©Robin Hill
Raymond Jungles Inc.
Florida
Raymond Jungles, FASLA, is the founder of the Miami-based Landscape Architecture firm, Raymond Jungles, Inc. (RJI), recognized for excellence in the design and implementation of public and private sector projects. As a Landscape Architect and in his practice, he strives to preserve and protect existing ecosystems while also evoking human interaction and improving the lives of others. Raymond pursued this passion through his adolescence and developed it into his career after graduating with a degree in Landscape Architecture, with honors, from the University of Florida in 1981. He established his award-winning firm in 1982, which became incorporated as Raymond Jungles, Inc. in 1985. In 2006, Raymond was elected a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects.
Raymond’s work has been celebrated with numerous awards including two National awards from the American Society of Landscape Architects for the Sky Garden and Island Modern residential gardens.
He is also a recipient of fifty-three design awards from the Florida Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects, including eighteen Awards of Excellence and six Frederic B. Stresau Awards. Raymond leads all RJI’s projects, from their conceptual onset to final completion. Raymond enjoys mentoring his staff and passionately promoting the profession of Landscape Architecture and the appreciation of natural environments and gardens. He lectures domestically and internationally at a diverse array of institutions and universities about his work and on the work and influences of Roberto Burle Marx, whom he has acknowledged as his mentor. Raymond credits the time spent in the presence of Burle Marx or the ‘master modernist’ had a defining impact on his life’s trajectory.
Widely published, his three monographs; Ten Landscapes, The Colors of Nature, and most recently, The Cultivated Wild, feature more than fifty of his completed gardens.
Roberto Burle Marx: he was a painter, musician, sculptor, garden designer, and lifestyle artist. A great inspiration; Luis Barragan: he was an architect, a poet, and a landscape architect. Frederick Law Olmsted; Michael Van Valkenburgh
US National Parks like Sequoia and Yosemite National Parks. From a very young age, I was always surrounded by nature. Sitio Burle Marx. Native Florida: Natural Dunes, Everglades, Pine Forest, and Florida Keys
SELECTED PROJECTS
Sky Garden
This garden is the crown on the now-iconic parking garage designed by Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron that lies at the western terminus of Lincoln Road in Miami Beach. The structure has been recognized around the world for its bold and unexpected architecture, and it has quickly become one of the most visible and recognizable structures in the city. The project, known as the Sky Garden, gave Jungles the opportunity to enhance a very unique rooftop space; a penthouse has the unusual distinction of occupying the top level of this complex, which is otherwise part parking garage, part retail space, and part event space. The overall goal was to strike a balance between aesthetic vision and practicality. Although its high position provides it an enviable view of the city and its prominent address gives it instant distinction, the exceptionally well-designed residence is meant to be unpretentious, and to defer to the rooftop landscape for its true sense of identity. The garden was designed to be resilient and low maintenance. A diverse palette of native plants and noninvasive specimen plant material has adapted well to the site and to the shallow soil depths, which average 6 inches. Specimen red-trunk acacia trees from Africa provide scale and sculptural qualities while framing views toward the Atlantic Ocean in the distance. A winding zoysia grass path—left unmown to celebrate its natural mounding tendency—leads visitors through a variety of experiential moments within the space.
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Golden Rock Inn
Golden Rock Inn is a centuries-old sugar plantation located on Nevis, a 36-square-mile island in the West Indies. The site is perched 1,000 feet above sea level on the lower side of Mount Nevis, a still towering yet inactive volcano. The new stewards of this intimate hotel, both artists, were attracted to the historic site by the abundance of living things sharing the grounds. The overgrown, relaxed vegetation, and ethereal light, appealed to their well-honed senses. The collaboration that ensued is now a garden that feels a part of the whole. Prior to beginning the project, Raymond met, interviewed, and assembled a team of local nursery owners, landscapers, home builders, and stonemasons. With the project being in such a remote location, it was necessary to work with local nursery owners who were most knowledgeable when it came to arranging international shipments of barge-contained plant material and supplying native material. The plants were then delivered up makeshift roads with steep inclines, and care was given to avoid any road-grazing animals. Golden Rock Inn is open to the public, regardless of species, as the motions and sounds of the native animals often overpower that of the tourists. Throughout the design process, a need to not only provide habitat, prevent destruction and circumvent possible animal disturbances was imperative. In the mornings, monkeys pretentiously pick at the low hanging mangoes, while sheep and goats tread about the site’s restored meadows. Raymond designed a ha-ha wall to maintain an uninterrupted view from the garden and to allow the client to view the animals from his painting studio. All of the elements that define the art of garden creation are in harmony; light, stone, water, plants, structure, landforms, and sky. The distant soul-searching views towards Montserrat and Antigua through the sculpted ficus tree also integrates the sea with the garden experience of this wind-blown, mountain-side retreat for the soul.
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