Celebrating the Moment

I’m the sort of person who prefers to think about what’s next rather than spend much time dwelling on the past. That’s not to say, however, that I don’t value past experiences, especially when I know they’ve had a role in creating the foundations for where we are now and for things yet to come.

The occasion of WaterShapes’ 100th issue certainly qualifies as an event that inclines me to look back: For me and many others, the past nine-plus years of the magazine’s existence have been quite a ride!

My long association with the magazine began in November 1998 over breakfast in New Orleans with two old friends – WaterShapes’ publisher Jim McCloskey and editor Eric Herman. I’d heard that they were working on a new publication that seemed relevant to what I was doing and was curious to find out what they had in mind.

As they explained the basic concept to me over eggs and beignets, I must concede that what they were considering struck me as implausible, maybe even a bit crazy. That’s not to say I didn’t think it was a terrific idea – indeed, I agreed wholeheartedly with them that the industry needed a fresh approach – but at that time I wasn’t sure there were enough people out there who would embrace such a progressive attitude about water as a decorative and recreational landscape element.

We’d all had years of up-close experience with the stubbornness of the pool/spa industry, and from that vantage point, we agreed that there was a mountain to climb. At the same time, I knew that if the magazine worked, we could all be onto something very special. So without any hesitation, I signed on to write a column for the magazine – and the rest, as they say, is history.

A COMMON VIEW

It’s no secret to anyone who’s been reading WaterShapes for any length of time that this publication has always been closely associated with the Genesis 3 Design Group and its programs. That connection was and continues to be so tight that, through the years, Jim, Eric and I (as well as my Genesis partners and co-founders David Tisherman and Skip Phillips) have been asked on many occasions about the “true nature” of the relationship – a basic assumption seeming to be that Genesis 3 owns WaterShapes (or vice versa).

For the record, WaterShapes and Genesis 3 are entirely separate entities, and we’ve come to the conclusion that the confusion has to do partly with the fact that the two businesses surfaced at about the same time. Even more so, however, we think it has to do with the fact that the two entities share a certain philosophy – a common conviction that working with water is a form of art – that has shaped us in some ways to become mirrors for one another. So once we made contact and discovered we were all on the same page, it only made sense that we would take advantage of the symbiosis and support each other’s efforts.

Almost from the start, however, I’ve believed that it was much more than coincidence that these two ventures emerged at the same time and shared a common perspective. In retrospect, each of us had lived through the same set of experiences and frustrations with the status quo – and all of us recognized the need for a tectonic shift in the way people approached the use of water in landscapes.

Of course, none of us were certain any of what we were doing would work, but in both cases we took a chance that the time was ripe for revolution. Now, nearly ten years down the road, it’s fair to say that our shared vision was on target, probably more so than any of us would have dreamed in 1998.

In my dual role with the magazine and Genesis 3’s programs, I confess that the results of these efforts have generally been extremely gratifying and at times a bit breathtaking. I can’t count how many people have approached me and remarked that either WaterShapes or Genesis 3 (and most often both) have changed their lives because we started a “movement” (as some call it) that has succeeded in elevating the way people think about what they do for a living and how they go about their business.

For my part, this isn’t about self-congratulation. Rather, it’s the quiet, sober recognition that WaterShapes and Genesis 3 haven’t refined an old industry so much as they have defined and done much to create a new, parallel industry that sees working with water in all its heretofore “conventional” forms – pools, spas, ponds, streams, waterfalls, fountains, interactive features – as an endeavor that has a rightful place in the artful realms of design, landscape architecture and architecture.

In other words, it’s not about the pool industry or the pond industry or the fountain industry any more: Watershaping encompasses all those areas of water-related activity, and the magazine in particular has become a forum through which the whole has become much more than the sum of its parts.

A MAN IN THE MIRROR

In considering what to write for this special issue, I spent some time shuffling through and trying to organize all of these big ideas into something that went beyond simple retrospection. I did so knowing that, despite all the wonderfully positive feedback we’ve received through the years, none of us can presume too much about what other people think. With that in mind, I will focus from here to the end of this column on what my association with WaterShapes has meant for my business and my personal life.

For starters, this process of writing a monthly column has been both challenging and fascinating. In trying to offer insights that will somehow be useful to others, I’ve been forced to look at myself and what I do in ways I probably wouldn’t have done otherwise. It’s led me to spend lots of time defining – first for myself – what I think is important for success, which ideas should be amplified and which ideas should be set aside or even condemned.

This has made me pay attention to just about everything I see going on around me and listen to more voices than I can begin to remember. In effect, my role with WaterShapes (and Genesis 3) has made me something of a spokesperson for the movement at the same time it has enriched my professional life by pressing me to consider a fantastically wide range of revelations about the art and craft and business of watershaping that keep coming at me from all directions.

This flood of information has been so invasive and pervasive that it has reached into and informed my core beliefs about life.

As I’ve done all I can to synthesize all of this feedback and all these experiences into my own life and work, I’ve had the sense that that everything I’ve described in these pages through the years flows seamlessly through my work with Genesis 3, my seminars and my primary work in owning and operating an aquatic design firm. Many have asked how I manage to keep up with so many pursuits, and my response is that it’s all of a piece – all part of my exploration of my core values and a grand set of big ideas.

With WaterShapes specifically, I’ve been given a powerful platform from which to express myself to a national audience and, in turn, have heard enough from readers that I have a sense that what I’ve written has value and that my participation – along with hundreds of like-minded people who’ve also gotten involved with the magazine through the years – has helped in creating, defining and nurturing this new industry we call “watershaping.”

What I like most about this endeavor has been the privileged position it’s given me to watch a grand coalescence in which the work of architects, landscape architects and designers, pool designers and builders, pond/stream specialists, fountain professionals and others engaged in the design of clients’ water-related spaces is seen as being a whole. Where once there was total separation, now there is, increasingly, integration.

THE VACATION MINDSET

To see what this means, let’s take a practical step back and see how far we’ve come in ten short years. This is just a partial list, but nowadays watershaping encompasses elements such as outdoor kitchens, fire effects, fountain effects, creative hardscape treatments, landscape lighting and a host of other significant activities.

We have become, to a very real extent, organized around the concept that we’re in the business of designing and/or installing exterior environments – a confluence of energies that has enormous creative and practical implications. Regardless of whether we come from landscape side of the spectrum or the pool and spa industry or the fountain industry, we are now part of an endeavor defined by the artistic use of water.

As revolutionary as that integration may be, however, there’s something even more important going on here – and it traces itself back to the core of what this magazine is, to my mind, really all about: In a word, you might call it happiness.

In my first-ever column back in February 1999, I wrote about Robert Mondavi and his role in revolutionizing the California wine industry. In that discussion, I drew parallels between what he’d achieved and what I thought we should strive for as watershapers and listed his “ten tenets for success and happiness,” one of which had to do with finding something you loved to do for a living.

More than anything else, that’s what I like to think this “movement” has brought to the table – a phenomenon I sometimes call the vacation mindset.

At root, our industry is focused on creating projects that put our clients in that frame of mind, that is, establishing spaces that make them feel as though they’re on vacation. From there, it should follow (shouldn’t it?) that we ourselves would carry that same attitude over to our approach to the work and our lives.

I look at it this way: You can go to work every day, always thinking about traffic, stress, demanding clients or needy employees and dwelling on things that make you anxious or even angry. Or you can go about your daily activities with joy and an appreciation for all the things in life that bring you happiness. This doesn’t mean you never worry or have tough days; instead, it means the struggles we all face are balanced by how much we appreciate the positive things, big and small, that surround us every day.

I believe that this “watershaping revolution” that’s taken place has led many people to adopt this upbeat point of view. These days, in fact, I feel very much a part of a growing family of professionals who love what they do for a living. Yes, it’s hard work and can be extremely challenging, but whatever difficulties we face are eclipsed by the fact that what we create is beautiful, fun, healthful and luxurious. As such, it can be said that the heart of the art of watershaping is the ability to make other people happy – and ourselves as well.

BLUE SKIES

All of this is why I will conclude by suggesting that this milestone 100th Issue is not so much about the past as it is far more about the present and the future. I say so in the belief that lots of people in the watershaping trades have yet to join the party and embrace a set of values that will improve their professional and personal lives.

As a movement, in other words, we’ve gotten off to a good start, but we all have much to do to see this phenomenon grow to its full potential.

That process will not always be smooth or easy, and there will always be those who simply won’t climb aboard and a few more who will do all they can to debunk or undermine what they see as a threat to the way they’ve always done things. But as I see it, if more and more people in this industry embrace the future with joy, hope and optimism, the art of watershaping will know no bounds.

Yes, I’m very proud of the fact that WaterShapes and Genesis 3 have played important roles in defining a new industry, but ultimately, the true engine of change is in the minds and spirits of those who choose to look up and embrace the blue skies they see dancing on the water’s surface.

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].