From left: Richard Sexton, Leigh Gallagher and Robert Davis
Homeowners Weekend features Seaside founder Robert Davis, photographer Richard Sexton and author Leigh Gallagher By Diane Dorney
This year, the Seaside Institute invites all homeowners to spend Friday evening, Oct. 17, with three engaging speakers — Richard Sexton, Leigh Gallagher and Robert Davis. This event will give homeowners an opportunity to experience the new Assembly Hall for the talk portion of the evening and then to socialize in the new Academic Village courtyard for the reception.
First up will be long-time Seaside homeowner and professional photographer Richard Sexton, who will talk of the “Magical Urbanism of the Creole World,” taken from his new book “Creole World,” released in April. His talk will be followed by a Q&A session about what makes the urban environments — the basis for the town plan of Seaside — special. Some cities he will touch on are New Orleans, Havana, Cienfuegos, Jacmel and many other cities and towns.
“Seaside is a Creole place too,” says Sexton. “Not in the natural, organic, cultural sense, but in its deliberate design, which has inspirations from the Creole world and its DNA has Creole markers.”
Sexton’s photo exhibit will also be on display at the Assembly Hall for the weekend.
Leigh Gallagher, author of “End of the Suburbs: Where the American Dream is Moving,” is an assistant managing editor at Fortune magazine and is co-chair of the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit. She appears regularly on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” “CBS This Morning” and CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” A gifted speaker, Gallagher has also participated in several TED talks, (short, powerful talks that focus on a variety of topics) in recent years.
In this particular talk, Gallagher will explain how the suburbs became our default residential landscape and the various unintended consequences that landscape created for our health, relationships, and overall quality of life.
“After more than half a century, Americans are starting to vote with their feet in droves and seek out places that are better, livelier and more satisfying,” she says.
Gallagher will also explain the race among builders, developers and the real estate industry to give people what they now want, including all the many experiments and new communities that are going up (and the older communities that are seeing second lives as “hipsturbias”). If true to her form, she will do this in an entertaining fashion with splashes of pop culture thrown into her presentation.
Wrapping up the evening series of talks, we will hear from Seaside founder, Robert Davis. Davis plans to give a “Founders Report” summarizing the accomplishments made during the last few years and hopes for the future.
The informative and entertaining evening starts at 5 p.m. in the Assembly Hall. Tickets are $30 if purchased online prior to the event; $40 at the door, and cover both the presentations and reception. They can be purchased at www.seasideinstitute.org.
Diane Dorney is executive director of The Seaside Institute.