Book & Media Reviews

Designing in Style
There was a time not long ago when most of my clients wanted swimming pool environments that were designed to suit a design theme of some sort that was separate and distinct from the house.  It wasn’t unusual, for example, for clients here in Texas to ask for outdoor areas that replicated Rocky Mountain settings or tropical lagoons. Those projects still come along from time to time, but in the past few years, increasing numbers of my clients want exterior designs that clearly relate to the architecture of their homes.   In part, this has to do with the trend toward
The Home Front
    When I was a landscape architecture student, my coursework on residential landscape design wasn’t much to speak of – just one project in a single course.  In those days, in fact, expressing any interest in residential spaces made you something of an outcast who really should have been thinking of loftier pursuits in civic, public and commercial design. Happily, I’ve been hearing from some younger landscape architects that the situation is now different – but that there’s still no real focus on residential design and a tremendous void when it comes to
The Color of Uniqueness
As 2008 draws to a close, it's apparent that we are contending with a far more challenging marketplace than we enjoyed just a couple years ago.  Current economic woes have cut deeply into bottom lines, forced some watershapers out of business and prompted many others to seek out ways to maximize the business and referrals that come their way. With this challenging business landscape in mind, I recently picked up a copy of Seth Godin's Purple Cow:  Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable (Penguin Group, 2002).  Godin, the best-selling author of 10 books, is well-known for challenging the conventional thinking that constrains many businesses.  Although this particular book was written before the recent downturn in the world and U.S. economies, his message in this easily read 150-page discussion is quite applicable to today's situation - particularly among watershapers who want to enhance their approach to the business. Godin's discussion starts out with an account of a trip to the French countryside, during which he was
The Color of Uniqueness
As 2008 draws to a close, it's apparent that we are contending with a far more challenging marketplace than we enjoyed just a couple years ago.  Current economic woes have cut deeply into bottom lines, forced some watershapers out of business and prompted many others to seek out ways to maximize the business and referrals that come their way. With this challenging business landscape in mind, I recently picked up a copy of Seth Godin's Purple Cow:  Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable (Penguin Group, 2002).  Godin, the best-selling author of 10 books, is well-known for challenging the conventional thinking that constrains many businesses.  Although this particular book was written before the recent downturn in the world and U.S. economies, his message in this easily read 150-page discussion is quite applicable to today's situation - particularly among watershapers who want to enhance their approach to the business. Godin's discussion starts out with an account of a trip to the French countryside, during which he was
Into the Ground
Given the fact that swimming pools and most other watershapes are placed in the ground, I've long been of the opinion that it's incumbent upon all of us who design and build them to have a basic understanding of soils science and geology.  As has been stated in this magazine and elsewhere more times than I can count, the nature of the ground we build in (or on) has everything to do with the structures we design. Indeed, the composition and structure of the soils we encounter may well be the most fundamental of all the technical issue we ever face.  Simply put, a watershape that's properly engineered in light of prevailing soil conditions will endure, while one that isn't runs a significant and often inevitable risk of structural failure.   Relatively few of us who read WaterShapes are civil engineers, soils scientists or geologists, but all of us
Off the Shelf
I recently began work on a design for clients who live in a historic home just south of Rochester, N.Y.  They've asked me to incorporate a pool, entertainment areas, a fireplace and a combined pool house/garage into the available space and make certain it all complements the architecture of the home and its only current outbuilding - a 150-year-old storage shed.   Sitting at my drafting table, I was thinking how easy this one would be, conceptually at least.  All I needed was there, from the home's architecture and an existing (and much beloved) 100-year-old pergola to the old shed, so the main challenge would come in drawing the details rather than in deciding what to do. Usually, of course, it's the other way around and
Beyond the Edge
Last month, I did my usual annual roundup of books that feature custom residential swimming pools.  I must confess that I deliberately withheld one such book from the usual summary treatment because it was just too good for me not to give it a full column's attention this time around. The book - Infinity Pools by Ana G. Canizares (Collins Design, 2006) - is one of the best on pools as a design genre that I've ever seen.  In fact, one of the few things I don't like about it is the title, because I've always preferred the term "vanishing edge."  That quibble aside, I think she's done a terrific job of presenting what has to be the most powerful, influential design look of the past 20 years.  More important, she manages to do so without making these pools seem a visual cliché. As is demonstrated repeatedly
Everywhere Pools
For the past few years, I’ve made a practice of offering occasional roundups of books that feature swimming pools as their star attractions.  As I’ve mentioned before, there was a time when such publications simply did not exist – but now we seem to be in an era when pools are hot and a visit to a good bookstore will reveal a plethora of relevant titles covering a remarkably wide range of projects and styles. As with swimming pools themselves, of course, the books dedicated to them vary widely in quality and creativity:  Some are truly wonderful, while others are of marginal value and offer little by way of useful ideas.  I take all of them, however, as evidence that booksellers have noticed increasing consumer interest in highly imaginative swimming pools.  I further believe that this interest has developed because so many of today’s watershapers are willing to push forcefully at the boundaries of creativity. [ ]  Let’s start with
Finding Fitness
For a good while now, I’ve been on the lookout for books that define the health benefits of swimming and other forms of aquatic exercise.  I’ve largely come up empty, with only a couple of worthy exceptions.   It’s been important to me for two reasons:  First, I’m convinced (as others in this magazine have argued) that the watershaping industry is doing both itself and its clients a disservice by not promoting the remarkable healthfulness of aquatic activity.  I think this is a deficit we desperately need to address – and also that this effort must begin on a solid base of knowledge and fact.  Second, as I progress through my forties, I’m finding that running is becoming more and more difficult because of hip problems; my intention is to turn to the water to maintain my physical fitness, but I want to know more about it and how to do it right. So far, the best resource for information about swimming I’ve found is The Complete Book of Swimming by Dr. Phillip Whitten (Random House, 1994).  It’s older than some other volumes I’ve found, but I think it’s the best because
Reharvesting Joy
It’s amazing for me to learn that this 100th issue of WaterShapes is carrying my 80th “Book Notes” column.  It’s been a wonderful and fascinating experience – and as my wife puts it, has provided a great way to rationalize my literary addiction.   I remember when Eric Herman and I first discussed the idea for this column:  At the time, we both wondered how long it could be sustained.  After the best part of seven years, I think we’re both comfortable with the thought that it’s basically a journey without end. To mark this special occasion, I want to look back at one of the most significant of all the books I’ve ever reviewed – one that isn’t about watershaping, construction, landscape architecture or anything in any way related to our industry.  That book, which I wrote about way back in February 2003, is Harvests of Joy:  How the Good Life Became Great Business by Robert Mondavi (with Paul Chutkow; Harcourt Brace, 1998).   I’d read it based on