ARTICLES Archives - Page 101 of 316

A Supple Vision

I've been to New York often through the years, mostly on business trips that have only rarely afforded me opportunities to get out and take in the sights. But on one occasion many years ago, I managed to shake out several extra days and spent my time experiencing as much of Manhattan as I could. I ranged from Battery Park on the island's southernmost tip of the island up to The Cloisters on its northern reaches and managed to spend a whole, glorious early-fall day in Central Park. It was there, near the upper edge of Frederick Law Olmstead's masterpiece of urban space-making, that I came across a marvelous little fountain that's well worth a few extra steps the next time your travels take you to the Big Apple. The fountain I'm referring to wasn't here originally. For many years, it had graced the Yonkers, N.Y., estate of Samuel Untermyer, who passed away in 1940. He was a New York lawyer and prominent civic leader, and when his children donated the fountain to the park, the monuments committee placed it by 1947 in an estimable space in the Conservatory Garden. This is the original fountain. To see it, you need to travel all the way to Mecklenburg, Germany. The fountain's sculpture, "Three Dancing Maidens" by the German artist Walter Schott, isn't exactly "original" either: It's one of a set of replicas cast in Berlin at some point after the artist finished his work around 1910. Schott was a favorite of Kaiser Wilhelm and spent a lot of time doing monumental portrait busts and conventionally grand statues of historical figures, but he was capable of working with far greater subtlety and expressiveness - these fair and flowing maidens being a case in point. The fountain freezes from time to time, as seen in this photograph taken in 2008. The frozen drapery adds a special touch to the composition. I haven't seen the Untermyer Fountain in more than 30 years, but it came quickly back to mind when I saw it among a photo survey of New York fountains frozen by wintertime cold snaps. As you may recall, I'm an avid fan of frozen fountains and waterfalls; I've always supposed it has something to do with the fact that my family escaped the Frost Belt when I was very young -- but I still have early (and happy) memories of icicles draping everything in sight. You don't have to withstand frosty weather to appreciate the Untermyer Fountain: I saw it on a warm October day, and I have to say there's no better place to be than New York (and Central Park!) at that time of year. By Jim McCloskey I've been to New York many times through the years, mostly on business trips that have only rarely afforded me opportunities to get out and about and take in the sights. But on one occasion many years ago, I managed to shake out several extra days and spent my time experiencing as much of Manhattan as I could. I covered the run from the southernmost tip of the island up to The Cloisters on its northern reaches and managed to spend the full length of one glorious early-fall day in Central Park. It was there, near the top edge of Frederick Law Olmstead's masterpiece of urban space-making, that I came across a marvelous little fountain that's well worth a few extra steps the next time your travels take you to the Big Apple. The fountain I'm referring to wasn't here originally. For many years, it had graced the Yonkers, N.Y., estate of Samuel Untermyer, who passed away in 1940. He was a New York lawyer and prominent civic leader, and when his children donated the fountain to the park, the monuments committee placed it by 1947 in an estimable space in the Conservatory Garden. The fountain's sculpture, "Three Dancing Maidens" by the German artist Walter Schott, isn't exactly "original" either: It's one of a set of replicas cast in Berlin at some point after the artist finished his work around 1910. Schott was a favorite of Kaiser Wilhelm and spent a lot of time doing monumental portrait busts and conventionally grand statues of historical figures, but he was capable of working with far greater subtlety and expressiveness - these fair and flowing maidens being a case in point. I haven't seen the Untermyer Fountain in more than 30 years, but it came quickly back to mind when I saw it among a photo survey of New York fountains frozen by wintertime cold snaps. As you may recall, I'm an avid fan of frozen fountains and waterfalls; I've always supposed it has something to do with the fact that my family escaped the Frost Belt when I was less than four years old and I have early (and happy) memories of icicles draping everything in sight. But you don't have to withstand frosty weather to appreciate the Untermyer Fountain: I saw it on a warm October day, and I have to say there's no better place to be than New York (and Central Park!) at that time of year. dry © Victorianl | Dreamstime.com Original fountain in Mecklenburg, Germany Photo by Doris Antony, Berlin | Wikipedia Frozen in 2008 Photo by Ralph Hockens, New York | Wikipedia

Santa’s Back!

As we acknowledged when we first spoke with him in 2010, the subject of this interview is known by many names in many places - Father Christmas, Père Noël, Kriss Kringle and Saint Nicholas, among others. But in America, wide-eyed children of all ages mainly know him as Santa Claus. Imagine our surprise

#21: Exposed-Aggregate Decking

This is one of those "What Is It?" items I hesitated to write, mainly because the material and concept behind exposed-aggregate decking is so familiar (and maybe even so old-fashioned) that most of us rarely think of it. In the case of the poolscape featured in the video linked below, for example, it's possible and maybe even likely

Choosing Wisely

'One of the most common themes repeated in [WaterShapes] is that selecting materials for projects can make the difference between truly artistic designs and those that are either inappropriate or just plain boring,' wrote Bruce Zaretsky to open his On the Level column in the December 2010 issue. 'Materials truly matter, and the importance of knowing your options and

Web-Footed Wonderland

Some projects are just more enjoyable than others - and this was one of the fun ones. We were called to a property in Bridgehampton, N.J., where the homeowner had amassed a large collection of ducks, geese and other birds (including some peacocks). The creatures occupied a large area in the big backyard - but a washtub had been

Commercial Constraints

'For years,' wrote Brian Van Bower to kick off his Aqua Culture column in the December 2005 edition of WaterShapes, 'conventional wisdom has held that many of the advances in watershape design incubate in the commercial realm and then slowly percolate over to the residential market as our clients ask for features they've seen on vacation and elsewhere.' 'That paradigm holds up to this day in many ways, but what's less acknowledged

A designer's responsibility for the look of a project doesn't vanish when a client has special needs when it comes to access to the water, writes Paolo Benedetti. Here, he runs through some options that ease the way while pleasing the eye.

Functional Aesthetics

Designing swimming pools and spas for people with disabilities is a special calling for watershapers: The process gets you involved with sets of capabilities and physical limitations that force you to think beyond the usual; it also puts you in gut-level contact with the needs of those who crave involvement with water and its potential to ease pain, make aquatic exercise possible and, via simple buoyancy, make gravity less of

Completing a project at any real distance from your home base is difficult, notes Barry Justus. But with careful planning and project management, it's possible to make it work -- even if you start in the dead of winter.

Working on the Road

Working on a large-scale project is a challenge when it happens even ten miles from your home base: Big jobs are just plain tough. But building that same project 150 miles away? That takes the difficulty to another level - and when you mix in an extremely difficult, environmentally sensitive site, it can feel as though you're operating on another planet. A case in point can be found in our participation in a design/build project on a remote cottage estate in the stunning

Remembering a Friend

Pardon the impression I may have given in my November 18 blog that the 2015 International Pool|Spa|Patio Expo was entirely about Genesis and its merger with the National Swimming Pool Foundation. Far from it - and therein hangs a tale. When I first started attending these shows in the mid-1980s, I was fairly well dazzled by what I saw as I wandered the floor: If you spent as

Mist and Mystery

As though it werent apparent by now, when i travel, look for watershapes.< p > It' s been a professional practice of mine since 1986, when i started working at pool & spa news, but it was established as personal habit long before then. even child (and my parents could attest if they were still with us), drawn to water wherever went This means I've seen and studied lots of fountains through the years. It also means that I pay lots of attention when I run into an unconventional one, as was certainly the case with the Tanner Fountain on the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. When I saw its arrangement of stones and the wonderful way it uses mist to make the space mysterious yet strangely inviting, I was hooked. Designed by landscape architect Peter Walker in collaboration with sculptor Joan Brigham and fountain expert Richard Chaix, the watershape sits along a busy pedestrian thoroughfare near Harvard Yard. An early and perhaps even the first example of the "Landscape as Art" movement that started at Harvard around the time the fountain was installed in 1984, the composition consists of concentric rings of granite boulders looping around 32 jets located near the center. The jets produce water sprays and a dense mist that envelops the stones like a cloud. When I first saw the Tanner Fountain, I was immediately reminded of the inverted fountain on the UCLA campus, which I wrote about in a travelogue back in June 2013 (click here). But where the effect of the UCLA fountain was to inspire mirth (at least to my somewhat twisty mind), the Tanner Fountain simply inspires, especially on days when the air is still and the mist has its way with the space. The video linked below shows the layout of the stones and how their placement invites observers to come close, pass within the rings and approach the source of the mist. My big regret is that I missed seeing the space covered in snow - a phenomenon that puts a completely different spin on the composition. But I still count myself lucky: I saw it on a warm late-summer day when the cooling mist was unusually welcome. In short, I love this fountain. The next time you're in the area, stop on by - and please give yourself enough time to observe the space at your leisure, especially taking in the way people (especially children, if any are around) interact with the mist: It's a treat on more levels than I can count. To see a brief, wonderfully informative (if deadpan) video showing the various moods and seasons of Tanner Fountain, click here.