Life Aquatic
– interesting things people do in and around water
Converting a former grocery store into a modern swim school requires a different kind of construction thinking. In Ballwin, Missouri, the transformation of an existing retail building into Barron Sports Center called for careful coordination, creative problem-solving, and the integration of a commercial aquatic system into a structure never designed to hold a swimming pool.
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Refurbishing Northern California’s legendary Donnell Ranch pool required technical expertise, historical sensitivity, craftsmanship, restraint, and a sense of responsibility to preserve an American design icon.
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A narrow side yard can easily become an overlooked space, but thoughtful watershape design can transform it into something extraordinary. In this work prosaically titled, “Side Hustle,” The Green Scene turned a challenging passageway into an intimate retreat, combining sculptural water, illuminated crystal spheres, shimmering tile, and soothing sound to create an award-winning outdoor experience.
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It’s one of the oldest existing lifeforms on the planet—blue-green algae. Treating bodies of water affected by “harmful algae blooms” or HABs, is an all-encompassing water treatment challenge, one that begins by understanding the opportunistic nature of these organisms and the constant nature of their threat to water quality, from pools to ponds to the world’s largest lakes.
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New research reveals that fog is far more than suspended water droplets. It is a temporary aquatic world filled with microbial life that may help cleanse the atmosphere, influence climate, and even affect human health. In a very real way, fog is, in fact, alive!
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In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as California reinvented itself as a land of health, leisure, and spectacle, a new aquatic building type emerged along its coastlines and growing inland cities: the plunge. In a time before the emergence of the backyard pool industry, the plunges were grand civic destinations, often enclosed, frequently ornate, and almost always tied to broader visions of social life and economic development.
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Far below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean, beyond the reach of wind and waves, a vast and patient machinery is at work. It does not roar or churn in ways we can easily see, yet it moves heat, salt, carbon, and life itself across the southern and northern hemispheres. Known as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC, it is one of Earth’s most consequential natural systems. It is also one of its most vulnerable.
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Although they’ve been around for decades, waterparks remain a dynamic and innovative industry focused on delivering a spectrum of aquatic experiences to consumers of all ages. After more than 25 years in the business, Craig Nielsen has had a front-row seat to the evolution, and he’s says with confidence, waterparks are only at the beginning.
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At age 29, Marcus Hampton has been running his own custom home and watershaping design and build firm for eight years. And, as he explains in this discussion about the industry’s new generation of aspiring professionals, in many ways, he and his contemporaries are just getting started.
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Finding the Rescue: A Life in Water, Science, and Spirit