Todd Zimmerman and Laurie Volk, co-principals-in-charge of Zimmerman/Volk Associates (ZVA), will be this year’s recipients of the Seaside Prize. The Seaside Prize ceremony and dinner, along with a housing symposium and walking tour, will be held Feb. 20–22.
“Todd and Laurie’s impact on the success of New Urbanism has been enormous,” said Frank Starkey, chairman of the board of the Seaside Institute. “They have played a major role in getting new urban developments built and traditional downtowns revitalized by reinventing real estate market research and unlocking a method for understanding — and proving — the market viability of urbanism.”
ZVA specializes in the analysis of compact and sustainable development; mixed-income, mixed-tenure redevelopment; mixed-use urban revitalization; and traditional neighborhood developments, and the firm is recognized as the go-to expert on market feasibility of urban redevelopment and New Urbanism.
Since 1988, the woman-owned company has completed more than 450 market studies, for sites ranging in size from the redevelopment of half a block to the establishment of a new town on several thousand acres.
Volk currently serves on the advisory board of the Remaking Cities Institute. She was a founding board member, now emeritus, of the National Charrette Institute, and served for more than a dozen years on the Board of Governors of the Seaside Institute.
Zimmerman was one of the framers of the Charter of the Congress for the New Urbanism, a member of the CNU Board of Directors, and its executive committee. He also served as chairman of the CNU Council of Task Force Chairs.
“The new urbanism movement owes much to Laurie and Todd, two unsung heroes who have championed NU principles,” said former Seaside Prize recipient Dhiru Thadani.
Seaside Prize winners Todd Zimmerman and Laurie Volk will be honored during the Seaside Prize ceremony this February.
“Over the past three decades they have provided design professionals, developers, and cities, from New England to Hawaii, with exemplary market studies based on their proprietary methodology,” said Thadani. “Their studies have laid the groundwork for an astonishingly wide range of developments — from the market potential of mixed-income residents of HOPE VI neighborhoods to mixed-use developments proposed by the New Urbanist community.”
The housing symposium will be led by Zimmerman and Volk and include a number of prominent architects and planning professionals. It will commence on Friday evening and continue on Saturday morning and afternoon. The Prize ceremony will be held at 7 p.m. with a dinner following in the Assembly Hall. Sunday morning, a tour of Rosemary Beach led by Patrick Bienvenue will conclude the weekend activities.
The Seaside Prize is awarded annually by The Seaside Institute to individuals or organizations that have made significant contributions to the quality and character of our communities and are considered the leaders of contemporary urban development and education. The 2015 Prize ceremony will be held Feb. 21 at the Assembly Hall in Seaside. A symposium will be held that weekend in conjunction with the prize.
For more information about The Seaside Prize and a list of former prize recipients, visit seasideinstitute.org/seaside-prize/.
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