The Prince of Tides
Newpoint, South Carolina
by Kirk Baruth

Beaufort, S.C., is the kind of town that Hollywood location scouts drool over. Situated along a section of the Intracoastal Waterway, protected from the Atlantic Ocean by a necklace of Lowcountry marshes and Sea Islands, Beaufort is likely familiar to you, although you're probably not even aware of it. Its streets lined with restored Civil War-era mansions, the city has served as a backdrop for scenes in several major motion pictures, including "The Big Chill," "Forrest Gump" and "The Prince of Tides." (In fact, area native Pat Conroy, author of The Prince of Tides, still lives not far from Beaufort. He makes an appearance every now and then at Bay Street Trading Company—a bookstore located on the quaint thoroughfare that is its namesake—where he autographs copies of his novels.) It's not surprising that this postcard-perfect city contains a sizable historic district, where oaks dripping with Spanish moss shade streets in neighborhoods laid out more than one hundred years ago.

What may be surprising is that since the mid-1990s, Beaufort has also been a place where you can find a neighborhood that only looks like it's been there for a hundred years. And that's just the way Vince Graham envisioned it.

Everything old is new again
To understand why Newpoint looks the way it does, it's important to understand a little bit about the region. Beaufort lies midway between Savannah, Ga., and Charleston, S.C., both of which are indisputably among the most beautiful cities in the United States. In addition to their long and colorful histories, what draws millions of tourists each year to cities like Charleston, Beaufort and Savannah is the architecture. And it's not just the age of the structures (all three cities contain houses that are older than most U.S. states). It's the style. The grandest homes in Charleston, for instance, display the finest features of Colonial-era architecture while incorporating design elements—most notably a porch (or two or three)—developed in response to the region's climate. The result is a casual elegance for which the South is famous.

When Vince Graham came to South Carolina from Atlanta in 1989, he arrived as the development coordinator for a much different type of neighborhood—a 3,000-acre golf course community near Hilton Head Island, just south of Beaufort. His idea of designing a small portion of that community in the same style as Beaufort's historic district was rejected, so Graham started looking around for a place where he could build the type of walking neighborhood he envisioned. He knew from his knowledge of developments like Seaside, Fla., that such a place was possible, and it wasn't long before he found a nearly perfect spot to build it.

The portion of Beaufort's historic district that juts out prominently into the Beaufort River is called The Old Point. Across the river, on Lady's Island, was a plot of land that since pre-Revolutionary days had been used mainly for agricultural purposes. A conventional suburban development had been drawn up for the site, but it was never executed. Graham teamed up with longtime friend and developer Bob Turner, and together they formed a development company, purchased the Lady's Island site and began to plan a complement to historic Beaufort. They named the development Newpoint.

Graham's

A mammoth oak dripping with Spanish moss cloaks a Newpoint home. South Carolina's warm climate has led to foliage growth that belies Newpoint's mere decade of existence.

vision for Newpoint, in his words, was "combining inspiration from the historic areas of Beaufort, Charleston and Savannah with modern advances to create a great new neighborhood." Graham was familiar with the work of Gerald Cowart, an architect and planner based in Savannah who was involved in renovation efforts in one of Savannah's most famous neighborhoods, Isle of Hope. The two discussed the Newpoint project, and Cowart laid out the plan for an intimate walking neighborhood patterned after the types of small fishing ports that dot the southern East Coast—places like Isle of Hope and Beaufort. Ground was broken in the spring of 1992; the first family moved in one year later. In 1995, Cowart's land plan for Newpoint won the Award for Excellence in Architecture given by the Georgia branch of the American Institute of Architects.

Newpoint's startup seems to have been relatively painless as far as developments go. According to Graham, "The biggest challenge was in getting the first homes built and setting the tone for the quality of the neighborhood." Several landowners on either side of the development objected to the land plan, saying that small lots were going to destroy their property values, etc. Ironically, Newpoint's lots are considered somewhat spacious by TND standards. Beaufort County zoning laws dictated that lot sizes had to be a minimum of one-quarter acre. Adhering to standard TND narrow-lot principles would have created homesites at Newpoint that were disproportionately deep. So the developers compromised, creating lots that average about 60 feet wide.

Newpoint's form
It's

A service lane.

important to understand what Newpoint isn't in order to fully appreciate what Newpoint is. Newpoint isn't a town—that is, it's not Seaside. It's not Little Charleston. And it's not as encompassing a development as is Kentlands in Gaithersburg, Md., or Graham's newest development, I'On, in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina. Newpoint is a neighborhood. Homeowners have Beaufort addresses and think of themselves as residents of Beaufort in the same way that New Yorkers who live in neighborhoods like SoHo or Chelsea consider themselves, well, New Yorkers.

The 54-acre neighborhood is comprised of nearly 130 single-family homesites, with automobile access provided by service lanes that run along the backs of the lots. The rest of Newpoint consists of two commercial buildings, a large riverfront park called The Green and several smaller green spaces and ponds. Graham, Turner and Cowart set aside land upon which the neighborhood association could construct some type of swim or tennis club, but this has yet to be planned or built. Graham says it's possible that Newpoint could expand, but adjacent land isn't available at the current time.

Visitors gather for a community event on The Green.

Amenities
Newpoint's

The public dock.

The Ramble.

physical location is its greatest amenity. The neighborhood sits on a small rise on the Beaufort River, which can be accessed via a public boat dock. The area fronting the river is called The Green. This long, shady lawn runs nearly the entire width of the neighborhood's waterfront boundary and is considered a public park, even though it is bordered by some of Newpoint's pricier homes. Each homesite in Newpoint is within a seven-minute walk of The Green.

Not far from The Green is another good-sized park called The Ramble. Sections of this space are open, so that neighborhood kids, or adults for that matter, have plenty of room for pickup games of football or baseball. This green space has a sheltered feel, as it is surrounded by the back sides of 27 homesites. Like The Green, though, The Ramble is a public space open to all neighborhood residents. Other green spaces surround four ponds that dot the neighborhood.

One of the things visitors notice immediately about Newpoint is the presence of trees. When houses started going up at Newpoint, many towering oak trees and pines were left in place; they even populate the greenway areas between the sidewalks and the streets. (A lot of effort went into tree preservation: Cowart says that when he first met up with Graham, Vince had surveyed the site extensively, marking the location of any tree larger than six inches in diameter. Cowart says that Bob Turner made sure that as many trees as possible were saved when the bulldozers came in to start carving out the streets.) The trees serve as havens for birds and other wildlife.

Not

This "horizontal speed bump" slows traffic on one of Newpoint's longer streets.

all of Newpoint's amenities are natural. The streets are laid out in a modified grid pattern; i.e., they're not all perfectly straight. Curves and turns accommodate the geography surrounding the ponds. One of the longest streets in Newpoint, Newpoint Road, is interrupted by a small gazebo sitting on land that juts into the roadway, serving to calm traffic and providing visual interest by terminating the vista down the street's considerable length. Nearby, a gurgling fountain anchors the parkway that runs down the middle of Prescient Avenue. And of course every street is lined with sidewalks, making walking a popular activity.

The Beaufort area itself has much to offer Newpoint residents. The boating, fishing and world-class golf that draw so many tourists are also popular with the locals. The beaches of the Atlantic are just a short drive away. Of more day-to-day importance, Newpoint is within a 10-minute drive of two hospitals, including the 350-bed Naval Hospital that provides medical services to active and retired military personnel. Beaufort Academy, which provides education from kindergarten through the 12th grade, is within walking distance of Newpoint. Parents can drive their children the short distance to Coosa Elementary and Middle Schools, or see them off at the bus stop at the entrance to Newpoint each morning. St. Peter's Catholic School is also nearby and provides education from preschool through the 8th grade.

Newpoint's

Newpoint Corners. Photo by Phil Waggoner.

small but active commercial area consists of two two-story buildings that face each other across the road leading into the TND. The Lowcountry-style façades are fronted by porches, to fit in with the surrounding neighborhood. Newpoint Corners, as the development is called, offers approximately 8,000 square feet of space.

The development of Newpoint Corners was a definitive joint effort. The original plans for Newpoint called for a commercial element, but years after the first houses had been completed, ground had yet to be broken for a commercial building. The effort received a boost from Phil Waggoner and his wife Bev, former Minnesota residents who decided to move to Newpoint after a stopover on a cross-country car trip (see Sidebar). Graham helped the two research the area's business potential, and they received help drawing up plans for the building from Town Planning Collaborative of Minneapolis, Minn., and the local architect-of-record, Bill Allison. Newpoint Corners Store, which is run by Bev, opened in April 2000. Bev and her employees sell groceries and necessities, along with gift items, wine and gourmet foods.

In

A popular spot when the Southern sun beats down: Berry Island Ice Cream Café. Photo by Phil Waggoner.

July 2000, in the space adjoining Newpoint Corners Store, Alice Philips and Byron Holcombe opened Berry Island Ice Cream Café, where they offer super-premium ice cream, lunch and dinner every day of the week except Sunday. Upstairs, neighborhood residents and local entrepreneurs lease individual offices. As Phil Waggoner likes to say, Newpoint is home to at least one corporate world headquarters.

Across the street, Lowcountry Real Estate, a firm with more than 19 years of experience in Beaufort and the surrounding area, has opened a branch office. Next door is the Island Wellness Shop, where Susan Morlino has opened a small practice specializing in holistic medicine. Upstairs, Phil Waggoner has his office, along with partners Doug Turnbull and Bob Minks; the three operate Turnbull Partners Commercial Real Estate. When anyone at Newpoint gets overly stressed out, they can pop in to see Susan Roos, a massage therapist.

This corner of Newpoint is zoned for one more commercial building. Phil Waggoner would like to see a "neighborhood joint" go up—not a big place, just a small bar and grill, maybe with a TV so that people could gather and tune in a football game or other sporting event. Upstairs he'd like to build an apartment for the proprietor.

Architecture
Graham, Turner and Cowart developed the neighborhood's architectural guidelines. For his part, Cowart drew upon his considerable education in the field of architecture and his philosophy, as outlined on his firm's Web site (www.cowartgroup.com), about the relationship between architecture and history: "I tell people I am a modern man. I'm not a living anachronism. I don't worship the past. I just happen to feel that when architecture shows its respect for the past, it is more beautiful than reinventing architecture with each new project.... The Cowart Group's effort is an evolutionary one. We're not trying to copy Southern architecture. We are in fact participating in history. We know the past so intimately that we can evolve it rather than copy it."

Cowart makes it clear that he, Turner and Graham weren't interested in a historic re-creation at Newpoint. They weren't going for a scaled-down version of any one city or place in particular, like a Las Vegas reproduction of New York or Venice. "Newpoint is not synthetic," Cowart says, "it's very real." Rather than construct homes that were based on a broad, stereotypical concept of what a Southern house should look like, the group enlisted a number of young regional architects and home designers and asked them to come up with new designs in the traditional Lowcountry style. "This is indigenous coastal architecture," Cowart says. At least 25 architects have designed houses for Newpoint.

Another principle that guided the three in their role as Newpoint's de facto architectural review board was the idea of how a house should benefit the public realm. Houses in Newpoint have to work—they have to contribute something to the whole neighborhood. "We never saw any house site as a single entity," Cowart says. "Each house was judged in its context." That meant that the houses weren't judged just on how well they related to one another, but on how well they related to the street (or in some cases two or even three streets) and to The Green and other public spaces. The idea is that of the public façade, the face that a house or a commercial structure or a civic edifice presents to the outside world. In a typical suburban subdivision, where the houses face a curving cul-de-sac and there are few corners, most homes have only one public façade. Since alleys are illegal, no one ever sees the back of the house; because the houses are set so far back on their one-acre lots, it's hard to catch a glimpse of the sides. (In most cases, suburbia has actually done us a favor in this regard—there's not much about these amorphous structures one would want to dwell on anyway.)

"The fallacy of the subdivision is that everyone is looking for privacy," Cowart says. "No one wants more than one public façade. [At Newpoint] we saw public façades as a contribution to the whole community. We wanted corner people to be public people."

A fine example of a second public façade. The right side of this home (above right) contributes to the community as much as its primary façade (above left).

Cowart estimates that up to 20 of the properties in Newpoint have three public façades; as many as 50 more have two public façades. "The more public façades a building has, the higher the architectural commitment to the community," he says. "[That building] becomes a civic entity." Graham, Turner and Cowart made sure, either through rejection or revision, that each house in Newpoint's early phases made a full contribution to the look of the development. As Cowart puts it: "We knew what we wanted and we were in control—and we stayed in control. Respect for the context is a primary design consideration, it's sacrosanct."

The architecture at Newpoint, especially for those who are new to the TND concept, is head-turning. The houses are a mixture of Lowcountry styles, from Greek Revival to Charleston side yard to French plantation. All of the homes have porches—either single-story front porches or stacked front or side porches—within conversational distance of the street. Many windows are adorned by working shutters. Metal roofs are popular, as are clean, classic columns.

The Newpoint Code governs the look and feel of the entire community. The Code consists of two parts: the Community Standards and the Architectural Standards. The first sets guidelines for building placement, heights, outbuildings, porches and landscaping. The latter specifies building materials, landscaping requirements and construction techniques. The Newpoint Architectural Committee reviews all residential and landscape plans for compliance with the Code. The stated goal is the creation of a community where "the homes will have a sense of timeless permanence. Not built for a day, but for generations to come."

Per the Code's Architectural Standards, houses must be sided with wood shingles, horizontal wood clapboard (lap siding), brick or stucco with a smooth sand finish.

Per the Code's Community Standards, a home's street façade must extend along the front yard a minimum of 45 percent of the lot width. (On Newpoint's Prescient Avenue, which contains a number of Charleston side yard-style homes, this figure is set at a 34 percent minimum.)

The front wall of a house's foundation must be built to within 12 feet to 18 feet of the front property line, except for lots fronting directly on the water. (Setbacks for homes on Prescient Avenue are to be within 5 feet to 9 feet of the front property line.) Front and side porches must be a minimum of 8 feet deep. Front porches must extend a minimum of 50 percent along the street façade of the house.

Ground floors of houses, except for entry vestibules, must be a minimum of 3 feet above ground level or the level of the sidewalk, whichever is higher.

All the principles and guidelines in the world don't mean a thing if a development is sitting in the middle of a wasteland, whether natural or man-made. Newpoint is blessed with a physical setting that enhances its architecture. Because the land on which the development sits was not clear-cut as are most traditional suburban developments, mature trees shade the houses and the streets, creating a pleasant walking experience even in the dog days of August. In addition to the trees, Coastal South Carolina's lengthy growing season has enhanced the perception that the neighborhood has existed for decades. Sod, shrubbery and vibrant flower beds have quickly masked the construction scars left by backhoes, scaffolding and the rock-hard paths created by the constant pounding of workers' heavy boots. Spanish moss hangs from large oak trees, many of which are more than one hundred years old. The feel is of a historic district where the houses have been kept up really, really well.

The front porches of Newpoint often host casual conversations. All that's missing here is the snoozing dog.

Neighborly associations
Each homesite owner in Newpoint belongs to the Newpoint Community Association, which contracts with a community manager for maintenance of the neighborhood's common areas and structures (e.g., The Green, The Ramble, the boat dock on the Beaufort River, etc.).

There are social organizations, too. Several residents have formed a garden club. A neighborhood hospitality group holds get-togethers to welcome new residents, and plans community parties. The hospitality group sponsors three annual events: An Easter egg hunt on The Ramble followed by a brunch kicks off the year. The Fourth of July celebration includes a parade, with neighborhood kids pedaling their decorated bikes. And a holiday party is held every December. In between, residents have enjoyed sunset boat trips on the river, cocktail parties and even a neighborhood oyster roast. Phil Waggoner is trying to drum up interest in a Jamaican reggae street party sometime in the future.

A group of not-so-locals wend their way along a Newpoint street.

The locals and the not-so-locals
TNDs have a way of attracting people who are looking for a particular way of life, which is why their populations are often made up of non-natives. Newpoint is no different. A majority of its residents "aren't from around here" as the saying goes. Where have they come from? Bonnie Krstolic moved to Beaufort from Cincinnati about three years ago. She's lived at Newpoint for the past year. She says Newpoint reminds her of Lake Lucerne, a community outside Cleveland in which she had lived. There she enjoyed the interaction with neighbors, with whom she would visit while out walking or at community get-togethers. Krstolic, who is single and in her mid-50s, says her favorite thing about Newpoint is that she feels safe, regardless of how late at night she chooses to walk her dog. And she loves being close to her neighbors. Krstolic is a sales agent for a large real estate firm in Beaufort, so she had definitely done her homework before moving to Newpoint. She also enjoys being close to shopping in downtown Beaufort and the surrounding region.

A retired couple in their late 50s share a similar experience about coming to Newpoint. "We have lived in several different places, both north and south," says the wife, "and have traveled throughout the eastern part of the country. After visiting many communities on the Southeast coast, we settled in Newpoint because we felt that there was a very warm, welcoming quality about Beaufort in general and Newpoint in particular." Another of the factors that influenced this couple's decision, she says, was the convenience of being near grocery stores, a post office, a pharmacy, a dry cleaner and "other essentials." And then there are the neighbors.

"In Newpoint," the woman says, "there is a sense of neighbors as extended family. Many of us recall this feeling from our own childhoods." This sense of family is expressed by the community's practice of gathering for traditional events at the holidays and other informal events throughout the year, but there's more to it. There's "the idea of being responsible for each other and sharing both good times and bad," she says. "At the same time," the woman is quick to point out, "each family's privacy is respected; a wide variety of people live here, and each person's individuality is appreciated."

This is how she sums it all up: "We have lived here for three years, and it would be very hard to leave Newpoint. There is just some magical quality about this place. We feel that we are finally home."

"Home" is a concept with which Billie Turnbull is exhaustively familiar, since she's built a career on finding them for people. Billie and her husband, Doug, together with Billie's 82-year-old mother, Vivian Johnson, were among the first residents at Newpoint. Billie, who is also a registered nurse, sold real estate in Atlanta and now sells real estate in Beaufort, primarily at Newpoint. Doug is the "Turnbull" in Turnbull Partners Commercial Real Estate, which operates out of one of the buildings at Newpoint Corners. The Turnbulls bought their Newpoint homesite in January 1993, and moved into their garage guest apartment in November of that year. They then watched as the main house was completed, and in April 1994 they moved in.

"We knew from the beginning that we would enjoy living in Newpoint," Billie says. "It had all of the features that we were looking for in a community—a variety of age groups and professions, traditional-style homes, friendly people, parks, deepwater access, sidewalks. And it felt like home."

The Turnbulls' four children and five grandchildren visit frequently, and Billie says that all of her family loves Newpoint for the same reasons she does. "They are comfortable when they are here," she says, "knowing that the young children are safe in the neighborhood, playing on the sidewalks or in the parks, and they know there are other children their ages that they can play with."

Like most residents, though, Billie agrees that it all comes down to the neighbors.

"I think my favorite thing about Newpoint," she says, "would have to be the people that live here. People who buy in Newpoint buy into the concept of Newpoint first. They know that they will know their next-door neighbors and also the family that lives down the street or in the next block. It is a feeling that is absent from so many other neighborhoods that we have lived in. Newpoint families seem to care about one another. It is not a community where you have to have coffee with your neighbor every morning, but it is a neighborhood where if you have a problem, the neighbors will be there to help. In some of the areas that we have lived, you were lucky if you knew the people living on either side of you—usually it was just a hand wave when they pulled out of their garages in the morning and back in the afternoon."

Comments like those of Billie and her neighbors show that Newpoint is poised to take its rightful place among the South's greatest neighborhoods. Time will be the ultimate judge, as it has been for Savannah and Beaufort and Charleston. This newcomer, this prince of tides, sits confidently atop its Lowcountry river perch as it endures the wait.

Unless otherwise noted, all photography by Kirk Baruth and Jason Miller.