Q&A: Welcome to the Jungle featuring Raymond Jungles

Photography by Daniel Rodriguez on November 4th, 2021 in Editorials, Lifestyle

Raymond Jungles

Miami Beach, FL – November 4, 2021 – Raymond Jungles, a landscape architect known for creating lush landscapes around the world, hosted an intimate book launch event for his latest monograph – Jungles’s fourth – Beyond Wild – celebrating his firm’s most recent body of work. Among the featured projects are major landscapes surrounding luxury residential complexes as well as lush private gardens from the mountains in Mexico to volcanic craters in Panama, Caribbean beachfronts, the Florida Keys, and densely populated cities like Manhattan and Miami.

The event attendees included Raymond’s family and friends, local clients like David Grutman and Patricia and Jose Mas, his talented design team, and many collaborators and consultants he has worked with throughout the years. Local projects include the gardens of Swan, the Goodtime Hotel, Soho Beach House, 1111 Lincoln Road, Faena House, and Faena Hotel Miami Beach, in addition to his many residential estate gardens.

Miami Beach Botanical Garden was a fitting venue for the book launch event. Raymond Jungles redesigned the garden in 2011 and an image from the garden is featured on the front cover of the book. Raymond Jungles, Inc. would like to thank Sandy Shapiro, Maurice Jackson, and Sanna O’Sullivan for their time and dedication to the event planning and execution.

WRE met up with Jungles ate the launch of his new masterpiece and discussed the beauty behind his unique craft. Read the full Q&A below.

Raymond Jungles

WRE: Tell us about your new book, Beyond Wild.

Raymond Jungles: This monograph, the fourth to focus on our firm’s work, presents 21 completed projects, along with a section of work in progress featuring sketches, renderings, and site plans of 12 current projects of varying typologies. Among the featured works are major landscapes surrounding luxury residential complexes, as well as lush private gardens from the mountains in Mexico to volcanic craters in Panama, Caribbean beachfronts, the Florida Keys, and densely populated cities like Manhattan and Miami. Highlights include the restoration of the atrium garden at the Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice in New York; a modern residential garden with a private lagoon on Pine Tree Drive in Miami Beach, and three acres of gardens that link Grove at Grand Bay’s twisting towers in Coconut Grove.

WRE: Beyond Wild features many diverse and unique projects ranging in scopes and sizes. Which, if any, of these projects presented challenges throughout the entire design and execution process?

RJ: Each project has a unique challenge, some prompted by existing site conditions, others prompted by designs that push the envelope and challenge existing rules and regulations. As an example, the book features Jade Signature, a multi-family residential garden we designed with renowned architecture firm, Herzog & de Meuron. The architects wanted to design a 57-story tower that would “grow out of the landscape” though 90% of the garden needed to be built on top of the underground parking podium. This design move allows for an elegant visual connection between the street, the building’s lower amenity level, the pool, and the ocean. When you walk along the dune garden towards the pool, it feels like you are walking on natural earth.

Raymond Jungles

Raymond Jungles

Raymond Jungles

Raymond Jungles

I get to create beauty all over the world. To me, this is not work, this is creating.

Raymond Jungles

WRE: How has COVID affected consumers’ views on outdoor living and design?

RJ: We all know that the pandemic forced people to stay home, but it also revived their appreciation of their interior and exterior spaces. Many of our clients appreciated these places of respite and reflection that we built for them in a time of chaos and uncertainty. And even while our public gardens were closed to humans, they were still quite active with the scents and colors of blooms, and sounds and movements of birds and butterflies.

From a business perspective, we have never been more in demand. There is a growing appreciation for high quality hospitality gardens, which is music to our ears. This appeal is not just driven by inspired clients that hire us for projects like the Soho Beach House, the Faena District, Swan, or the Goodtime Hotel; we hear about the impact of our gardens from waiters and front desk staff, to hotel guests and restaurant patrons. Specimen Clusia Rosea trees and Travelers Palms become the backdrops for a Steve Aoki set at Strawberry Moon between a sea of young people. They begin to notice the plants and their beauty, and not just for the “Gram,” though we don’t mind being tagged in their posts enjoying our garden spaces.

David Grutman & Raymond Jungles

WRE: What current projects are you working on?

RJ: We are designing a 5-acre public oceanfront park as a component of the redevelopment on Ocean Terrace in Miami Beach. The park will replace asphalt and enhance the urban beachfront experience to the community’s benefit. A space for cars will now be a space for people. This is exactly what we did at the 1100 block of Lincoln Road. This block is alive with people engaging in yoga, music events, exterior retail and restaurants all beneath the canopies of specimen native Oak Trees, Bald Cypress Trees, and curving Sabal Palms. We want to continue to contribute to the public realm and that includes gardens for all.

WRE: What would you consider your dream project? Have you completed it already?

RJ: All of our projects are dream projects. I get to travel to exotic places, work with brilliant architects and interior designers, and create beauty all over the world. To me, this is not work, this is creating.

WRE: Beyond Wild marks your fourth monograph. Do you have plans for any more books?

RJ: We have historically produced a new monograph every five years or so, and we already have enough built projects coupled with professional photography for a future book. The timing will likely be five years from now, as I think we will take this time to enjoy the fruits of our labor.