Landscape, Plants, Hardscape & Decks
It’s frequently tough to figure out how a person ever finds his or her way into a specific line of work. In my case, for example, I more or less fell into the faux-rock trade, never imagining that what seemed like a blind stumble would ultimately unlock my imagination in a whole range of unexpected ways. It all started when I was working in the oil industry in Alaska in the 1980s. When petroleum prices dropped, I was out of work and moved back to my home town of Tucson, Ariz., where I was hired as a laborer by the Larson Company, which was among the trailblazing firms starting to work in faux rock. I began by mixing concrete and did my fair share of grunt work. As luck would have it, I began showing some artistic promise and in a relatively short time found myself working on major projects and learning the process literally from the ground up. After a couple of hard years, I became a superintendent, a promotion that led to my involvement in major overseas projects, including aquariums in Tokyo and Osaka, Japan, as well as an extended stay in Italy. These were wonderful, formative experiences, but eventually I struck out on my own and
I’ve been a fanatical WaterShapes reader from the very beginning, drawn not only by the cool projects but also by its publication of columns and features written by people who actually had experience in the field. Sometimes I love those writers, sometimes they bug the daylights out of me – but always, I appreciate getting information right from the source. And I can’t recall ever having come away from reading WaterShapes without being inspired: pushed to think outside my comfort zone and, more important, convinced it’s always, always best to
Natural stone is a wonderful companion for just about every type of watershape: It lends a timeless, classy look to just about any setting, generating a sense of sturdy permanence as well as close associations with Mother Nature. As watershapers, we also know that natural stone can be extremely expensive and often represents a significant investment on the part of the client. This puts a premium on
For a dozen years, this magazine has celebrated the beauty, majesty and positive potential of water in the landscape. We’ve seen it flowing down waterfalls, over vanishing edges, across slopes and through the air. We’ve seen what happens to colors immersed in it, how it creates shimmering light patterns, how it works its way over stone and, perhaps most important, the joy it can bring. Its potential to entertain and sustain us is indeed vast, but for all of its glories, water can also be inglorious as well – as when rivers overflow their banks, rainfall collapses roofs or tsunamis inundate coastlines. So while we in the watershaping world are justified in revering water, we also
One of the most common themes repeated in this magazine is that selecting materials for projects can make the difference between truly artistic designs and those that are either inappropriate or just plain boring. It’s a point worth pressing: Materials truly matter, and the importance of knowing your options and keeping pace with changes in the marketplace can never be overestimated. Through the past few months, for example, I’ve been working with a couple who live in a home that’s an architectural
Have you ever noticed how often the costliest part of a project turns out to be something that will ultimately be hidden from view? This happens quite frequently in projects involving any sort of slope, where the piers and grade beams beneath swimming pools, for example, can cost far more than the rest of the overall project. In my own work, I’ve noticed this budgetary quirk most frequently when it comes to retaining walls, where providing the foundation they need to withstand the forces applied by a slope can be startlingly extensive and expensive. It’s not what you’d call glamorous work, but it certainly is important – and will vanish completely from view. Most often, we’re called on to build these walls when
When a problem occurs with a recently installed decorative concrete job, who is responsible? I understand that this is a loaded question and that there are lots of factors to consider, but the question still stands. This spring, while dealing with a rash of
Traditionally, seeding was simple: It meant scattering pieces of rock into the surface of concrete, where they would give decorative flair to a slab. “Nowadays, seeding has taken on
Most everyone assumes that French drains have their name because engineers in France were way ahead of the curve in figuring out how to deal with the hydrostatic pressure that
Among contractors, it’s not unusual to find those who don’t think much of their counterparts in other trades. That seems a bit sad, really, but there’s a reason for it: All too often, you run into situations in which
