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On the southwestern edge of Atlanta in Georgia’s Chattahoochee Hill Country, a master-planned community has upended conventional ideas about suburban growth.
By Symone Strong and Paul Makovsky
August 29, 2025
On the southwestern edge of Atlanta in Georgia’s Chattahoochee Hill Country, a master-planned community has upended conventional ideas about suburban growth. Serenbe, recently honored with the 2025 Future Place Master Plan of the Year award, isn’t simply a residential development with eco-friendly credentials. It is a living manifesto—an experiment in how architecture, urbanism, agriculture, and culture can merge to create a model for sustainable, human-centered living.
Rather than treating planning as a logistical problem of streets and lots, Serenbe approaches design as a framework for ecology, creativity, and community. Its founder, Steve Nygren, calls it “a place where art, food, wellness, and education aren’t amenities—they’re the foundation.”
Origins: From Weekend Retreat to Planning Revolution
The story began in the early 1990s, when Nygren, a successful restaurateur and hospitality developer, bought a modest weekend house in the rolling countryside southwest of Atlanta. Despite a life full of urban amenities—museums, restaurants, cultural institutions—he noticed his three daughters preferred the quiet of the woods to the stimulation of the city.
“That was my value shift,” Nygren recalls. “I began to see, through my children’s eyes, the importance of connecting with nature over material trappings.”
When suburban development began creeping toward the area, Nygren sold his company, moved to the countryside full-time, and began rallying neighbors to protect more than 60 square miles from sprawl. Yet preservation alone wasn’t enough. He envisioned a community that wouldn’t simply halt conventional growth patterns but rewrite them, proving that density, design, and ecological stewardship could coexist.
The Master Plan: Art, Agriculture, Education, and Wellness
At Serenbe, the master plan unfolds as an intricate tapestry rather than a conventional subdivision layout, its threads woven from four interlocking pillars—art, agriculture, education, and wellness—that collectively redefine what it means to build community.
Art and culture form the backbone of daily life here, shaping both the aesthetic and the spirit of the place. Streetscapes are punctuated by artist-designed benches and streetlights, while open-air theaters and public art installations transform the landscape into a stage for ongoing creativity. Even the financial model reinforces this commitment: transfer fees on home sales directly fund cultural and environmental programming, creating a self-sustaining arts ecosystem that ensures beauty and expression remain integral to the community’s identity.
Agriculture, meanwhile, anchors Serenbe in its agrarian roots while pointing toward the future of regenerative living. A 25-acre organic farm and edible landscaping weave food production into the everyday fabric of life, offering residents not only fresh produce but also a deeper connection to the land. National partners such as the Rodale Institute and the American Farmland Trust have taken notice, turning Serenbe into a hub for research and innovation in sustainable farming practices.
Education follows naturally, emerging from the same belief in learning as a lived experience rather than a purely academic pursuit. Schools—both charter and private—integrate classrooms into the landscape, where children pick blueberries on their way to class or study ecology by observing the rhythms of the seasons around them. The community itself becomes a textbook, the environment a living laboratory.
Finally, wellness permeates every layer of Serenbe’s design and programming. Health here extends beyond gyms and clinics to include non-chemical pharmacies, holistic practitioners, hiking trails, and a planning approach rooted in biophilic design. Streets and buildings are crafted not only for shelter but for mental and physical well-being, creating spaces that foster healthier, more balanced lives.
Together, these four pillars transform Serenbe from a mere residential development into a living model of how architecture, planning, and ecology can converge to support human flourishing.
Architecture and Urbanism as Civic Framework
Physically, Serenbe avoids the clichés of suburban sprawl. Homes cluster around shared greens rather than isolated cul-de-sacs. Commercial nodes anchor each neighborhood, creating walkable streets that prioritize pedestrians over cars. Materials draw from vernacular traditions but meet modern sustainability standards, blending local character with environmental responsibility.
The master plan places as much emphasis on public life as on private living. Town squares double as performance venues. Trails serve as both recreational paths and ecological corridors. Architecture here frames experience, shaping encounters between residents, the land, and the arts.
“We designed Serenbe to be a place where connection—to nature, to culture, to each other—is built into the plan,” Nygren says. “Architecture isn’t just background here; it’s the structure of community itself.”
Recognition and Global Impact
Over two decades, Serenbe has drawn architects, planners, and policymakers from around the world—from Australia to urban research institutes in the U.S.—all studying its model for sustainable, culturally rich development.
Accolades have followed: the Urban Land Institute’s inaugural Sustainability Award, the Atlanta Regional Commission’s Development of Excellence, EarthCraft’s Development of the Year, and now the 2025 Future Place Master Plan of the Year, cementing Serenbe’s role as a laboratory for new models of community design.
Nygren’s advice to visiting developers and architects is simple: “Build a place you’d want to live—and where you’d want your grandchildren to prosper.”
Why It Matters for Architects
For the architecture and planning profession, Serenbe offers a compelling counterpoint to both suburban sameness and urban hyper-density. It proves that master planning can be ecologically regenerative, socially vibrant, and architecturally ambitious—not a compromise between these ideals.
As cities and suburbs worldwide wrestle with climate change, housing demands, and cultural fragmentation, Serenbe stands as a provocative blueprint for how design can stitch together ecology, culture, and community into a single, thriving whole.