Page 98 - Architectural Digest - USA (February 2020)

last word

Animal

Kingdom

“A month ago this was all dirt,” says
real estate developer Michael Shvo,
standing in the Raleigh’s new gardens,
just off Collins Avenue in Miami Beach.
That’s hard to believe given the more
than 150 species of flora, many of them
native to Florida, that now form a lush
tableau. But Shvo (who recently bought
the iconic hotel, currently closed for
renovations) transformed the grounds
in a matter of weeks, enlisting the help
of AD100 maestro Peter Marino and
landscape architect Raymond Jungles.
“We create gardens that look like
they’ve always existed,” says the aptly
named Jungles. His foliage currently
serves as a backdrop to 32 sculptures
by the late French couple Claude and
François-Xavier Lalanne, which were
unveiled on the eve of Art Basel Miami
Beach, late this past November, and
will remain on view through February.
A large bronze monkey gazes at
the ocean; a flock of François-Xavier’s
famous sheep grazes; and a defiant
ram stands atop a pile of rocks. “I like
to tuck them away into shady corners,”
says Marino, who hid Claude’s Lit
Singerie, a copper-and-bronze bed
crawling with monkeys, past a thick
cluster of Mexican palms. “Les Lalanne
appeal to everybody—to art collectors,
to people who know nothing about art,
to children,” says Shvo, glancing over
at his young daughter, perched, as if on
cue, atop Claude’s shimmering bronze
Pomme Moyenne. raleighhotel.com
—HANNAH MARTIN

DOUGLAS FRIEDMAN

96 ARCHDIGEST.COM