Pastel Paradise
Seaside's panhandle community is a haven for artists and small-town lovers alike.
Photo by Sara Roggenbuck
Seaside's architecture is reminiscent of the small-town
atmosphere with an emphasis on a good-quality of life
for the residents.
As the wind rushes through the Coleman Pavilion on the pristine, white beaches of Seaside, the Gulf of Mexico creates a soundtrack of breaking waves that complement the coastal view. Quaint cottages in muted colors line the north side.
Founded in 1981 on the basis of New Urbanism by Robert and Daryl Davis, the coastal community is a throwback to the way life used to be in small-town America with emphasis on the artsy side. Seaside, located along Florida’s panhandle, is a planned community featuring a small-town atmosphere.
“Styles and designs here may not work in a regular community,” says Leslie Pickel, associate director of the Seaside Institute. “There’s more freedom for creativity.”
Seaside provided the backdrop for the 1998 film The Truman Show. The Seaside Neighborhood School, a charter school founded in 1996, was built with the location fee from The Truman Show.
On the second floor of one of the school buildings is the Seaside Institute, one of the community’s oldest organizations. It’s a driving force of arts and education, focusing more on the homeowners and not the tourists, Pickel says.
“We’re really restoring the community to a better quality of life,” Pickel says of the institute’s many programs and the effect they have on the areas outside Seaside, as well as the small town itself.
Escape to Create, an artist-in-residence program sponsored by the non-profit institute, invites eight to 10 artists to live in Seaside each January to work on individual projects. Seaside homeowners donate houses for each artist to spend the month working on his or her creation. Rebecca Wells, author of “Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood,” is one of the most famous “escapees,” as the participants are known.