While New Yorkers have been organizing exhibitions of dream communities, in Miami Beach Craig Robins has been turning his dreams into reality, with the help of well known New York architects and those from other places. The posh new neighborhood he has in mind is certainly a departure from the area's typical apartment towers of 40-plus stories. Robins, president of Dacra Development Corporation, is behind Aqua, 8.5 acres of mid-rise apartments and single-family houses at the southern tip of Miami Beach's Allison Island. The emphasis, he says, "is on creating a community with cutting-edge architecture and fantastic views. We are merging traditional urbanism with modern architecture to get a modernist neighborhood."

Robins, whose company has been involved for several years with the reemergence of Miami Beach's Art Deco district, hired local stars Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company to create a recipe for this modernist architecture-meets-traditional town planning neighborhood. Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk are acknowledged as founders and leaders of the New Urbanism approach to community design and planning. Seaside, Kentlands, Celebration, and other new developments designed in this neotraditional~town-planning mode, have gained broad national recognition.

But the real focus of the neighborhood is the luxury housing in new and renovated buildings, which are named after their architects. "The master plan will provide a consistency in which each structure enhances the overall, yet leaves room for the diversity and individuality of the homes," Robins said, though it's unclear how strict any design guidelines meant to reinforce a consistent fabric actually are. And while Robins hopes for aesthetic diversity, the economic diversity in this small neighborhood is not likely to be vast. The homes will be in three mid-rise apartment buildings and 46 single-family residences intended to "redefine the standard of luxury," Robins likes to say. The former will range from $350,000 to $2 million and the latter from $800,000 to $3 million.

According to DPZ team member Ludwig AbeIlo, the master plan provided a set of urban design guidelines that focused on height limits and setbacks to create and maintain the street edge condition, but kept architectural restrictions to a minimum. "We didn't want to put too many constraints on the architects," he said, "beyond the urban design guidelines. We hoped that the architecture would reflect, in general, the Miami Beach traditions, but that means that you will see some projects that have an Art Deco reference, others that are more streamlined, and others that are more contemporary."

Several New York architects are working on projects at Aqua. Emmanuela Frattini Magnusson has designed one of the townhouses. Hariri & Hariri has designed a single family house inspired by the movement of water crafts and vessels around the island. Its main body resembles a sculpture carved from a block, and its arched metal roof provides some fluidity, and captures the dynamic reflections of the hot Florida sun.

Walter Chatham, who worked with DPZ at Seaside and has been active in the New Urbanist movement, has designed a series of row houses at Aqua and converted the existing Morris Tower (which had large floor plates) to apartments with spaces evocative of the grand apartments of the 1930s. The residences, whose plans are rather open, feature high ceilings, tall windows, expansive views, and plenty of private outdoor terraces and balconies. A rooftop swimming pool will resemble those found on ocean liners of old.

The nautical theme also characterizes Chatham's smooth stucco town houses, which have crisp pipe railing and trim, as well as continuous louvered shutters over windows, creating a pleasing rhythm of sunlight and shadow. Their large expanses of glass and roof terraces with tubular railing evoke ships and the architecture of the early modernist movement they inspired.

An apartment building designed by Alison Spear features glass cubes set into the overall rectangular volume and glass balconies wrapping around the facades; engaging the view is the primary concern throughout.

At the apex of the island, Alexander Gorlin has designed a mid-rise building that, like a compass, "is divided into four quadrants that point to the cardinal directions to take advantage of the sun, sky, and water" all around, he said. The shift in plan provides privacy and identity for each unit. While all the rooms have dramatic views, those on the southeast and southwest corners are completely glazed and protected by sunscreens, which animate the facade and make possible a kind of breeze-filled outdoor living in the sky. Duplex units on the lower levels, near the water and the Aqua Club, resemble town houses inside.

Gorlin also designed a group of cubic town houses at Aqua which blend the Florida vernacular with the International Style and other high-style modernist sources. The plans and sections have been developed to create multi-layered sequences of open and closed spaces.

If an ambitious architectural undertaking like this can succeed anywhere, Miami Beach, with its combination of semi-tropical weather, bold architectural traditions, and modish scene is a good bet.