Serenbe Stories

Creating A Sense of Place: Walking Tour with Steve Nygren

October 17, 2022 Serenbe Media Network Season 7 Episode 9
Serenbe Stories
Creating A Sense of Place: Walking Tour with Steve Nygren
Show Notes Transcript

As you wander through Serenbe’s hamlets, taking in the details, the architecture, and feeling nature all around you, you can’t help but feel a true sense of place. Placemaking is the process of building high-quality spaces that encourage learning, play, happiness, and health - it’s the intentionality that’s been built into Serenbe’s model from day one. In this special episode of Serenbe Stories, join Steve Nygren for a walking tour of the community and learn all about how he designed the public areas and community at large in order to promote connection to nature, wellness, and a sense of community.  We’ll start at the Blue Eyed Daisy, move through Selborne and Grange, and end in Mado. Whether you’re listening at home, in your car, or joining us for a walk through Serenbe, we hope you enjoy this placemaking tour!

Show Notes

1 (13s):
If you lived or worked in Cy, or even if you've just visited a handful of times, you may have heard the term placemaking place making refers of thoughtful process of building high quality spaces that promote health, happiness, and where people feel encouraged to play and learn. As you wander through C'S neighborhood hamlets and take in all the little details that make this place exceptional, you can't help but feel the sense of place that's all around you. In today's episode of Cys Stories, Steve takes us on a walking tour of the community, starting at the Blue Eye, Daisy and Southborne, and ending at the one motto building in motto. Throughout this tour, he'll walk us through the intentionality behind Serenbe public spaces and the ways in which they promote wellness, community and a connection to nature.

1 (55s):
Please note we recorded this episode on an actual walking tour, so excuse the few instances of cars passing by light golf cart tweaks and home construction and motto. You may also notice some guests of wind and bird song. You can enjoy this audio tour at home in the car or follow along on foot in Cy. So without further ado, let's get started on our tour with Steve. And if you're doing the tour in person, meet us at the blue eye Daisy.

2 (1m 23s):
We're now standing in front of the blue eyed daisy and being a hospitality person, we realized it was important to have a hub from the very beginning. So when this was all just a forest, we declared we were going to put a bake shop, coffee shop restaurant right in the middle of the woods and everyone thought we were crazy, but you can see now this is the hub of Cy and we opened the blue eye daisy by the time the fourth resident had moved in. So this is truly a key center notice that this is a lead certified building and this was in the early days of lead certification and we believe this remains the smallest lead certified building in the United States.

2 (2m 9s):
It's a good time to pop in if you haven't already to get something to drink. If you want to get that on our walking tour, there are restrooms inside. So now we're going to walk up to the first section. So the first section of road came from our wildflower meadow to this crosswalk that you're seeing just past the blue eye daisy. Let's walk around the building or we can go through the building and I wanna show you the courtyard. So as you walk down this corridor between the blue eye daisy sign and Balog, notice the shape of the buildings. They are very much like you saw maybe a hundred years ago and they're not square buildings and they're built to the land, which seems very logical, but you don't see that today.

2 (2m 53s):
So we'll come down this pedestrian corridor. Notice the brick on the blue, I daisy. That's all recycled brick from a building that was torn down and gives that real historic. One of my favorite stories is when I walked out one day and a couple were standing in the middle of the street arguing whether this was a restored building or a new building. And so I realized we'd accomplished everything we wanted to do. Notice the mailboxes here at the Blue Eye Daisy back door. Each section of the community has their mailboxes rather than having at the front door or outside the front walk. They're all in these places that people gather for other reasons. So they're either near a restaurant, the coffee shop, play areas, park areas.

2 (3m 34s):
And the big joke here is you meet all your neighbors while you're going to get the mail, but it does sometimes take two hours to get your mail. Then you come on into the courtyard. And one unique thing about this courtyard is this is also a geothermal well field because we realized, you see these buildings to your right, there's no back door. We're now at the, at what you would consider the back of the building. There's buildings look down on the roofs and so there was no place to put a traditional air compressor. Plus if we had air compressors on this high density area, there would be a high noise level, which it's very quiet today. You hear the birds, you hear a dog in the distance, but it's very quiet.

2 (4m 16s):
So, and as you walk through seren be, you'll notice that that's true everywhere because geothermal is now mandatory. This fountain and courtyard was designed by Ryan Gainey is a rather famous designer who has passed away several years ago, but if you do not know his work, you can look up Ryan Gainey and you'll find one of the most interesting colorful landscape people in the United States. There have been documentaries in all on him and we were lucky to know him and you'll see his fingerprint in several places at Cby. Now it's amazing when you look at the scale, you're behind a four story building from the courtyard. Opposites of courtyard are all the townhouses that open onto the woods, and so they have a lower level that you're not seeing here that has either an apartment or extension to the house, a yoga studio.

2 (5m 3s):
And so this is our real flexibility you can have here as you come through the arbor turn right to go up the stairs back to the street. As we come up the stairs, notice this is all granite steps that is from granite quarries within 50 to 70 miles of serenity depending on which quarry the various places were received. Also, speaking of granite, notice granite curbs. You don't see granite curbs in new developments today. Yet anything 50 a hundred years ago all had granite curves. So we have brought that back here at the top of the stairs. You'll also notice our streetlight. These are custom lights. We commissioned the artist Robert Roche, and these were cast in a foundry just over the Alabama line from a small artistic foundry.

2 (5m 53s):
So each community, as you'll see, will have a different streetlight that reinforces the intent of the commercial for that area. And so here in Sal Barne, we really have focused on the arts and I can tell you a little bit more about the arts and and what we're doing there. As we come down to this intersection, you'll see that we left the blue eyed daisy Here you have live works. Now, 20 years ago when we were starting to plan this, livos weren't allowed in most zoning, and even today they're not. But what's unique is these live works are across the street from single family homes and they are next to townhouses which are attached, which are across from the blue i daisy, which is a commercial.

2 (6m 36s):
Now, this intersection I believe remains illegal in almost all zoning codes today. Yet if you look at any community built in 1930s or before, this is a very common occurrence. So I often think that we have sanitized our zoning rules and a reaction to various things that we've really taken the vitality out of where we live. And I think the two years of the pandemic, when people were forced to stay in the neighborhoods and the places they chose to live, we saw that people weren't happy with the way we've been developing in the last few years.

2 (7m 18s):
And this is why you're seeing such movement and such interest in going back to some of the core small towns and center cities where conditions like this exist. And so those are some of the zoning codes we need to change. So let's go back and I'll walk along this street. Now remember, these were the first houses done when the real estate community and the finance community convinced us are convinced me at this point that I was crazy. But Ray Anderson was my mentor and founder of Interface Carpet had somehow pushed me through that passion, that threshold of passion to where we knew we had to do it.

2 (7m 59s):
And so we decided we would build a townhouse, which is the stonehouse at the end, to show people what a townhouse would be like out here because in the woods, again, people couldn't imagine this kind of density and we would build the blue eyed daisy. And my sister-in-law said she would do a cottage and a friend Ross Haber said he would build in a state house. And so I decided that we could have four buildings of different types that would start to show what we were trying to do. And he would of course put in the streets and the granite curves and the street lights and the trees and various people who knew what we were doing had said, Oh, I wanna know about I think is great. And I thought they were just being kind and sweet.

2 (8m 41s):
And so we sent a note out that we finally were actually going to do this. And I priced 20 lots of the mixed products and within 48 hours they were all reserved. And I took the prices up 20% and released the remaining 20. And within six weeks they were all reserved. And so we built this whole street at the same time in 2004 and five, which showed me that the market responded to what we were doing. While the analysts who were always looking in the rear view mirror really didn't think that this would work with people parking on the street like we did in the old neighborhoods with front porches pulled next to the street, which were magical during the pandemic because people could still engage by sitting on their front porch.

2 (9m 30s):
And so this street is filled with what you call common sense. Now if you look also notice the ridge caps that we're in the middle of the street and we're headed to a one story cottage that actually below grade there's steps going down from the street and it gradually goes up and around the corner and will be eventually when we come back around to a four story building. And this is what we call a transect, where it gradually moves through the community and changes at every crosswalk on the left side or the cottages that are stepping up from the stream. And on the right side are houses stepping down from the hill to the street so that in the transect nears the blue ida in the lib works, they are all pulled into form urban walls along the street.

2 (10m 23s):
But as you come out, you see it fans out as though you're opening your arms out to nature. And the Wildflower meadow, one unique thing, I don't know how many have noticed that what's really different about this street now, granted it's granite curves, it's trees, it's porches, custom street lights. But one unique thing again that many people said we could never sell a house in the south without a lawn, but I didn't know how to have an in chemical free front yard if we were gonna have a lawn. And so all of our yards are purely natural landscaping and amazing the number of people that don't even think about not having a lawn here.

2 (11m 9s):
Now, the street life that we're approaching here at the end of the street here at ninety thirty one cell borne lane is the first crosswalk that you would encounter if you were coming from the wildflower meadow. And if you just continue about four more houses, if you wanna see the wildflower meadow, that's where the community starts, where the pavement is, that wildflower meadow in 2000 was a forest that we did not own and it was the destruction of that forest that really put me on the path to become a developer. And if you want to hear more about that story, you can go to seren be stories where we give the entire history of how the cby as a community was developed.

2 (11m 59s):
So this crosswalk is the transition between the more natural environment. So these houses that do not have curves, this is introducing houses into the natural landscape. So you'll see the landscape's more natural, there's no curves, there's no streetlights. And then here at this first crosswalk it starts to change. And here we introduce the curves and the crosswalks and you can see how this is starting to become more urban with the houses stepping up from the stream and down from the hill to start forming that urban wall. But we always curve our streets so you're pulled through a street to see what is beyond.

2 (12m 41s):
That's interesting. And there's always a terminus. So no matter how the street turns, you're looking at an interesting building or a Foley or something in nature that's happening. But we're gonna go down this path now. And as I mentioned, each street light is also a beacon for a public path. So anytime you're see a street light, look at one side or the other of the street, there's gonna be a path you can take. So we'll come down here into the woods and you can see how it changes the temperature On a warm day, you can start to feel that it's cooler and you're in just total nature right out your back door, which makes Serenbe very unique.

2 (13m 23s):
Every house it's Serenbe opens onto or is a few feet away from a preserved forest, a wildflower meadow, a organic farm or a pasture. And so that's pretty unique. And so we say, depending on what mood you're in, is when you decide whether you want to go out the front door to socialize or if you want to go out the back door to be more meditative. And generally we have to choose where we're going to live that offers one of those things and then we have to get in its car and drive to the other. But here it's simply which door you're going to walk out, come down the steps, the alt pole steps, and you'll get to the bottom, which is you're in the middle of the forest with houses on each side.

2 (14m 17s):
Now again, when we began, everyone was very cautious and concerned that we were building houses without a back alley for automobiles that houses would not have a garage. And I was worried that maybe they were right that America is really addicted to their cars, but all the houses that we are now seeing have park on the street and their porches are many times within five feet. Their back porches are within five feet of existing trees. And you can see some of these portraits sit high and you can actually look down into burness. And as we came into the second section where people understood this, the houses that were right next to nature sold 20% faster than those across the street where there is a back alley where you do have a place to park.

2 (15m 12s):
Now, initially our builders and all thought we should build garages and there are some houses with it, but we stopped doing that because we found people didn't wanna block their view of nature. And so many people have abandoned even have a garage, they'll just park along the back of their house. This pathway, you can see this is very straight and this is sort of the center spine of sacred geometry. Cy is laid out all with sacred geometry. Phil Tab evolved into being our land planner. He did his doctorate on the English village system and while in England he became a trained sacred geometry. Here again, there's more details on that at Serenbe Stories.

2 (15m 55s):
If you wanna learn about sacred geometry or how we laid out Serenbe, and you can listen to Phil Tabs interview in Serenbe stories on this path, you can get to everywhere throughout Serenbe without being on a street. And so you can imagine how freeing this is for all of our kids and the parents. And one of the common things you'll see is all of our free range kids, which again is something that was very common 50 years ago and is more of a rarity unfortunately. And I think it's a a real disservice. And if you have read Last Child in the Woods by Richard Lou, you'll understand how important this path and paths like this are to the actual brain development of the kids.

2 (16m 45s):
Now look on your right, you'll see some white pipes that have been coming out of these angst that we have along the path. We've coming you maybe didn't realize you've been walking along our storm water retention ponds. So rather than these retention ponds that you see with chain link fences at places, we try to move the storm water off of the streets that has the various oils and things in it into bio retention swells so that they are naturally cleansed through the earth. And so by the time the water returns to the stream, we have been able to filter out all the pollutants that come in all our developed areas where we have asphalt roads, We'll come to a T at the end of the path and we're gonna turn right now, if we were to turn left, we would be back up in the courtyard behind the blue eye daisy.

2 (17m 45s):
All right, you'll see the steps and come up the steps. And now we're into a cluster of liveworks that we call the Mond in areas with balconies. And these are all designed with a possible artist studio or shop. So the French doors you see opening onto patio couldn't be a shop. Some people use 'em as offices, some shops, and then the door, many are painted a different color that takes you to the second and third floor residence. So these are great places for envision for artists because the double doors that we're seeing here also open in double doors back to the garage. And so on the weekend, if you're doing a artist market, you could triple the size of your shop.

2 (18m 29s):
And so these are designed for that because they were early on, there's not our and all of them, but we envision as time goes on gradually, this is an obvious place for people that wanna have their home art shop out studio. This is where that can happen as you get to the end, turn left and look up through the trees and you'll see the wall painting by Shannon Lake. So he was one of our early artists and this was done before these trees were this big. So as we prune it, so you really have to know where that is to peak to it. We're now at the wine shop and you'll see this row of shops that happened here. Walk past the wine shop to the gift shop and look to your right down the corridor between the townhouses and there you'll see a sculpture by Gordon Chandler.

2 (19m 18s):
So you'll see art is incorporated not only in our streetlights, our trash cans, our benches, but we actually have commissioned pieces of art that sit here straight ahead. You're going to see the Hill restaurant and the mixed use building with offices, more shops for you to explore. Now to your left is the sushi restaurant in the gray building. And notice it's a four story building and this ties back around to where we started at the blue Eye daisy. We're gonna turn around and head the other way, but before we do peak between the gift shop and the sushi restaurant and you'll see the vehicular courtyard and you can wander back and maybe there's a garage open and you can see how those can all turn into shops if you see the double doors through to the other side.

2 (20m 7s):
So now we're going to turn around back down cell borne. As you move down seren B lane, you'll notice how the houses roof caps change and then you'll reach the last crosswalk where the curbs disappear. And you know you're in what we call the street estates. Now as you come along you'll notice that there is a very large house on your left. And so this is very much like a manor house in the English villages. The big houses would not be in the center of town but rather on the edge. And so for this particular buyer, they wanted a house of this scale and so this is an appropriate place for that.

2 (20m 52s):
You'll also notice the sidewalk changes to asphalt and anytime that happens it means you're in part of the permanent preserved area that anything that's agriculturally zoned can happen. And that includes our own constructed wetland wastewater treatment center. This is one of the first of its kind in the southeast and the only thing like it is the water hub at Emory. And when we finally got it permitted, it required a chain link fence clearly with what we're doing, no chemicals, no standing water, there was no reason for that and we got a variance to remove that. And I gave all the engineering drawings to read Hildabrand the landscape group out of Massachusetts and asked them to make it beautiful.

2 (21m 39s):
And so they realized we wanted to make it a statement with this. And so they put the boardwalk right over our treatment cells and there are more wedding pictures, prompt pictures, Christmas card pictures taken in the middle of our wastewater treatment center. If you'll notice on the other side is a Augusta Lane and that is a lane that goes to what we call remote estates, which is a quarter acre with all preservation around it. So now as you travel up the hill, we are all in preserved area that is in conservation easement or con for agricultural use.

2 (22m 20s):
This will remain a preserved forest and we're coming to what we call the crossroads. So this is 16 cottages, four townhouses and two live works. Now several unique things about this area. Notice there, there are no curves. The area between the sidewalk and the street is are storm water retention right out here in front of the buildings and all the buildings here are white. And this is because this is reminiscent of crossroads that happen throughout the southeast in the mid 18 hundreds and at that period of time, pigment to paint was very expensive, thus all the buildings were either unpainted or white.

2 (23m 8s):
And so the requirement here is all of your buildings must be white and we have the picket fences and it just throws back to that period in the 18 hundreds. There is a very organized courtyard with the townhouses and then your liveworks one with a flower shop has two apartments above it and the bike shop has two apartments above it. Continue straight on this road and we will head onto Grange. As you travel through, you'll notice the picket fence changes to a black four board agricultural and this house is a 70% replica of a famous historic barn in the area and it was initially unpainted but now it is stained to preserve the wood.

2 (24m 3s):
If you look to your right, you'll see the Seren B stables. They were designed by Peter Block and located at this high point as you pull in the main entrance off of Atlanta Newnan Road, we wanted to give a good indication that people had arrived because there are no signs at the street except one small one saying you're at Serenbe. And so at this point it's someplace very special. Another compliment is people asking if this barn was originally here, and that's exactly the way we wanted it to look. We're now at the corner of Gainy Lane named after Ryan Gainy and Cell Borne Lane.

2 (24m 49s):
If you wanna continue up a little bit past this crosswalk, on your left you'll see Deer Hollow Park and this is a sculpture garden that's evolving and there are paths that you can wander through there. If you're in a golf cart, there is a parking space. If you're in a car, you'll need to park in one of the community centers and walk back to this point. You'll now turn right onto Gainy Lane and travel along the horse paddocks on your right. Everything on your left is in preservation until you come to the townhouse on your left. And this is the beginning of the Grange Hamlet community.

2 (25m 32s):
Continue onto the intersection and find a place to park. You'll notice on the right is our Grange green and the sculpture, the colorful boy is kite man and he you look, there is a kite in the tree and this is a sculpture by Gordon Chandler. Notice how different the architecture of these commercial buildings is in this location and this is reminiscent of what a rural community would've been around 18 90, 1900 because this is the ag community, we wanted to demonstrate this.

2 (26m 13s):
So if you're walking, you will have arrived. If you're in a vehicle, just park and go to the bookstore, which is in the tall four story building on the far corner. Currently these are classrooms for Acton Academy and these will transition into commercial buildings once the school moved to their new campus. In motto, you'll come to the crosswalk and notice the blueberry bushes, which we have in all cross rocks throughout Grange. In fact, all the common area, 70% of it is all edible. And so you'll see next to the blueberry bushes is a service berry tree that blooms and fruits before the blueberries and then following the blueberries come the figs and after that the apple and peach trees and then the walnut and theon trees.

2 (27m 9s):
So there's a complete season of edibles that come and it's great because our kids really learn about the growing seasons rather than everything is at the grocery store at all times. So come to the bookstore and then pop in all these little shops here, great shops, but the bookstore, it is a New York reporting bookstore, a great place to browse and then pass through the opening through between the brick building and go behind the bookstore. Now you're building on here has underground parking, so there's underground parking on where you're now walking. And so everyone can take the elevator up to their apartments on these various floors.

2 (27m 50s):
Very urban right here in the middle of the forest, which is a real unique thing that you don't see in America. Take the gravel path that goes through the trees and the bushes and you'll see the beginning of a bridge. When you get to the bridge, look to your left and these townhouses you're seeing their front door. So this is the route that their guests would take to come visit them or for any parties their parking is on the lower level behind them. Sharing a drive that goes to the underground parking to the large building, turn to your right and you'll cross the bridge. And this bridge spans a natural area.

2 (28m 30s):
In the spring you'll see incredible native Zeus and about five shades of pink that are five and six feet tall. And below us is a small stream running through. Now if you look to your right and far in the distance, you'll see the street And the street is supported by a gian bridge. This is an environmental bridge of rocks and steel that allows us to curve the street and to save the trees within five feet. Traditional methods of constructing a road like that would be to cut about 60 to 70 feet of trees and doing earth embankment and just a very different look. So these are the ways that we're able to keep the area looking very natural and bring the built environment building with nature rather than disturbing nature and imposing our built structure onto the nature so we have really not disturbed the landscape very minimally and straight ahead.

2 (29m 27s):
You'll see the steps and we're now going into what we call Swan Ridge. And this is a grouping of 26 cottages all inspired from the cots walls. In England. We have two groups of architects that design these and the walk that you're going on is all horse. And so when it rains you'll see the water just disappearing into all these pavers. As you see many of the doors to, they open into courtyards and on the weekend people can just open these doors and it's like their front porch continue on to the end of this street where you see a structure that sort of looks like a maybe restored English barn and that's the intent.

2 (30m 14s):
When you get to the end of the path, you can turn around and come back and we're going to go back in front of the general store and continue on Serenbe Lane around to model across the street from the general store is the grain green. You'll get a different view of the Gordon Chandler sculpture Kite Boy and notice the little cottage in the back that is actually the mail shed for the entire Grange community. And so this is where people wander run into people hanging around at the gazebo and the friendships are made and businesses are developed through those kind of experiences As you've come through Grange.

2 (30m 58s):
Notice the street lights again that are different. They're very simple. They are what would've been gas lanterns converted to electricity possibly on simple wood poles to continue with the characteristics of grainge. But you'll notice the houses ingrained. There are grand houses and various scales. So we really try to mix the architecture from lot to lot because that's what a real town is. And we are differentiating ourselves from a development which has more strict guidelines to a town which allows a lot more variety, but to make sure that we have interesting and good architecture that will live through the decades.

2 (31m 47s):
We require the architects to have only one style of architecture per lot and the architect has to be able to defend what architecture style that is to design, review board and notice how we have on the left there's lower cottages and then on your right are some very large houses. You'll see a Victorian right next to a contemporary and these are large looking over the preserved green between the two wood structure houses. And so this all mix because we really focus on the placement that means where that house sits from the front curb and how high that ridge cap is.

2 (32m 30s):
So you will feel the difference as the street flows. Again, notice all the natural landscaping that we have now. You'll come to the intersection here of Ro Ridge and you can look up and you can see some of the houses along Rosh Ridge. These are on a quarter acre lot and are very vertical, more like tree houses. And that also is an intersection to Lupo loop, which I'll share more about once we go into motto. Notice at the end, the curves end and that means that coming into the end of the Grange Hamlet, and these are all a series of omegas that then connect.

2 (33m 13s):
And when you see the black fence, you'll know that you are in that transition area of green space between Grange and Motto. You're now on top of another Gian bridge, and so you're 35 feet above the little stream below and notice how close all the trees are. And below this, this stream runs into Cedar Creek, which is the main tributary that runs along Serenbe Southern boundary to the Chattahoochee River. The first thing you'll see on your left is a mound, and we believe it could be a historic Indian mound.

2 (33m 53s):
There's a red bench on it and it's a great place to go sit for a little bit of reflection. That is all a preserved area and you'll see into the valley, that's the center of the motto. Hamlet to your right are estate lots at this point and then straight ahead are the houses that begins motto. The first street you'll see is motto Lane and turn left on that and you'll come into the lower residential street. As we travel along, you'll look up to your right and you'll see there are three streets at various levels.

2 (34m 36s):
On the east side of the Model. Omega model is our most dense center of the three current hamlets. And you can start to feel the density as to come down this street. You'll come to a crosswalk and pause and you'll understand this intersection and we're gonna have a chance to walk it. But look to your left and you'll see a staircase that takes you down to a garden around a pond. And if you look right, you'll see a staircase that goes up to Serenbe Lane and then the staircase going on up to Lupo Loop is under construction when completed.

2 (35m 23s):
This staircase world ascend 88 feet and is a piece of art in itself with the granite and the motto Streetlights there again, notice the streetlights which are unique to this community and they're much more contemporary in a beacon form. As you travel along, you'll see an opening between the townhouse construction and you'll look down through the center of motto. To your right is a small park, a great gathering point for adults around the fire pit and kids around the sand areas.

2 (36m 3s):
You're now in the live work section. This is the back of one motto that you'll be coming back around to. On your left is portal, which is a seven room mini hotel guest house for corporate groups and health retreats. Notice to your right the courtyard with your live works around it. You have the small animal vet and she lives upstairs with her family and that opens on out to Sara B. Lane, which we will come back around to when you come to the intersection of Serenbe Lane and Model Loop if you're in a car or golf cart park.

2 (36m 45s):
And it's best to experience motto on foot, continue down the street and you'll notice the varied architecture all inspired from Scandinavia to be sure also to notice the streetlights and remember that those are beacons for public path. I suggest that you walk on the sidewalk on the right hand side as you approach, and you'll go under the arch and into the town square. Notice how the sidewalk on either side goes through arches into the white towers and notice the lights at night.

2 (37m 24s):
Come back because these are just a wonderful experience and art experiences. This light's reflected on the walls, the ceiling and the floor. Step on into the courtyard that's framed by this group of buildings. It is eight townhouses that formed this square. If you turn to your left, you can go down through the medicinal garden with 16 cottages on each side and notice that there are rooms in this medicinal food forest so people can that are maybe bashful or or reluctant. It's a public place where they can have a seat at the game table or some of the chairs and neighbors come and find them.

2 (38m 5s):
If you turn around then and head down the steps to your right, you'll be in a walkway with eight houses facing these. And the gardens are all strong water areas. I suggest you turn left on the walkway that goes between houses and notice the density that you have here in this very urban setting. In the middle of the forest. Again, the trails for the forest are only a few hundred feet from any back door, but here you're in a very urban area, especially a safe corridor for children. When you come to the first intersection of a sidewalk turn right and you'll head down the steps, you will now be on model lane, Go down the steps to model lane and turn right and now you, you'll be passing back on the lower side of that walkway that you saw through the arch from Andrew's court.

2 (39m 3s):
Turn left here and walk to the end of the paved area and you will be now at the edge of the preserved forest and straight ahead. If you see the earthen sculpture across from the stream that is reminiscent from the sculptures you see at Aspen Institute in Colorado. And of course if you want to take the path and cross over and up the hill to the blue pyramid, which is a folly, that six people can actually sit inside and this is being developed as a natural forest. Come back and walk along Ma Lane.

2 (39m 43s):
And then you'll notice on your right the white Scandinavian farmhouse inspired cages with all front porches opening onto the walkway. Just past that you'll see Ray way and I suggest you turn right here and then immediately turn left down what is actually an alley. Now here you'll notice the lower level, the townhouse on your right can be a garage, a apartment, an extension to the house or a office or shop for your in house lived work. Follow that to where you see the stairs on your right. Go up the stairs to railway and turn left, take the sidewalk down and you'll come to an intersection and you'll want to cross the street and follow the path beside the red stucco wall to the townhouse on your right.

2 (40m 38s):
This brings you back out to model lane and notice the houses along this section of Model Lane are what we call the shotguns. And these are all 900 square feet. You're now back at Serenbe Lane and straight ahead is the bamboo juices. Stop in and get a cold pressed juice, which is very refreshing no matter what the season turn left down the street or if you're coming out of bamboo. Turn right and you'll come along the retail and service groups of all of our live works and above these are all apartments that are accessed from the back courtyard On the right, you'll see that opening to the courtyard that you saw early.

2 (41m 26s):
This is a good place to pop into halsa for something to eat or a drink, a bathroom stop. And also step in the biophilic room, which is labeled as the Be Well room. And this is a self discovery area that tells you more about how Serenbe is built in our philosophy. Many people have tried to associate with new urbanism or the hood movement or the environmental movement, and we are all those things. But uniquely we are one of the only places that has all three of these plus many other things that really relate to how we as people can live in balance with nature rather than in imposing ourselves on nature for our own wants, which many times is disruptive to the environmental system.

2 (42m 24s):
After you've come out of the Be Well room, go to prom field and you can turn left. And if you are in a car, you might want to get your car. And here you'll pass the Think collection of buildings. That is our community pool and pass. That is the Acton Academy campus for toddlers through high school. And you can cross the bridge and go into the pasture area and this will take you back to the original farmhouse and the in at Serenbe.

1 (43m 1s):
Thank you so much for following along on our placemaking tour of Cy. You can learn more about placemaking in our show notes along with other details that Steve mentioned during this tour. Well back next week with another episode of Seren B Stories.