Serenbe, Georgia: New Urbanism and Ray Charles On My Mind

Leaving Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and driving north on 400 to Alpharetta, I’ve noticed signs to Palmetto, home to Serenbe, per the NYTimes, “a utopian experiment in New Urbanism being molded out of red Georgia clay, about 30 miles southwest of downtown Atlanta.”

Always in a rush to reach my client’s office ahead of the akin-to-LA Atlanta traffic, it’s my loss that I haven’t taken the detour off my road well travelled. It seems that another world awaits me in Serenbe.

This gorgeous video on Serenbe takes us to a very difference place in America.

The story of Nick Melvin’s successful Farmhouse restaurant, the Inn at Serenbe, his trips down the road to the 25-acre organic farm bearing produce for his tables, and the creation of Serenbe itself, by Steve and Marie Nygren, is a Cultural Creatives success story that resonates.

The NYTimes reports: Serenbe defies easy description, and is perhaps best understood through the story of its creation. In 1991, Steve and Marie Nygren, an Atlanta couple with deep roots in the city’s culinary life, took their three daughters for a ride in the country. The trip was prompted by the advertisement of a farm for sale, and the family ended up buying the 60-acre parcel, with its 1905 farmhouse and rolling terrain, as a weekend home.

Heading for the hills and then preserving them is a passion among Cultural Creatives.

A decade after creating the relaxing, bucolic Serenbe, the Nygrens became alarmed the urban gridlock was moving towards their natural retreat. After quickly purchasing 900 acres of land around their property, Steve Nygen motivated his neighbors to ban together, rezoning their countryside.

Under the plan, 80 percent of the 40,000-acre Chattahoochee Hill Country region must be preserved as green space.

Intellect and Emotion

Logging on to the Serenbe website, I’m pleased to discover the Serenbe Institute, whose mission statement sums up the passions of most Cultural Creatives: to make Serenbe a community that passionately explores, embraces and expands the connections between nature, culture and the art of living through programs and projects that promote social, spiritual and aesthetic curiosity.

This synthesis of life purpose is not very far removed from the mission statement of Anne of Carversville, if I sat down and wrote one. Sensuality is implied in the Serenbe Institute statement, but I must call it out loud and clear in my own territory.

My mission statement would add “the art of living sensually” through programs …

Simple Pleasures and Country Values

Posting this second video of a Serenbe July 4th Parade, glancing out my 19th floor window into a snowing Manhattan cityscape below, I’m reminded how diverse America is, and not only on the basis of race.

In the midst of economic insanity, it’s a true pleasure to focus on a moment of simple bucolic pleasure, with a noble purpose.

I cannot resist giving you another moment of “real-deal sensual pleasure”, a young Ray Charles singing “Georgia”. Indeed, this morning Georgia is on my mind. Sigh!

Enjoy. A