A perch above a parking garage-even if it is one designed by Herzog & de Meuron on Miami’s fashionable Lincoln Road-doesn’t suggest the most glamorous of backdrops. Yet for Juvia, the penthouse hotspot from couple Jonas and Alexandra Milan, the juxtaposition only heightens the restaurant’s visual intrigue.

“No one expects to get in an elevator, go up nine floors, and enter an oasis featuring water, plants, and sky all working together in perfect balance with the existing and new architecture of the building,” explains Alejandro Barrios Carrero, the Caracas, Venezuela-based designer who worked on the 10,000-square-foot project.

Yet once guests step off that elevator they are immediately whisked into a fantasy world that seamlessly melds the outdoors and indoors. For those who want to skip a sultry night on the terrace-with its intimate banquettes and communal table in the company of a tranquil water feature-for air-conditioned comfort at, say, a ceviche bar table, mighty views of the Miami skyline and Atlantic Ocean fill the dining room from every angle, making dinner feel like an alfresco affair.

“The first time I went into the space I was blown away by the power it had. I wanted to respect as much as possible that flying sensation it has, and the relation between the outside and the inside,” says Barrios Carrero. “I wanted to create a space that would understand and speak the same language of the high level of design that was in the area and a restaurant that transmitted the energy of South Beach.”

Sleek design and an aura of vibrancy permeate Juvia, from the hushed palette of gray and white, to the majestic purple that punctuates the entire restaurant, most notably in the form of the amethyst bar top, which glows in the evening in true Miami style. Limestone, whitewashed oak, petrified wood, and a lush vertical plant wall, “which travels from the inside to the outside and back inside,” notes Barrios Carrero, add to Juvia’s tactile allure: “All of these elements say Miami to me.”