Burle Marx, Roberto, 1909–1994, Brazilian landscape architect. As an art student he visited (1928) Berlin's botanical gardens and became interested in tropical plants. Upon returning to Brazil (1930) he attended the National School of Fine Arts, Rio de Janeiro, where he studied under the architect Lúcio Costa, with whom he soon collaborated, designing gardens of indigenous plants for many of Costa's buildings, including the Ministry of Education and Health Building in Rio (1937–42). Other important commissions for gardens included the ministries of the army and foreign affairs in Brasilia, the Brazilian pavilion at the 1958 Brussels International Exposition, the UNESCO Building in Paris (1963), the U.S. embassy in Brasilia (1967), and Rio's international airport (1978). He also designed Rio's Copacabana beach promenade (1970). He was also an environmentalist and advocated protecting the Amazon rain forest; his Rio estate is now a tropical plant center.
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