Serenbe—A Unique Green Town in the Making

Developer Steve Nygren is putting New Urbanist principles into practice at the Serenbe Community outside Atlanta

A wide range of architectural styles are represented at Serenbe. Click to enlarge.Photo Credit: Alex Wilson

I’m just back from Atlanta, where I spoke on Saturday at the new Bosch Experience Center located in the unique Serenbe Community thirty miles southwest of Atlanta.

I gotta say, I was impressed!

Serenbe is the creation of Steve Nygren, who was kind enough to show me around and point out some of the community’s green features after my presentation. It is a 1,000-acre new town development that is one of the best examples in the country today of what a green development can be.

For starters, the larger area—about 62 square miles—was incorporated by Nygren and some other developers as its own municipality, the City of Chattahoochee Hills, allowing them to establish some highly unusual zoning regulations. For example, at least 70 percent of the land in any development must remain as open space, which can include agriculture, recreation, or natural area.

Naturalized wetlands for sewage treatment

This constructed wetland treats all of the wastewater at Serenbe.Photo Credit: Alex Wilson

Before my presentation Saturday morning I explored some of the wild areas at Serenbe—or at least I thought they were wild. When I later talked with Nygren, he explained that part of the area I had walk through is actually an extensive constructed wetland for wastewater treatment.

Michael Ogden, of Biohabitats, headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland, whose work I have long admired, designed this system, which will be able to treat the wastewater from all 220 homes and townhouses once build-out is complete, along with two schools and significant areas of commercial development. Rather than being cordoned off with chain link fences, as one might expect with wastewater treatment, this sewage treatment area hosts a network of trails and a boardwalk for all to enjoy. (The wisdom of using onsite wastewater treatment at the community level rather than with a single building is explored in our feature article, Waste Water, Want Water.)

Biophillic features

Nygren appreciates nature and wants to facilitate greater appreciation of our outdoor environments. He is creating at Serenbe an institute focused on biophilia to promote and teach about biophilic features of land use. (Biophilia, a termed coined by Harvard biologist E. O. Wilson, is the innate affinity—or love—that humans have for nature.) Much of the landscaping in the development reflects this priority. I spent a while Friday afternoon photographing swallowtail butterflies on some gorgeous plantings of butterfly bush by the Inn at Serenbe and the Farmhouse Restaurant.

Traffic calming and edible landscaping are both provided by these curb bump-outs planted with blueberry bushes and fig trees.Photo Credit: Alex Wilson

Many of the traffic-calming bump-outs (extensions of curbs into the streets to slow traffic and demark on-street parking) are planted with edible landscaping. Nygren told me that the blueberry bushes and fig trees are favorites for the students who attend the Montessori school next to the Bosch Experience Center. Fruit trees that have been planted there will become popular as they reach fruit-bearing age.

New Urbanist development patterns

Conventional development today is sprawling, with each home served by a driveway and usually a garage facing the street; most houses are on cul de sacs, which discourage walking. At Serenbe, the houses are located right along the streets, with on-street parking in front and, often, alley access behind. Townhouses provide greater density and more urban feel in the town centers of the community.

Saturday afternoon, as I was leaving for the airport, a “tailgate party” of Georgia Tech football fans with a live band on one of the homes’ porches, had spilled out into the street as an impromptu block party—something the community is designed to encourage.

These townhouses include passive cooling features.Photo Credit: Alex Wilson

Many of these buildings feature live-work arrangements with commercial or retail space on the street level and apartments above. I stayed in a very pleasant in-town apartment that is managed by the Inn at Serenbe. After working on my presentation in my room Friday night, I walked downstairs and down a few doors on the sidewalk to discover a musician performing at the Blue Eyed Daisy Bakery Café.

I bought a beer and joined the 20 or so others enjoying the music. It isn’t quite the East Village, but I can see how this will become a more and more vibrant area as the build-out continues.

Serenbe is different from Seaside, probably America’s most famous New Urbanist town (on Florida’s panhandle). Serenbe is more spread out, with a lot more open space that separates the higher-density neighborhoods and three town centers (the construction of one of which has yet to begin). To get from one neighborhood to another some people drive (either by car—15 mph speed limit, controlled by rather robust speed bumps—or electric golf carts, which are very popular). An extensive network of trails also connect these areas.

Developer Steve Nygren in front of a 1,400 square-foot model "Nest Home" at Serenbe.Photo Credit: Alex Wilson

As more of the development is completed at Serenbe, I think it will gain more of a “critical mass” feel. Nygren pointed out places where clusters of additional homes will be built, along with several hundred thousand square feet of commercial space, including retail shops, offices, a hotel, and (notably) a brew-pub.

Farming at Serenbe

It was partly out of an interest is supporting local agriculture and food-to-plate initiatives that Serenbe was first created. Currently eight acres of land are being actively farmed in a certified organic and Biodynamic operation, and 25 acres are set aside for farming. The farm is managed by Paige Witherington with several interns, and it supplies food to a 125-person CSA (community-supported agriculture operation), the Saturday farmers market in one of the town centers, two acclaimed restaurants at Serenbe, and the Blue-Eyed Daisy Bakery. (Read more on integrating agriculture into the built environment.)

There are also horse pastures and stables, with trails extending through the undeveloped portions of the property.

Next week I’ll cover some of the energy features at Serenbe, includng a look at the transportation footprint of the project, relative to commuting and tying into mass transit.

Alex is founder of BuildingGreen, Inc. and executive editor of Environmental Building News. In 2012 he founded the Resilient Design Institute. To keep up with Alex’s latest articles and musings, you can sign up for his Twitter feed.