office in 1988. While with DPZ he served as Town Architect for Kentlands, a 352-acre neighborhood outside DC. He led many charrettes and was a member of design teams for over sixty towns and neighborhoods in the U.S. and abroad.