ARTICLES Archives - Page 116 of 312

A Remarkable Journey

An Interview by Lenny Giteck Randy Beard, owner of Pure Water Pools in Costa Mesa, Calif., has never been short on ambition. At the ripe old age of 19, he and his then new bride, Martha, started Pure Water as a pool-cleaning company. ("Even after being married and working together all these years," he says, "Martha is still my best friend.") In the nearly three decades since then, Beard and his company have evolved from

Pool-Finish Stains Tarnish the Entire Industry

An Interview by Lenny Giteck When, in the 1980s, Jack Beane began formulating potions designed to prevent pool finishes from becoming stained and to remediate those that were already damaged, it was not with the intention of creating a company to manufacture and market such products. He simply wanted to help friends and relatives who were experiencing difficulties with their backyard pools. "I was taking it one pool at a time in

Size Does Matter

'Surely you've heard this line before and never believed it,' declared Stephanie Rose to open her June 1999 Natural Companions column, 'but I'm here to tell you that size does matter. 'Have you ever, for example, built a pond or fountain with concrete either surrounding it or fanning out from it beneath the soil - and then had your clients say they wanted a very mature tree or shrub planted right up against the edge? There you are with

Rising Tides

As I announced in the last WaterShapes World blog, this edition of the newsletter carries a new/old name: WaterShapes. It's a proud title, and I'm happy to bring it back knowing we have so much more to accomplish. *** Our mission isn't much changed since we started out in

Pipe Diameter ABCs

Pipes are pipes, right? Anything that moves water from point A to point B will get the job done, so long as it doesn't leak, right? Well, not right, as I discuss in the video linked below. Of all the conceptual advances made within the watershaping industry in the past 20 years, I'd have to say that watershapers' awareness that pipe size really does matter and that big pipes are

On Energy Stars and Watershapes

An Interview by Lenny Giteck The path to extending the Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star certification program to the pool and spa industry was neither short nor smooth: It took the industry fully five years to convince Energy Star to certify variable-speed pumps. That important step began about a year ago, and now six manufacturers have earned certification for various energy-efficient pool-pump models. The Energy Star program was created in 1992. A joint effort by the EPA and the U.S. Department of Energy, it seeks to identify, certify and promote consumer products that are energy-efficient. In many cases, certified products consume up to a third less energy as compared to products that

On the Beach

One of the nicest days I've ever spent as publisher of WaterShapes came when I joined editor Eric Herman and our good friend William Rowley on the beach in Santa Monica, Calif., one spring day in 2006. Bill was working there on the resuscitation of the swimming pool at the old Marion Davies estate. In the 1920s, she had been William Randolph Hearst's paramour. When she wanted a house built on

Working fast on a major art installation with a need for secrecy: That was the challenge the client presented to Bryan Weber and his staff in designing and building two reflecting pools that were to raise ‘Sky Mirror’ to a position of prominence in front of a major sports stadium, and it is one they met by collaborating with trusted partners and opening channels of communication that turned a potential minefield into a pathway toward success.

Reflective Glory

Consider this scenario: A company you've worked with in the past calls your firm in to work on a project. You're told the setting is magnificent: You'll be working with a huge sculpture in the most prominent position in front of one of the most renowned sports stadiums on the planet - all of this in a city that prides itself on brilliant architecture. The job is yours, but here's the thing: The client is the wife of Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys, and he's not supposed to know what's really going on out front of his own stadium until an unveiling ceremony scheduled for his birthday. And it gets better: The call comes at the end of April and the unveiling ceremony will take place in October. To say it's a fast-track project would be putting it mildly. Once the design was finalized, we were to have ten weeks to turn approximately a million and a half pounds of concrete, steel and stone into a working fountain. And along the way, the stadium was to host a range of events - a Monster Truck Jam, a FIFA World Cup Soccer qualifying match, a Professional