South American Vision - Faena Comes to Miami Beach

"The idea that you could wake up in the morning, and walk outside along the veranda to the kitchen to get your coffee and grab the paper and sit outside by the kitchen..." Brandon Haw of Foster + Partners says in the promotional video for Faena House, opening in 2014 on Collins Avenue in Miami Beach.

One time designer and now real estate developer, Alan Faena of the Faena Hotel + Universe in Buenos Aires is bringing his vision to Miami Beach. The man behind the reinvention of the Puerto Madero neighborhood in his hometown of Buenos Aires, Argentina, is working with a "collaboratory," (a "laboratory of collaborations," as he told WSJ Magazine), to bring, for the first time, a voice from South America to North America. This voice will arrive in the form of a residential condominium, an arts center, a retail center and a hotel. And Miami, with its already prevalent latino vibe should be a comfortable first location for the Faena District.

Faena's collaboratory consists of a superior team of partners. Among them, he counts investment partner, Russian billionaire Leonard Blavatnik, Foster + Partners for the design of the condominium residences and Rem Koolhaas & OMA for the Faena Arts Center, Faena Bazar and Faena Park. Included in the four block area on Collins is the Saxony Hotel, which will be redone and transformed by designers Roman + Williams.

Perhaps the most striking aspect of the new development is the flavor from Faena's part of the world that he wishes to bring to Miami. As Haw says in the promotional video, it's the concept of harmoniously blending the indoor-outdoor living spaces; having a veranda space that rivals the interior living space, being able to hold a dinner party comfortably on the balcony. Faena District will interweave the condominium, the hotel, the art center, the retail center and even the parking area to become a "new paradigm in the fine art of living."

"We believe we can have different cities of the world enjoy our way of doing things - this new way of development that blurs art, culture and music," Faena told WSJ Magazine.