GOING GREEN GEORGIA EXPERTS
Steve Nygren
Serenbe is a 900-acre community in the heart of the Chattahoochee Hill Country, one of the last undeveloped stretches of land in the Atlanta area. The founders of Serenbe, Steve and Marie Nygren, discovered this area while taking their children on a tour of the beautiful countryside, and within weeks purchased a weekend home. Their beloved getaway eventually became their permanent residence, and one day while jogging through the pristine woodland, Steve heard the rumbling of a bulldozer, which he feared was clearing land for a development. Prompted by the idea of losing this beautiful country to asphalt, the Nygrens felt called to protect this natural gem from the typical growth patterns of urban sprawl by purchasing as much land as they could and creating a community in a new and better way.
The goal was to create a community that embodied "green living." So the Nygrens called upon a diverse group of local and national consultants, who developed a plan to merge ecologically sound sustainability practices with the design philosophies of walking neighborhoods made up of homes, boutique businesses and restaurants.
Today, Serenbe is a vibrant live/work/play community devoted to environmental responsibility. Serenbe combines select principles of new urbanism and conservation communities to create the next generation of responsible development. The hamlet includes home sites, retail shops including StudioSwan art gallery, office space, restaurants including The Farmhouse and Blue Eyed Daisy Bakeshop (which is the smallest Silver LEED certified building in the nation), the Inn at Serenbe, and unique amenities for a true live/work environment. Importantly, 70 percent of the acreage is being preserved as green space, providing residents with access to a network of parks and trails for hiking, horseback riding and other outdoor recreation.
Serenbe is more than a new urbanist community. The basic new urbanism tenants of high-density and mixed-use development are evident in the master plan - however, the underpinnings of environmental consciousness that conforms the development to the natural surroundings and adheres to the principles of sacred geometry, sets Serenbe apart. This results in minimal land disturbance and a gradual decrease in density from the town center out to the edges of the hamlet, creating a vibrant urban core in the midst of acres of natural habitat. There are a number of features that add environmental elements to the new urbanism formula such as: connectivity by pedestrian paths that are quicker routes than streets; food grown in the neighborhood organic farms; and a natural wastewater treatment center instead of sewers.
The community evolves each day, as the founders, residents and employees work together to maintain their impromptu motto, "the best reason to live here is the life here."
