Robert Colón is a landscape + urban designer and climate adaptation professional based in Miami Beach, FL. Robert has dedicated his career to restoring Florida’s natural ecosystems while building resilience in the vulnerable urban communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis. Through design, science, and art, Robert works toward the harmonization of cities with Nature.

In 2020, Robert was recognized by the Landscape Architecture Foundation as an Olmsted Scholar, a recognition for students demonstrate exceptional leadership and a commitment to advancing sustainable design. Recently, Robert was inducted as a 2026 Landscape Architecture Foundation Fellow for Leadership and Innovation. Through his fellowship research, Robert explores how the field of landscape architecture can lead the regional climate adaptation of South Florida through ecosystem regeneration. He believes ecological urbanism is most effective approach to achieving equitable resilience and environmental justice in the face of the growing hazards of the climate crisis. His fellowship project Evertecture is currently in development and will center public engagement. He looks forward to envisioning our future together.

Robert serves as a Resiliency Coordinator 2 for Miami-Dade County’s Department of Environmental Resources Management - Division of Environmental Risk and Resilience. He consults government agencies on planning for sea level rise, increasing rainfall, and extreme heat through nature-based solutions and related infrastructures. His collaborator include the South Florida Water Management District, the US Army Corps of Engineers, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy for Nature-Based Solutions, community-based organizations such as Miami Waterkeeper and the Everglades Foundation, and universities including Florida International University and the University of Miami Climate Resilience Institute and Center for Urban and Community Design. 

Robert turns to art as a means both to grieve the irreversible destruction of our unique landscape and to hold radical optimism for a future in balance with its natural forces. At times, his artwork simply bears witness to the transformative history of Florida’s development that is often hidden in plain sight. Where most see failures of infrastructure, Robert observes the failures of culture as he is confronted daily with the violent legacy of our civilization’s relationship with Water and the Land.

Robert designs landscapes with a focus on functional habitat creation that introduce clients to their surrounding ecosystems, inviting them into an accessible dialogue about our collective adaptation.

To collaborate, book a design consult, or commission a work of art, contact Robert at robertcolon.design@gmail.com.

See below for past exhibitions.