 Andres Duaney is one of the most recognized names of green architects. Duany and Plater-Zyberk founded Duany Plater Zyberk & Company (DPZ) in 1980, headquartered in Miami, Florida. DPZ became a leader in the national movement called the New Urbanism, which seeks to end suburban sprawl and urban disinvestment. The firm first received international recognition in the 1980s as the designer of Seaside, Florida, featured in the movie The Truman Show, and Kentlands, Maryland. Duaney's firm has completed designs and building codes for over two hundred new towns, regional plans and community revitalization projects. At DPZ, Duany also led the development of comprehensive municipal zoning ordinances that prescribe appropriate urban arrangement for all uses and all densities of development.
Duany's latest effort is a new model zoning code called the SmartCode, developed after four and a half years of intensive work. He has remarked that the SmartCode is so far his life's hardest work. The SmartCode is based on his work with his brother Douglas on an analytical tool called the Transect. The notion, developed by Sir Patrick Geddes in the early 1900's and refined by the Duany brothers, is that urbanism occurs across a spectrum from urban center to rural wilderness, and that any system of zoning must account for that structure.
DPZ's projects have received numerous awards, including two National AIA Awards, the Vincent Scully Prize, the Thomas Jefferson Medal and two Governor's Urban Design Awards 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. The firm has been featured in other national media.
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 10,000 acres throughout the United States. The firm is also rewriting the entire City of Miami zoning code in the groundbreaking Miami 21 project.
Duaney's firm now has three offices in the nation; one in North Carolina, one in Miami and one in Washington, D.C. DPZ has also taken a leading role in the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast after hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Working with both with the Mississippi Governor's Commission on Recovery, Rebuilding and Renewal and the Louisiana Recovery Authority, DPZ's designers generated plans for rebuilding at various scales as well as guidelines for individual homeowners looking to rebuild. DPZ organized and led the Mississippi Renewal Forum, which generated plans for all eleven municipalites along the Mississippi Coast, conducted the Louisiana Speaks charrette series and participated in the Unified New Orleans Plan as neighborhood planners. This will help create a sustainable, humane community for the rebuilding of the affected areas.
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