Amanyara

Amanyara is situated along a Marine National Park on the northwest point of Providenciales, Turks & Caicos Islands. Island Planning Corporation (IPC) provided landscape design and landscape masterplanning for the entire hotel site as well as select private villas — and established an on-site team to execute full installation services from the ground up.

The site's remoteness and ecological sensitivity shaped every decision from the outset. Rather than clearing construction footprints and sourcing replacement material from the mainland, IPC conducted a comprehensive site analysis and tree salvage operation across the entire site. Every tree and shrub within future construction footprints was individually evaluated. Those of sufficient quality and viability were prepared and relocated — a labor-intensive process that preserved mature specimens that could not have been sourced locally or imported from South Florida at any practical cost or scale. Among the most significant finds were large specimens of West-Indian Mahogany (Swietenia mahagoni) and Lignum Vitae (Guaiacum officinale), one of the slowest-growing and most ecologically valuable trees in the Caribbean. These were carefully extracted, relocated, and ultimately repositioned as central specimens throughout the resort landscape.

Amanyara's plant species draw on the native and endemic flora of the Turks & Caicos and broader Caribbean region. Canopy and specimen trees include West Indian Mahogany (Swietenia mahagoni), Lignum Vitae (Guaiacum officinale), Gumbo Limbo (Bursera simaruba), Wild Tamarind (Lysiloma latisiliquum), Rosy Trumpet Tree (Tabebuia heterophylla), and native Plumeria (Plumeria obtusa). Palms include the native Sabal, Silver-top Palmetto (Coccothrinax inaguensis), and Buccaneer palm (Pseudophoenix sargentii) — the latter two endemic to the Bahamian archipelago and among the rarest palms in the region. Shrubs and understory include Jacquinia (Jacquinia keyensis), Jamaica Caper (Capparis cynophallophora), and Nashia (Nashia inaguensis). Additional species characteristic of Providenciales and the wider Turks & Caicos round out the palette — Brasiletto (Caesalpinia vesicaria), Blolly (Guapira discolor), Strongback (Bourreria succulenta), and Inkberry (Scaevola plumieri) along the coastal margins. Where material could not be salvaged on-site, additional plant material were hand-selected, through our IPC's native plant nursery networks and shipped from South Florida.

The central design challenge was creating a ecologically integrated transition between the Amanyara resort boundary and the and national park. There is no hard edge. The landscape evolves in diversity and complexity from a degree of symmetry and spatial formality at the core of the hotel into something increasingly naturalistic as it extends outward, until it moves into the surrounding native landscape with no discernible line.

Starting in 2004, IPC designed, restored, and reforested the better part of Amanyara's one hundred acres. Amanyara opened to guests in March 2006.