The Della

Alys Beach, Florida

Client: EBSCO Gulf Coast Development, Inc.

The Della is a four-story, mixed-used retail and residential condominium building anchoring the town center of Alys Beach. The design draws from turn-of-the-century seaside resorts in Bermuda, Brighton, and Venice. The building features a deep ground floor arcade and upper-level porches that overlook the town’s amphitheater and Gulf of Mexico beyond. Towards the rear of the buildings, massing steps down from four stories to two- and three-story courtyards to transition from the Town Center to the village to the north. The Della’s ground floor provides about 9,500 square feet of retail space and its 20 residential condominiums are a mix of two- and three-bedroom units ranging in size from 1,400 to 2,300 square feet.

The building provides new vitality to Alys’s Town Center with its new ground floor restaurants and shops. The new residents located in the center of town are walking instead of driving, contributing to the green pedestrian-dominant lifestyle of the entire town. As a model for walkable, sustainable town centers, it serves to guide other places nationwide to reinvigorate their own community centers. Designed with Fortified Construction, the building will last decades in the hurricane-prone region.

Photo Credit: Chris Luker, Luker Photography