The Douras had traveled widely, and after carefully studying the work of master architect Andrea Palladio, they knew they wanted their house to pay homage to those Renaissance villas of the Veneto -- part Villa Almerico and part Villa Foscari. But the land they owned did not sprawl across the Northern Italian countryside. It was a single city lot, almost square in shape, "so the house needed to be compact," said Portuondo, whose Miami firm Portuondo Perotti Architects is known for houses that evoke the many centuries of architectural history.

The house also needed to be very tall, with the first habitable floor some 15 feet above sea level to comply with floodplain requirements. To minimize this, Palm Beach landscape architects Jorge Sanchez and Phil Maddux of the firm Sanchez & Maddux devised an elegant solution -- a long, low staircase of French limestone and grass. The ascent is gradual, giving the building a more solid place in the landscape.

The Douras wanted a house with a timeless air, one that defied instant classification and that some years hence might have observers wondering just which decade it was from. The roof is copper. All the architectural details are stucco, and the windows are mahogany. The columns are real, serving a structural function. "They're traditional, engaged columns," says Portuondo. The granite walkways are composed of 18th-century stones that were once ballast on sailing ships.

As you face the house, limestone steps lead to the front door, which is flanked by six royal palms almost as tall and imposing as the house itself, along with a lavish procession of foxtail palms, pinwheel jasmine, Japanese boxwood borders, and potted calamondin trees.