As the sun sets, the party scene heats up along Gaston Avenue in old East Dallas. At 6011, music picks up the pace as garden torches ignite the courtyard's ambience. Strands of lights sparkle into the night in this grown-up playground of fountains, waterfalls, swimming pool and gazebo bar.

Lush with tropical plants, this Mediterranean-style paradise is courtesy of Braden and Craig Power, developers who have transformed derelict apartment complexes near the Swiss Avenue Historic District into trendy, glamorous and lively enclaves of urban hospitality. The brothers' 6011 Gaston property, built in the 1960s as The Fox Trot, is just up the street from The Stardust, a complex of similar vintage whose blue neon sign glows above jumbo glass courtyard doors with stainless-steel handles. Mexican and Sabal palm trees tower over the courtyard's poolside cabanas, its 6-foot tanning bed and its restored terrazzo shuffleboard court - a black, white and chrome theme, straight out of Miami Beach. . . .

OAK CLIFF OASIS OF GREEN.

Across the Trinity River, in the portion of North Oak Cliff known as the Bishop Arts District, David Spence is working on a similar resurrection of once-elegant properties, reviving a sense of place and harmonizing human and urban wildlife.

By recycling construction materials and rescuing plants from nearby demolition sites, Mr. Spence's company, Good Space Inc. has, like the Power brothers, successfully placed apartment living on a human scale by paying close attention to landscaping. He has blended the elements so well, in fact, that three of his properties - 408 W. 8th, 835 N. Bishop and 425 Neches ­ have been certified as Backyard Wildlife Habitats by the National Wildlife Federation. In 2000, Preservation Dallas recognized his efforts with a Preservation Achievement Award for Neighborhood Revitalization.

Mr. Spence's habitats help communicate his goal to "build green," he says. "I think it's spooky to live someplace where you're the only mammal."

He explains that some of the area's apartment buildings were designed to resemble mansions so they'd blend with the original concept of a high-toned neighborhood. The styles of his properties include arts and crafts, Spanish eclectic, mission style and art moderne. He offers each tenant private outdoor space and transforms a portion of the overall landscaping into an outdoor lounging area. He also is restoring studio spaces to bring artists back to the neighborhood.

"Basically, I wanted to fix up cool old buildings," says Mr. Spence, a self-described redeveloper and operator of historic commercial properties, retail, office and residential.

"Whether tenants can articulate this or not, I think they move here craving a certain authenticity and something they think existed 100 years ago and will into the future. And the suburbs don't offer that," Mr. Spence says.

Dwayne Jones, executive director of Preservation Dallas, praised the efforts of Mr. Spence and the Power brothers, and described their projects as "stabilizing the areas and improving the property values."

"I think they have both done some interesting work in keeping the spirit and flavor of these areas. They could have just demolished those buildings," he says.

Mr. Jones and Mr. Spence agree that the renovations were unlikely to displace lower-income residents in the neighborhoods.

"I don't think these renovations will have so much of an impact that they'll totally up the rents. These neighborhoods appeal to folks who like the depth, intrigue and atmosphere that they can't get in newer ones," Mr. Jones says.

Mr. Spence says, "I don't operate in a part of town that is a likely candidate for gentrification." He describes the Kidd Springs and Bishop Arts areas as retaining a "mixture of income and ethnic classifications."

"The neighborhood shows enough promise to attract the college-educated, but that group can't gain the critical mass to drive up the prices of apartments, homes or consumer goods enough to displace less-affluent neighbors," he says.

In this part of Dallas, where salsa music rules and neighbors congregate at Saturday-morning yard sales, mellow tones of Woodstock-style wind chimes harmonize with higher-pitched bells of the ice cream truck rippling across the hot summer days.

Developers of the original neighborhood envisioned it as an exclusive area for wealthy Dallasites, with picture-postcard views of the Dallas skyline. The advent of the trolley brought the middle class instead, Mr. Spence says. Today, North Oak Cliff is reclaiming its small-town ambience ­ quiet and serene, with very little traffic.

Unlike the old East Dallas properties that the Power brothers rescued, Mr. Spence's buildings were not scheduled for demolition when he stepped in. His neighborhood "was spared demolition by neglect," he says. "It was abandoned after the 1940s, boarded up in the '70s and rediscovered in the '80s.

TENDER LOVING CARE

What the projects do have in common is that their developers didn't buy into the urban clear-cutting method of meeting Dallas' housing needs. They're reusing, recycling and refurbishing buildings that still have plenty of life in them. The locations enable residents to live close to their workplaces and enjoy Dallas' cultural assets. The Gaston Avenue apartments and other Power properties are minutes from White Rock Lake and the clubs and restaurants of lower Greenville Avenue, West Village and Deep Ellum. Residents of Mr. Spence's Bishop Arts District enjoy unique shops and artists' studios and proximity to two large public parks that date to the 1880s: Kidd Springs Park and Lake Cliff Park.

Another factor contributing to the appeal of these restoration projects is their revival of a gracious lifestyle in the midst of chaotic city life. In the case of the Power brothers, they're establishing garden courtyards were none existed. They've installed swimming pools and spas that would have been unheard of or too costly in the 1960s and created a variety of themes tailored toward different lifestyles.

"I think people are excited that we're not sticking to a formula and that we're giving each a different style," Braden Power says. "This neighborhood is about being original and being unique."

For some tenants, living at a Power brothers property or a David Spence habitat marks a transition between college dorm life and home ownership. It's gardening without the hassles of pulling weeds and planting geraniums. It's enjoying a lawn and pool without having the responsibility of mowing and upkeep. And it's getting to roll out of bed knowing that your daily commute is a half-hour, tops.

What the Power brothers and Mr. Spence also have accomplished is to set the bar for the next wave of homeowners. Apartment tenants will move on, buying houses and replicating these outdoor living spaces. They'll seek out colorful hibiscus and lantana, ferns, Indian hawthorne, palms and native grasses. And they'll expect to continue the outdoor lifestyle to which they're becoming accustomed ­ swimming pools, spa-style lounge chairs, hammocks, fountains, state-of-the-art audio-video, all-weather ping-pong tables, outdoor fireplaces and music in the trees.