DPZ CoDesign is an architecture and town planning firm based in Miami, Florida, founded in 1980 by the husband-and-wife team of Andrés Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk. The firm is one of the preeminent advocates of New Urbanist town planning in the United States and other countries, having completed designs for over 300 new and existing communities. In addition to Duany and Plater-Zyberk, DPZ's Partners include Galina Tachieva, Marina Khoury, Senen M. A. Antonio and Matthew J. Lambert.
DPZ has received numerous awards for its projects, including two National AIA Awards; the Thomas Jefferson Award; the Vincent Scully Prize; and two Governor's Urban DesignAwards for Excellence. The firm's early project of Seaside, Florida, was the first authentic new town to be built successfully in the United States in over fifty years. In 1989, Time Magazine selected Seaside as one of the 10 “Best of the Decade” achievements in the field of design.
Notable projects
Well-known planned communities designed by DPZ include:
DPZ's early work brought international attention to the postwar decline of urban planning. The firm was among the first to advocate sustainable, environmentally-responsive, pedestrian-oriented neighborhoods, designed for mixed-use and compact urban growth. A significant aspect of DPZ's work is its innovative use of planning regulations which accompany each design. Tailored to the individual project, the codes address the manner in which buildings are designed and located to ensure that they create useful and distinctive public spaces. Architectural style, often based upon local building traditions and techniques, is also codified within the regulations. In the last decade, DPZ has developed a new model zoning code, called the SmartCode. This is based on an analytical tool called the Transect, which classifies degrees of urbanism within a continuum, from the urban core, through general urban neighborhoods, to rural wilderness. The new code promotes a system of zoning appropriate to each component of the continuum. The growing acceptance of traditional neighborhood development has inspired many municipalities across the country to adopt the SmartCode. The firm's method of integrating master plans with project-specific design codes and regulations is currently being applied to sites ranging from 10 to throughout the United States. Abroad, DPZ projects are underway in Scotland, Canada, Germany, Belgium, Mexico, Brazil, Spain, England, Russia, Turkey, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and the Philippines. The firm's urban redevelopment plans for existing communities include those for Baton Rouge, Louisiana; West Palm Beach, Naples, Sarasota, and Fort Myers, Florida; and Providence, Rhode Island. In addition, the firm prepared a comprehensive overhaul of the City of Miami's zoning code, dubbed Miami 21, which was passed in May 2010.
Disaster Recovery Planning
DPZ has taken a leading role in the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast after hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Working with the Mississippi Governor's Commission on Recovery, Rebuilding and Renewal, and the Louisiana Recovery Authority, DPZ's designers have generated plans for rebuilding at the regional, local and neighborhood level. They have also developed guidelines for individual homeowners looking to rebuild. Notably, DPZ organized and led the Mississippi Renewal Forum, which generated plans for eleven municipalities along the Mississippi Coast; prepared a series of typological plans for recovery and redevelopment of the Southern Louisiana coast under the Louisiana Speaks effort; and participated in the Unified New Orleans Plan as the neighborhood planner for the French Quarter, the Central Business District and Gentilly. Following the earthquake that struck Haiti in 2010, DPZ, working under the banner of The Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment, prepared a recovery plan for Port-au-Prince.
Publications
Andrés Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk's book Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream, written with Jeff Speck and published in 2000, was hailed in the national media as “an essential text for our time,” and “a major literary event.” Their book New Civic Art : Elements of Town Planning, written with Robert Alminana, was published to wide acclaim. More recent publications by or about DPZ include Duany and Speck's The Smart Growth Manual; Thomas E. Low's Light Imprint Handbook: Integrating Sustainability and Community Design; Galina Tachieva's Sprawl Repair Manual; and Duany's Garden Cities: Theory & Practice of Agrarian Urbanism.
