Overview | Watershapes

The web site for all professionals and consumers who've made or want to make water a part of their lives

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Natural Intuitions

The thing that makes a painting great isn’t the pigment mixed on the palette or the brush used to apply it. Those are merely tools, observes landscaper Jim Lampl, who finds art and beauty in the way the strokes are laid on the canvas. The same holds true for watershapes, he says: The art and beauty aren’t in the stones or plantings, but in the way all of the components and materials are composed on site.

Pond-Construction Chaos

Managing clients' mood is as much a part of the pond-installation process as installing the liner. This is why Dave Garton works to build realistic expectations and keep thoughts trained on positive outcomes, seeing them as keys to problem-solving and long-term satisfaction.

Fountain Fascination

The Station Park show fountain in Farmington, Utah, uses technology to attract and delight consumers in a competitive retail environment. With its cast of programmable effects choreographed to popular music, says Chris Thomas, it's brought a certain theatrical flair to the setting.

Why Colored Plaster Fades

Fading colored plaster is quite common, note Kim Skinner, Que Hales and Doug Latta. But it can be prevented with relative ease, they add, through awareness of a handful of factors driving color loss -- the first step in making sure problems don't arise with your clients' pools.

Elevated Ambitions

Typical of Scottsdale, Ariz. this project featured a stunning contemporary design in an ultra high-end neighborhood. The watershapes included an eye-popping rooftop pool/spa combination, a massive entryway-reflecting pond and a host of precise construction details. Making it all work, explains Rich Chafey, required detailed computer modeling, and multiple layers of waterproofing.

Discovering Xeriscapes

Xeriscaping is all about creating landscapes that are sustainable in dry climates, but that doesn’t mean spaces devoid of life or only populated by cacti, says Michael Logsdon. In fact, he explains, water-wise landscapes can be surprisingly vibrant and colorful, as well as low maintenance, but you have to think beyond the rocks and prickly pear.

The Gradual Renovation

It was a most unusual remodeling project, notes Carla Sovernigo. Partly it had to do with its scale and complexity, but mostly it was because it took three full years to finalize the design and then another whole year to align every last detail with the clients' highly refined ambitions.

Concrete Expressions

Concrete is the primary building material used by most watershapers, but it seems to award-winning concrete artist/architectural designer Fu-Tung Cheng that designers and installers alike should be encouraged to exploit more of the material’s flexibility and power when developing aesthetic elements in and around water. Here, he offers his perspective on creating interior and exterior waterfeatures with this amazing potential in mind.

Powers of Imagination

Faux-rock specialist John Carlson has spent his career creating artificial structures that deftly fool the eye. Along the way, he’s applied his skills in a various settings, always pushing toward greater levels of complexity no matter whether he’s working with swimming pools, aquariums, decorative features or home interiors. As he demonstrates here, what gets and keeps him going is the flexibility of a material that seems so rigid.

One for the Ages

Southern California has certain advantages when it comes to garden possibilities. And that's nowhere more evident than at the Huntington Gardens, which Jim McCloskey describes as the kind of place where something you'd ordinarily see only in China is ready to greet you.

Artful Foundations

Getting serious about art history. Book Notes includes reviews of a wide variety of publications hand-selected by a professional watershaper/landscape designer who sees their relevance in his life and work.

New Products at Watershapes.com

Hayward Offers Combined Water Treatment

Pool/Spa Systems & Equipment
Product information from Hayward on HydroRite UV03, a disinfecting system combining UV and ozone with advanced oxidants.

Pre-Designed Splash Pads from Water Odyssey

Fountain Systems & Equipment
Product information from Water Odyssey on its line of pre-designed splash pads for parks, recreation facilities and more.

Outdoor Living Systems & Accessories
Product information from The Outdoor Great Room Co. on Havenwood, an easy-to-use natural-gas-fueled fire pit/table.

Pool/Spa Systems & Equipment
Product information from Pentair on its new Max-E-ProXF VS, a programmable, commercial-grade, variable-speed pump.

Small Fiberglass Pools from Thursday Pools

Pool/Spa Systems & Equipment
Product informattion from Thursday Pools on its new Aspen line of fiberglass pools intended for use in smaller backyards.

Fountain People Debuts Zen-Series Nozzles

Fountain Systems & Equipment
Product information from Fountain People on its Zen line of nozzles for shallow-water applications in fountains and pools.

By the Numbers

WaterShapes World (blog)
As familiar as water may be, there are so many things about it most don't know -- or choose not to consider. But it's a fact, says Eric Herman: The world of water is full of fascinating factoids that can surprise, captivate, terrify and inspire even the most conscientious users of H20.