LIFE ON A TROPICAL ISLAND offers some unexpected delights in this infill paradise. Proving that New Urbanism need not be synonymous with historic revival architecture, its geometric forms are completely modern. Wedged into the Indian Creek Waterway just off Miami Beach on a site formerly occupied by a hospital, the tony gated neighborhood on Allison Island knits 46 four-story town-homes—designed by 10 different architects, no less—into a space shared with three mid-rise condominiums.
Density never felt so good. Although there is a rhythmic consistency in the building forms, no two elevation styles are repeated verbatim, and heights are staggered to avoid monotonous rooflines. “It was like putting together a puzzle,” says builder Tom Murphy. Crisp, white façades, punctuated by exuberant hits of color, read like an Italian Amalfi Coast village, and the scale is equally intimate. Small plazas, a central town square, a waterside promenade, pocket parks, and mango and citrus groves create focal points, seemingly at every turn. The community also includes a spa, a bath-house, two pools, and an art plaza with a mural by world-renowned artist Richard Tuttle—all on just 8.5 acres.
Category: Attached/Townhouse community; Entrant/Builder: Coastal Homes, Miami; Architect: Wolfberg Alvarez & Partners, Coral Gables, Fla.; Developer: Dacra Development, Miami Beach, Fla.; Land planner/Landscape architect: Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co., Miami
Learn more about markets featured in this article: Miami, FL.
