Finding Touchstones

Many great artists are best known for working in identifiable genres, styles or modes or with specific materials, themes or some other defining detail. From Picasso’s cubist abstractions to Mozart’s cascading melodies or Rodin’s bronzes to Frank Gehry’s sweeping architectural forms, geniuses of all stripes are in one way or another known for qualities that are distinctly theirs.

The same holds true for many watershapers, especially those working at the top of the field. While many of us (myself included) cross the lines that divide distinctive modes, styles and genres, even the most free-spirited among us can be identified by elements that, for want of a better term, might be called the touchstones of our work.

This principle of identification isn’t absolute (from time to time we all play against type and do something out of the ordinary), but when I consider ways in which up-and-coming watershapers can elevate their work, I have the sense that mastering a particular element of watershape expression is one way to step up and gain a reputation for excellence.

BOILING WATER

I raise this point largely to set up my response to a recent inquiry from an aspiring watershaper who asked me what he needed to do to break into the upper ranks of the business. (In one form or another, this is probably the question I’m asked more often than any other.)

The answer is, of course, all-encompassing and would take a lifetime of conversations or columns to address adequately – and I always begin by making just that statement. I also usually point out that my response to the question has changed through the years as my career has developed and my basic sense of what’s possible in watershaping has exponentially expanded.

With that as prologue, I move along by breaking the topic down into two specific points: First, you can’t achieve much in any field of creative endeavor without having mastered the basics. If you want to be a chef, for example, you first have to know how to boil water and crack eggs.

In watershaping terms, that means you need a working familiarity with and appreciation of (if not outright expertise in) soils and geology, construction techniques, details of workmanship, hydraulics, design history, materials selection, design principles, presentation techniques, customer relations, project management, water-quality management and about a thousand other sub-categories that line up under those headings.

Watershaping, in other words, encompasses a truly vast body of knowledge – so vast, in fact, that comfort with the fundamentals requires a long-term commitment to education, the acquisition and constant updating of technical knowledge and ongoing development of design acumen.

As I see it, those who aspire to excellence in watershaping in today’s marketplace can’t get by on charm or finesse. Many of today’s consumers are too sharp to be taken in by bluster that isn’t backed by performance and too sophisticated in their own tastes to be persuaded to accept less than they’re expecting in a design.

Indeed, even production/volume-oriented watershapers these days are having to step up and do better with the fundamentals. It might cost them more to toe the line (which is why they avoided stepping up in the first place), but today’s consumers are pretty good at punishing poor performers and forcing them to elevate their games as a matter of survival.

For aspirants to excellence, however, there is no latitude: If you want to play the game on a high level, there’s no alternative to mastering the fundamentals.

REACHING HIGHER

For most of us who strive for or who have reached the upper echelon, staying in the mid-range or having a production orientation isn’t an option. We want to do something special in our work, which leads me to the second point I offer in answering the basic question of how one can elevate his or her watershaping to an art form: You have to be able to execute design elements that make projects special.

Often, that distinction is best achieved by choosing a specialty for which you might become known. There are a variety of ways you can make this happen, but it always starts with being deliberate in your thinking and carefully considering your place in the watershaping world. Yes, it can happen by chance, but luck is never going to be as reliable as is moving in a chosen direction with a plan and a sense of purpose.

Using my own career path as an example, my gateway into the world of custom watershaping started with what were once commonly called “lagoon pools.” Working in south Florida early in my career, I saw that there was a demand for watershapes that reflected the sunny lifestyle that defines the region. I also recognized that almost nobody in the industry was deliberately exploring that genre in design terms, so I stepped directly into the niche – and it worked.

It was so effective that for several years, I was known around the area as the “lagoon guy.”

In those times, I built lots of freeform pools with dark, highly reflective surfaces, surrounded them with lush landscaping, minimized attached architectural deckwork, set up rambling garden pathways and installed thatched huts, wooden decks, waterfalls and a host of other tropically inspired details. Even though some of those pools were built almost 30 years ago, I’m still proud of many of them and take satisfaction knowing that they’ve provided years of pleasure, relaxation and fun for my clients.

In my case, I decided to move beyond the limitations of that genre and have since developed designs that cut a far wider swath in terms of styles, motifs and design sensibilities. Just the same, the lagoon pool will always represent the starting place from which my career as a custom watershaper truly began.

STYLES AND FEATURES

The fact that someone may choose to move beyond a given genre doesn’t undercut the value of being identified with one style or another. Indeed, I’ve know many watershapers who are multi-faceted but are nonetheless proud to be identified as specialists in a given design tradition.

One example is Mark Holden, a regular WaterShapes contributor and an instructor for the Genesis 3 program. Mark is a knowledgeable, talented professional who has designed and built projects across a wide range of styles, but he may be best known for his work in the Spanish Colonial style at vintage homes in southern California. He has mastered the elements of this look down to the finest details and his work in such projects is genuinely remarkable.

Then there’s Randy Beard, another WaterShapes regular and Genesis 3 participant. I’m not certain he would claim this identification, but he has executed some of the finest contemporary-style pools I’ve ever seen, including a magnificent project designed by former WaterShapes columnist Stephanie Rose in which a modernist sculpture rises above a large perimeter-overflow pool in the courtyard of a stylish home. He’s another watershaper with broad capabilities, but he could quite reasonably lay claim to mastery of this particular idiom.

I could name scores of other watershapers who have clearly mastered particular styles, and in most cases it’s safe to say that their familiarity with given genres frees them up to add marks of distinction to what they do, whether the work is nominally Greco-Roman, Southwestern, Moorish, Spanish Colonial, Contemporary or Ultra-Modern. My point is, getting a well-deserved reputation for excellence in a single style that’s popular among upscale clients is a wonderful approach to gaining more general acceptance for your work.

Equally potent is doing what many watershapers have done in recent years – that is, they’ve become identified with a particular feature or design element. One of the best examples to consider along those lines is my Genesis 3 partner Skip Phillips, who may well be the world’s most recognized authority on water-in-transit systems.

Skip didn’t invent the vanishing edge or the perimeter overflow, but he is on a very short list of watershapers who embraced them early on and have advanced these features to the point where they may be the most identifiable and popular of all watershape-design elements. Certainly, not every pool Skip builds includes water in transit, but enough of them do that he’s become a genuine guru when it comes to making water flow over edges.

A UNIVERSE OF OPTIONS

I’m lucky in the work I do both in my own business and through Genesis 3 that I’ve gotten to know professionals all across the country (and indeed around the world) who do amazing things with their watershapes.

Consider Kevin Ruddy, a Genesis 3 alumnus who has mastered the art of building indoor residential pools. His work covers a broad range of architectural styles and features, but his mark of distinction is doing it all indoors. And of course there’s David Tisherman, who by now needs no introduction. His work crosses all design styles and temperaments, but in watershaping terms he’s clearly associated with raising pools out of the ground, with executing difficult hillside installations, with beautiful materials and with using simple forms in fantastically expressive ways.

New Tricks As discussed in the accompany text, the world of watershaping is characterized by a broad range of styles and features that make projects special – and define the work of watershapers who master given areas of specialization. One of the things that’s so amazing to me is that there always seems to be a new wrinkle on the horizon. As I was preparing this column, for instance, a client asked me to explore the possibility of designing a system in which a sheet of water falling from a spa elevated several feet above a pool could be used as a sort of liquid screen onto which movies could be projected. I’m not kidding: This client is dead serious about wanting to watch movies on a waterfall. It doesn’t happen very often, but this request stumped me. I’ve heard of images being projected onto precisely controlled banks of fine mist, but onto a sheer sheet of water? That one is miles beyond my established bag of tricks. Aside from the fact that I’d love to hear from any reader who knows how this might be done, I bring up this example here because it’s just one more indication of how rapidly the realm of watershaping is expanding into areas that would have been beyond anyone’s wildest dreams even a few years ago. Who knows? Someday a few of you might have made names for yourselves as pioneers in “aquavideo”! — B.V.B.

The range of possibilities for specialization is almost limitless. You could, for example, become known for combining fountain features with swimming pools or for using elaborate rockwork or for developing dazzling dining/entertainment areas. You might also work with a specific type of material (much as Tisherman is renowned for his masterful use of glass tile) or for an unusual look, such as the deployment of fire features in conjunction with watershapes.

That very last example leads me to an important point: When you move in a particular direction, you might do so in response to a trend – and certainly fire effects and outdoor kitchens qualify along those lines. The key is finding a trend that makes sense and has legs that can carry you into the future no matter what changes you might make or turns you might take as your career unfolds.

As for today’s emerging trends, I know that many watershapers are now earnestly exploring concepts related to environmentally sensitive design. This is a significant movement in more ways than one, not least of which is the fact that is represents a specialty based not on product types or details but instead on a value system.

We know that all things “green” are on people’s minds lately, and for lots of smart reasons these possibilities are capturing imaginations as never before. I think this trend has definite staying power, and my suspicion is that there will soon be a class of watershapers who will be well known for their environmentally friendly designs.

In fact, we’re already seeing this in a big way in the world of landscape architecture and design, where “sustainability” is a topic that dominates the field. Trust me: I don’t think watershaping will lag too far behind.

THE BIG DEAL

The beauty of watershaping as an art form is that it reaches into so many different potential specialties. It’s a field rich with possibilities, and the only limit is the imagination of watershapers who are willing to step up and become true innovators.

Within all watershaping fields – ponds and streams, pools and spas, fountains and architectural features, tranquility and meditation gardens, competition pools, interactive water systems, even bird baths and zoological exhibits – there are always categories within categories, sub-genres within genres, and each can provide marks of distinction to those who master them.

None of us needs to feel compelled to master every one of those possibilities; who would have that much time? But whatever specialty or signature you choose, the big point here is that there’s power in being deliberate in setting your course: Once you set your direction and begin gathering the education and information you need to follow your chosen path, you never know how far you’ll go, how high you’ll climb or where else your steps might lead you.

Brian Van Bower runs Aquatic Consultants, a design firm based in Miami, Fla., and is a co-founder of the Genesis 3 Design Group; dedicated to top-of-the-line performance in aquatic design and construction, this organization conducts schools for like-minded pool designers and builders. He can be reached at [email protected].