Monograph on Raymond Jungles, a contemporary landscape architect based in Miami known for innovative but timeless design and a commitment to ethical stewardship of the land.
For almost 40 years, Raymond Jungles has generated design solutions that respond to surrounding natural systems while restoring nature's balance and harmony on a micro-scale. His completed gardens personify timelessness and beauty, with verdant spaces that entice participation and soothe the psyche.
This monograph, the fourth to focus on his work, will present 21 completed projects, along with a section of work in progress featuring sketches, renderings, and site plans of 12 current projects of varying typologies including an 18-acre Phipps Ocean Park in the Town of Palm Beach, Florida. 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 famed interior garden by the revered landscape architect Dan Kiley at the Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice in New York; a landscape to evoke the work of legendary Brazilian designer Roberto Burle Marx at the New York Botanical Garden, and two new gardens at the the Naples Botanical Garden.
Founded in 1985 by Raymond Jungles, the firm’s design priorities are generated by the scale and functionality of a space. Simple, clean, and well-detailed hardscape elements are the quintessential bones of a garden. Planting volumes vary and bold colors and textures are used with intent. The firm is guided by Raymond’s personal and design principles: integrity, relevance, and nature’s honor. Their informed designs tread lightly on the land, provide habitat, and incorporate elements of surprise.
Raymond Jungles is the founding principal of Raymond Jungles Inc., an award-winning landscape architecture firm based in Miami. An honors graduate of the department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Florida, Jungles is a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects. Beyond his practice, Jungles is acknowledged as an authority on the work of the legendary Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx and curated a living exhibition of Burle Marx's work at the New York Botanical Garden in 2019. He has lectured widely on his firm’s body of work at Cornell, Harvard Graduate School of Design, the New York Botanical Garden, the Museum of Modern Art, and the ASLA Conference on Landscape Architecture.
Michael Van Valkenburgh is founder and principal of Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, designers of the landscape of the Barack Obama Presidential Center in Chicago and Brooklyn Bridge Park, among many nationally recognized parks and public spaces. He is the author of Designing a Garden, documenting his inspiration and process in creating the Monk's Garden at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.
Winner of a 2021 ASLA Honor Award
"I have loved Raymond Jungles’s landscapes for a very long time. The way he amplifies daring compositions, in large part due to a profound appreciation of plants, has captured my imagination for years. His gardens are undoubtedly striking, but first and foremost they are comforting to visitors—a mirror of Raymond himself, a person who exudes quiet self-confidence and a sense of serenity. The same combination of tranquility and boldness is evident in the landscapes he admires, especially those designed by Roberto Burle Marx, an early and formative influence on his work. While both designers favor vivid colors and textures, it never feels like they are employed in the interest of drawing attention to themselves. On the contrary, judging by the completed gardens, both are interested in creating places for visitors simply to enjoy."
—Michael Van Valkenburgh, from the introduction of Beyond Wild: Gardens and Landscapes by Raymond Jungles
“As his last name might suggest, landscape architect Raymond Jungles is known for creating lush landscapes around the world. Escape with this latest monograph—Jungles’ fourth—celebrating his firm’s most recent body of work.”
—Elle Decor
