Proof Positive
Eric Herman
Watching the arc of a learning curve can be fascinating – particularly when you’re not the one who’s going through the process.
This is why I take such pleasure in presenting the article found in this issue: “Greater Expectations” by Kevin Fleming (click here). A project manager with Lipinski Estate Pools in Marlton, N.J, Fleming’s story is the long-awaited follow-up to a piece that ran two years ago in which he described the firm’s initial attempts to transform itself from a focus on price-point competition to working only on quality, custom, ultra-high-end projects.
As Fleming described in the first article, the impetus for change came from his attendance at two Genesis 3 schools and some “provocative” conversations he had with Genesis 3 co-founder David Tisherman. After two-plus years of struggle, transformation and, ultimately, hard-won success, Fleming now reports that the transition is nearly complete. Today, the firm finds itself flying high over an emerging upscale market.
“The clientele we’re working with now didn’t even know that this approach to design and construction was available to them,” Fleming told me recently. “The process we go through as a company has been completely transformed – and you see the results of that change expressed on our clients’ faces and in their pride in the finished product.”
Added David Tisherman, “I recently pointed out to Kevin that two years ago he didn’t think they could ever sell a swimming pool that cost more than $40,000, and now it’s unlikely that they would build anything for that amount. But it’s not about the dollars: Instead, it’s about their commitment to creating works of art.”
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I’m not particularly surprised when readers call me with comments, questions or the occasional complaint about the prominence of “Genesis 3 people” in the pages of WaterShapes. It’s certainly true that many of our columns and feature articles are or have been written by that group’s founders, instructors and students, and it only makes sense that some of you would see and wonder about the connection.
Why are they all here? It’s pretty simple: From the days before we first set ink to paper, people involved with Genesis 3 have stepped forward time and again to share their work, their techniques and their insights with their fellow designers and builders, and they’ve done so with in a way that aligns with the instructive/supportive/illustrative philosophy of the magazine in direct and tangible ways.
It’s a significant point of pride for us that such top-notch professionals have contributed so generously to the magazine’s content. Collaborating with these folks is all the more satisfying for me because our work together results entirely from a closely shared vision of watershaping’s future and its ultimate potential.
True, this has meant that many of our columns and articles, whether contributed by Genesis 3 alumni or not, have tended to pound away at cornerstone issues of creative design, solid engineering and careful construction. But frankly, tracing the infinite variety of ways in which those ideas can play out in today’s most exciting projects is what this publication is all about.
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This issue is the first in Volume 5 of WaterShapes – and the first issue in a year that will see us preparing an issue every month, meaning you’ll be seeing a bit more of us in the year to come.
As we enter the new year, we wish to acknowledge the support of our many writers as well as our loyal advertisers and readers – and to let you know that the best is definitely yet to come.
Have a great New Year.