Homes of Desire

The Man Behind Grove at Grand Bay’s Lush Landscape August 9th, 2012

The Grove at Grand Bay is quickly becoming one of the most talked-about developments in Miami, and much of that buzz is based on the beautiful renderings being touted around the real estate community.  Ocean Drive magazine recently profiled famed landscape architect, Raymond Jungles, who is working alongside Danish architect Bjarke Ingels on this Coconut Grove project:

Dressed in white linen pants, a light brown shirt—untucked—and suede loafers,  Raymond Jungles stops mid-sentence at a muted rumble of thunder. “We should sit over here so we can hear the rain,” he says, sliding open the glass door of his  conference room at his office studio. The vista is a small garden at the edge of  the Miami River, a profusion of native vegetation with the towers of downtown  beyond. At a sudden crack of nearby lightning, Jungles exhales sharply. It’s an  expression of his delight at nature’s show of force, and it’s a hint at what  fuels his pursuit of the ideal “garden experience.”

Jungles is on a roll as one of the top landscape architects in the country.  His recent projects include designing the rooftop garden of the New World  Symphony’s new Miami Beach home (starchitect Frank Gehry’s first Florida  commission) and transforming the blockfronting Herzog & de Meuron’s  celebrated 1111 Lincoln Road parking garage from a double row of palm trees into  an Everglades-inspired oasis. (The latter earned him an invitation from the  Cultural Landscape Foundation to speak about urban renewal at its conference at  the Museum of Modern Art.) He is currently working alongside Danish architect  Bjarke Ingels on a residential tower called Grove at Grand Bay, which will  replace the luxurious Grand Bay hotel in Coconut Grove.

The high-profile commissions are a triumph for a man who started his career  in the dirt. Born in Omaha, Nebraska, Jungles, 56, moved to Miami after high  school and got a job as a landscape laborer, then as a Miami Beach lifeguard,  before earning an associate’s degree from Miami Dade College and eventually  enrolling in the University of Florida’s landscape architecture program. It was  there that he encountered the work of Brazilian artist and landscape architect  Roberto Burle Marx, whose bold, modernist aesthetic impressed Jungles with the  poetic possibilities of landscape design.

For the full article, click here.

Many of my clients have requested information on Grove at Grand Bay, and if you are interested in learning more about the development, I am happy to introduce you to the project.  In the meantime, here are a few of the newest renderings: Grove At Grand Bay Lookbook

Categories: City News, Market Trends

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 9th, 2012 at 3:36 PM and is filed under City News, Market Trends. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.