A Sense of Place: The Story of Port Warwick

5 Star Review

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Editorial Book Review:

By Christopher Graves

Most books about real estate development are not really about anything beyond the transaction. A Sense of Place: The Story of Port Warwick is a different kind of book entirely, one that asks what it actually means to build somewhere worth living, and then answers that question with the story of how developer Bobby Freeman turned 153 acres of contaminated former industrial land in Newport News, Virginia, into something that feels, against all odds, like a neighborhood.

The project that became Port Warwick began with a site walk through forest growing over brownfield soil, the kind of land that cities tend to forget about rather than reckon with. What Freeman envisioned was not a subdivision or a commercial district but a walkable, art-filled community that borrowed its organizing principles from the public squares of London, Dublin, and Edinburgh: places with a coherent architectural language, with sculpture and music woven into daily life, with spaces designed to draw people together rather than funnel them back to their cars. That vision ran into resistance, as genuine visions tend to, and the book does not shy away from the risk and uncertainty that attended every phase of the project.

What sets the story apart is the role that culture played from the beginning. Freeman brought in Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist William Styron as a collaborator, and the presence of art and literature as genuine design considerations rather than afterthoughts gives Port Warwick a character that most developments never achieve. Freeman seemed to understand early on that a place becomes real not when the last building is finished but when people begin to feel that they belong there.

Written with Heidi Scott, the book is lavishly illustrated and aimed squarely at planners, architects, and developers, but its appeal is broader than that. Anyone who has ever wondered why some neighborhoods have soul and others do not will find in Port Warwick a thoughtful, hard-won answer.

About the Author

Bobby Freeman

Bobby Freeman is a real estate developer, attorney, and CPA who serves as President of Tower Park Corporation. He is the founder of the Port Warwick Foundation and Newport News Public Art Foundation, organizations that have redefined the cultural landscape of southeastern Virginia. Named the Virginia Peninsula's Citizen of the Year and Virginia Citizens Planner of the Year, among multiple other civic recognitions, Freeman has served on the Boards of Virginia Tech and Christopher Newport University. Bobby lived and worked in Newport News until the completion of Port Warwick, then spent 15 years in New York City and now resides with his family in Miami Beach, Florida.

About the Author

Heidi Scott

Heidi Scott has worked in the writing/editing industry for over 25 years and her work has taken her around the globe. Her resume includes everything from Congressional reports to biographies to sixth-grade love letters.

She holds an M.A. and B.A in English from Colorado State University. Outside of slinging words and apostrophes, Heidi channels a pathological curiosity to see new things, meet new people, and embrace new opportunities. She and her family are currently working on obtaining every stamp in the Passport to Your National Parks book and eating the iconic food of every US state while in that state.