Landscape architects are usually the last ones called into a building project, brought in only after a house is completed. When the owners of an island property on Miami's Biscayne Bay dreamed of giving their 1950s home a treehouse effect, they took an unlikely route. They consulted local landscape architect Raymond Jungles first, before the structural remodeling.
Photos: Tropical Paradise in Miami
The aptly named Mr. Jungles—working with a boxy 5,000-square-foot house situated on a nondescript 14,240-square-foot corner plot—began with the idea of an adult-size aerie that was tethered to the ground. And, in the process, he went on to transform the space into a tropical paradise. "I wanted to unify the exterior and interior and make it feel like a single environment," said Mr. Jungles, who has become one of the most celebrated landscape architects in the United States.