A Sense of Place with an intelligent treatment of the natural environment
To accomplish this, Tannin’s founder sought out the planning team of Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk of Coconut Grove, Florida. Their modest disclaimer that “we invent nothing” is counterpoint to the lavish praise given them and their projects by Time Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The London Financial Times, The Atlantic Monthly, etc. Their simple, insistent, common-sense plea for a return to traditional neighborhood planning strikes a responsive chord in everyone who knows the beauty of a nineteenth century American town and asks themselves why it can’t be that way again.

Andres and Elizabeth were clinically empirical. They traveled the Southeast to study old towns, to measure street width, building set backs and heights, lot sizes, roof pitches, porches and parking spaces. Certain basic traits emerged that characterize all successful towns. These traits were distilled in Tannin’s Codes. These Codes work together to foster a harmonious architectural language tied to the traditions of the region; to plan for both commercial and residential uses but without the customary divisions that require dependence on the automobile; and encourage relationships between people, the community and the natural environment. – Scott Merrill, architect