DPZ CoDesign

DPZ CoDesign, commonly known as DPZ, is an American architecture and town-planning practice headquartered in Miami, Florida. The firm was founded in 1980 by architects and planners Andrés Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk. It is associated with the New Urbanism movement, which emphasizes compact, walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods, traditional urban forms, connected street networks, and development patterns intended to reduce dependence on automobiles. The practice operates across several scales. Its work includes regional and downtown plans, new towns, urban infill, villages and resort villages, transit-oriented development, suburban retrofits, university and institutional campuses, housing, civic buildings, and broader community-design frameworks. Rather than limiting its work to individual buildings, DPZ has often approached architecture as part of a larger physical and social system involving streets, public spaces, land-use patterns, transportation, and neighborhood structure. One of the firm's best-known projects is Seaside, Florida, a planned coastal community designed under the leadership of Duany and Plater-Zyberk. Seaside became an influential example of a contemporary settlement based on traditional town-planning principles and helped bring New Urbanist ideas to wider public attention. In 1989, Time magazine selected Seaside as one of its ten “Best of the Decade” achievements in design. The project is also described as the first authentic new town built in the United States in more than fifty years at the time of its development. DPZ's work has extended beyond greenfield town building. The firm has contributed to downtown revitalization, neighborhood planning, disaster recovery, coastal redevelopment, and strategies for repairing automobile-oriented suburban areas. Following Hurricane Katrina, DPZ organized and led the Mississippi Renewal Forum, producing plans for eleven municipalities along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Under the Louisiana Speaks initiative, it prepared typological plans for recovery and redevelopment along the Southern Louisiana coast. In New Orleans, the firm participated in the Unified New Orleans Plan as neighborhood planner for the French Quarter, the Central Business District, and Gentilly. After the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, DPZ worked with The Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment on a recovery plan for Port-au-Prince. The firm has also shaped professional and public debate through books and planning manuals produced by its principals and collaborators. These publications address sprawl, smart growth, civic design, sustainable community planning, suburban retrofit, and agrarian urbanism. They have helped connect DPZ's built projects with a broader theory of urban form and development. DPZ's offices are located in Miami, Gaithersburg, Maryland, and Portland, Oregon. In addition to its founders, the firm's listed partners include Galina Tachieva, Marina Khoury, Senen M. A. Antonio, and Matthew J. Lambert. DPZ has received two National AIA Awards, the Thomas Jefferson Award, the Vincent Scully Prize, and the Richard H. Driehaus Prize. Its identity remains centered on integrated architecture, urban design, planning, and community-scale problem solving rather than on a conventional consumer brand or publicly traded corporate structure.

DPZ CoDesign was established in 1980 by Andrés Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk. From its beginnings, the practice combined architectural design with town planning and regional-scale analysis. This interdisciplinary model became closely associated with New Urbanism, a movement that promoted compact settlement, walkable streets, mixed uses, connected public spaces, and architecture related to local civic and urban traditions. The firm's early influence was strongly connected to planned communities and the development of alternatives to postwar suburban sprawl. Seaside, Florida, became its most prominent early project and an important reference point in the history of contemporary New Urbanist design. The community demonstrated how a new settlement could use traditional street patterns, a legible public realm, and a coherent architectural language. In 1989, Time magazine recognized Seaside as one of the decade's ten notable design achievements, helping expose DPZ's approach to a broad international audience. Over time, DPZ expanded its practice beyond individual planned communities. Its portfolio and methodology came to include regional strategies, downtown plans, urban infill, villages, resort villages, transit-oriented development, campuses, housing, civic buildings, and suburban retrofit. The practice treated these assignments as connected design problems: the placement of buildings, the shape of streets, the organization of public space, transportation access, and the relationship between neighborhoods and larger regions were considered together. DPZ also became involved in recovery and resilience planning. After Hurricane Katrina, the firm organized and led the Mississippi Renewal Forum, which produced recovery and redevelopment plans for eleven municipalities along the Mississippi Coast. Through the Louisiana Speaks initiative, it developed a series of typological plans for the Southern Louisiana coast. In New Orleans, DPZ served as neighborhood planner for the French Quarter, the Central Business District, and Gentilly as part of the Unified New Orleans Plan. After the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, the firm worked under The Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment to prepare a recovery plan for Port-au-Prince. The firm's ideas were disseminated through books written by its principals and collaborators. Suburban Nation examined the consequences of automobile-oriented sprawl; New Civic Art addressed the elements of town planning; later publications covered smart growth, sustainable community design, suburban repair, and agrarian urbanism. These works positioned DPZ not only as a project practice but also as a source of planning theory and professional guidance. The organization has used several names over its history, including Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co. and DPZ Partners, before adopting the DPZ CoDesign name identified in the current reference material. Its offices are in Miami, Gaithersburg, Maryland, and Portland, Oregon. The practice's listed partners include its two founders as well as Galina Tachieva, Marina Khoury, Senen M. A. Antonio, and Matthew J. Lambert. DPZ has received two National AIA Awards, the Thomas Jefferson Award, the Vincent Scully Prize, and the Richard H. Driehaus Prize. Its continuing work is centered on architecture, urban design, planning, and community-scale responses to growth, redevelopment, and recovery.

• 2010

  Port-au-Prince recovery planning

  [1]DPZ CoDesignen.wikipedia.org

  Following Haiti's earthquake, DPZ worked with The Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment on a recovery plan for Port-au-Prince.

• 1989

  Seaside recognized as a major design achievement

  [1]DPZ CoDesignen.wikipedia.org

  Time magazine selected the firm's Seaside, Florida, project as one of its ten Best of the Decade achievements in design.

• 1980

  Firm founded

  [1]DPZ CoDesignen.wikipedia.org

  Andrés Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk founded the practice that later became known as DPZ CoDesign.

A specialist architecture and planning practice focused on New Urbanist principles, traditional urban form, walkable communities, integrated public space, and planning at multiple geographic scales.

• Planning services

  Urban and regional plans

  DPZ prepares plans operating at regional, metropolitan, downtown, and neighborhood scales. These services integrate land use, street connectivity, public spaces, transportation, development patterns, and civic structure. The firm's planning approach is generally associated with compact, mixed-use, walkable urbanism and with adapting traditional town-planning principles to contemporary growth and redevelopment challenges.

• Town planning and design

  New towns, villages, and resort villages

  The firm designs new settlements and village-scale developments organized around identifiable centers, connected streets, public spaces, and a mix of building types and uses. Seaside, Florida, is the best-known example associated with DPZ. The practice's work in this area seeks to coordinate architecture, landscape, mobility, and civic form rather than treating buildings as isolated objects.

• Urban design

  Transit-oriented development

  DPZ works on development patterns that concentrate housing, employment, services, and public activity around transit and connected pedestrian networks. Its transit-oriented work is part of a broader effort to create neighborhoods with shorter distances between daily destinations and stronger relationships between transportation infrastructure and urban form.

• Urban regeneration

  Suburban retrofit

  Suburban retrofit work addresses automobile-oriented areas by considering how oversized roads, disconnected parcels, commercial strips, and single-use districts can evolve into more complete communities. The firm's approach may involve improved street networks, infill, housing, public spaces, mixed uses, and stronger connections between existing destinations.

• Resilience and recovery planning

  Disaster recovery and coastal redevelopment planning

  DPZ has prepared recovery and redevelopment frameworks for communities affected by hurricanes, coastal hazards, and earthquakes. The work includes municipal and neighborhood plans, settlement typologies, rebuilding strategies, and guidance for restoring civic and economic life while responding to local physical conditions.

• Architecture

  Architecture, housing, campuses, and civic buildings

  Alongside planning, DPZ designs buildings and building programs including housing, institutional campuses, civic buildings, and other components of urban districts. These projects are positioned within their surrounding streets and public spaces, reflecting the firm's emphasis on architecture as part of a larger community structure.

• 2010Port-au-Prince recovery plan

  Port-au-Prince · Haiti

  After the 2010 Haiti earthquake, DPZ worked under The Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment on a recovery plan for Port-au-Prince.

  Outcome. A recovery-planning framework was prepared for the Haitian capital.

  Source
• Mississippi Renewal Forum

  Mississippi Gulf Coast · United States

  DPZ organized and led a recovery-planning forum after Hurricane Katrina. The process generated plans for eleven municipalities along the Mississippi Coast.

  Outcome. Municipal recovery and redevelopment plans were produced for the participating coastal communities.

  Source
• Louisiana Speaks

  Southern Louisiana · United States

  Under the Louisiana Speaks initiative, DPZ prepared typological plans addressing recovery and redevelopment along the Southern Louisiana coast.

  Outcome. The work supplied planning typologies intended to guide coastal recovery and future redevelopment.

  Source
• Unified New Orleans Plan

  New Orleans · United States

  DPZ participated in the Unified New Orleans Plan as neighborhood planner for the French Quarter, the Central Business District, and Gentilly.

  Outcome. The firm contributed neighborhood-scale planning to the city's broader post-disaster recovery framework.

  Source

1. 1DPZ CoDesignen.wikipedia.org