Anthony Catanese Author Of Sunshine Towns Is Our Resident Spotlight Of St. Cloud FL

Anthony Catanese Author Of Sunshine Towns Is Our Resident Spotlight Of St. Cloud FL
Anthony Catanese Author Of Sunshine Towns Is Our Resident Spotlight Of St. Cloud FL

Jeanine Corcoran Interviews Anthony Catanese The AuthorOf Sunshine Towns New Urbanism In Florida

Anthony Catanese is our resident spotlight of St. Cloud FL thismonth. Jeanine Corcoran, broker of CorcoranConnect, interviews Anthony who goes by Tony in thismonth’s episode. Jeanine is flying solo on this episode asKristin has been sick and lost her voice. This is the 25th episodeof Discover St. Cloud Florida.

Jeanine shared prior to her interview with Tony Catanese that he had quite a sense of humor whichshe didn’t expect. She also shared that Tony started writingbooks in 1972. He has written a total of 14 books. The new book heis finishing will be published this fall and will focus on thecommunity of Harmony in St. Cloud Florida.

Video Podcast Of AnthonyCatanese The Author Of The Book Sunshine Towns

Jeanine started the interview by asking Tony how long he hasbeen writing? Tony answered that his first book came out in 1972when he was an assistant professor at Georgia Tech University. Hesaid he has written 14 books and a new one is on the way whichshould be out this fall of 2022.

Jeanine then asked Tony how he got started in writing? Tonyreplied that he studied engineering and then he became interestedin architecture. He expanded his thinking and got into cityplanning with how cities are developed and built. He wanted to addto the literature as he was teaching at the time and wantedtextbooks for his students and add to the general body ofknowledge.

Evaluating The Beaches Of Hawaii Was One Of AnthonyCatanese’s Jobs

He was then asked by Jeanine where he did city planning? Tonyanswered that he started out in practice and when he got out ofschool, he received his doctorate at the University ofWisconsin-Madison and then worked in Hawaii.

Tony joked that he had a tough job in Hawaii having to evaluateall the beaches in Hawaii with all the tourists and resortdevelopment. He joked he had a two-year contract, and it took him 5years. Tony said it is so hard to finish on time. Jeanine commentedthat she loves his sense of humor.

Tony continued that while Jimmy Carter was President, he workedfor the Alaskan Native Claim Settlement Act where several millionacres of land in Alaska were distributed to the native populations.Tony was one of his representatives that helped decide which landswould be eligible for distribution. Tony stated that most of hiswork was as a consultant in Georgia and Florida.

Jeanine asked Tony for those that don’t know him tosummarize his career and life for them if he could. Tony started bysaying he had one of those lives of unexpected ambitions. Hestarted off as a kid in New Brunswick, New Jersey playing in arock’n’roll band. Tony said he wanted to be a rockstar, but his father has other ideas, so he went to college tostudy engineering.

Anthony Catanese Then Became Architect DesigningSingle-Family Homes

Tony continued that he thought he wanted to be an engineer, ascivil engineering is great, he was designing bridges, but hethought he needed a little more than that. Then Tony moved on toarchitecture where he was designing single-family homes. He said hebecame interested in the larger picture, especially with the wayEuropean towns were developing.

Tony said that his family then moved to Ocala, Florida so allthe big city stuff went away. He stated his dad was in constructionand thought there would be a lot of development in Ocala, and hewas right. That is when he became a Floridian.

Jeanine asked him when that was? Tony replied that it was rightafter he got out of high school so in the mid-1960s. He continuedthat he spent most of his life in Florida and Georgia. He said hewent back to New York for a couple of years and attended PrattInstitute in Brooklyn, New York, and was the provost there.

Tony then returned to Florida and was the Dean at the Universityof Florida and then the Dean at the University of Miami. He thenwent on to be President of Florida Atlantic University and then forthe last 14 years, Tony has been the President of the FloridaInstitute of Technology.

The Book Sunshine Towns Talks About New Urbanism TownsIn Florida

Jeanine then joked and said she has to leave the interviewbecause clearly, she has not done enough with her life. She said toTony that he has led a very fulfilling life. Tony stated that hislife has been interesting. He joked and said that he still wants tobe a rock star.

Jeanine then asked Tony to talk about his last published booknamed Sunshine Towns. Tony said he wanted to talkabout what is called new urbanism development in Florida. He statedthat sometimes we get a bad reputation in Florida for development.He continued that we have done something unique in developing thistheory of new urbanism in Florida. It is the idea that we can makeour towns about 50,000 in population as a maximum.

Tony added that the goal is to develop them on traditionalAmerican principles and some Italian design Hilltown principles aswell. All the towns would have a central marketplace and bewalkable which is the key. He said if you wanted to get a carton ofmilk, you don’t have to get into your car to go get it. Theywould have schools that the kids can walk to and in general, thehousing style is different but it does have a pattern book so itwould have to be certain kinds of housing.

New Urbanists Towns Are Based Upon Traditional AmericanPrinciples

Conservation would be a key Tony added and the goal is to get asmuch as possible. A lot of the new urbanist towns would have 60%conservation areas. Tony thought what a unique idea this is,developed in Florida. He added that this started in a little townin the Florida panhandle called Seaside. A man named Robert Daviswho had been a significant developer in Miami got this land fromhis grandfather and he wanted to do something very unique.

This happened around 35 years ago Tony said. Mr. Davis hired twoyoung architects who coincidentally Tony knew and had hired when hewas Dean at the University of Miami. These architects wereElizabeth Plater-Zyberk and Andre Stuani. They got into a car anddrove all over the South and marked all the things that they likedin traditional American Southern towns. They put them all togetherin this theory called “New Urbanism” and developed itin Seaside.

Tony shared how he goes to Seaside every year for a familyreunion. He said Seaside is great. Tony stated one little problemwhen they started planning Seaside, it was meant to be amiddle-class second-home community they had some very interestingthings happen.

The Interesting Story Of Seaside Florida An UrbanistTown That Became World Famous

Tony shared that a very famous architect named Leon Krier fromLondon built a very nice house there. It became a contest of canyou bring the biggest named architect into town. Jeanine then askedhim what happened to the prices of homes in Seaside? Tony repliedthat we were thinking of building homes in the $50K range and soonit went into the $2m - $6M range.

Tony stated what happened next was Leon Krier’s patron wasa man named Prince Charles and he made the statement that SeasideFlorida was the finest new town in the world. He said, then theworld came to Seaside, FL. Tony said that it became a very eliteupper-class resort. It is world famous and still developing andongoing, but it was not what we intended.

Tony then shared that there was another man in Florida whowanted to develop an environmental prototype city of tomorrow. Thatidea morphed because of business into what became Epcot Theme Park.Walt Disney still wanted to build a prototype city and he liked newurbanism but unfortunately, he passed away before thishappened.

Tony shared that Bob Iger, who was president of Disney, and RoyDisney followed up on that model and they tried to incorporatethese principles into Celebration, Florida. Again, Tony said,Celebration became much bigger, and more tourist-oriented than wasoriginally intended.

The New Urbanist Town Of Abacoa Included A Campus ForFlorida Atlantic University

Tony added that an individual developer built Seaside and then ahuge corporation built Celebration. When Tony was the President ofFlorida Atlantic, he got involved in another new town calledAbacoa, Florida. So, a new town was built here which included acampus for Florida Atlantic University.

Tony said that several new towns were then developed and one ofthe most interesting was Windsor, FL. This became kind of aninternational center for the very wealthy. He added that there areall kinds of grades of housing in these new urbanist towns.

Tony then stated that the one in his view is the“purest” of the new urbanist towns is Harmony, Florida.He said the reason for this is that it follows all the principlesof new urbanism. Harmony has achieved a higher level ofconservation than some of the other towns and none of the lakes canbe developed. Everything is walkable in Harmony. Some things may bea bit of a walk, but you can get to just about everything.

Tony commented on the fascinating aspect of adding in wildlifeand nature by Jim & Martha Lentz. He continued that this aspectis somewhat new to the new urbanist movement and Tony thinks it isfascinating. This is one of the few urbanist towns where you cansee a herd of deer or where you have to stop your car and let theCranes pass.

Anthony Catanese Believes Harmony FL Is The PrototypeFor New Urbanists Towns In Florida

Tony said he believes what is called Harmony Main is theprototype for what new urbanist towns in Florida on new land shouldbe. This is the reason why he is writing, at the request of Jim andMartha Lentz and with the editorial assistance of Jamie Abel andthe photography of Sherri Lynn Heck, a book just aboutHarmony. The title will be Harmony Florida – Living WithNature.

Tony said that his book “Sunshine Towns” covers allthe new urbanist towns, but he wanted to do a book on how specialand unique Harmony really is. He wants to get high school kids andcollege kids to understand what new urbanism means and what you cando with Florida land. So, his new book on just the town of Harmony,Florida will be out this fall most likely in November.

10 New Urbanists Towns Planned For In CentralFlorida

Tony shared that there is another developer that owns 300,000acres of land in Central Florida. They have permission to plan 10new urbanist towns with 50,000 population in each of them. He saidhe enjoys working with this group because they understand urbanism,they understand conservation, and they understand living withwildlife and nature.

So, these 10 new towns that they are going to build I think arereally related to Harmony and the whole new urbanist movement. Tonysaid he believes it is going to change the face of CentralFlorida.

We hope you enjoyed Anthony Catanese author of Sunshine Towns asour resident spotlight of St. Cloud FL. We’ll continue to beyour resource for keeping you in the loop on different events,businesses, and real estate happenings in Saint Cloud, Florida!