ARTICLES Archives - Page 117 of 315

The Other Orlando Attraction

The first time I saw it, the water of the Linton E. Allen Memorial Fountain had been turned off for servicing. In that inert condition and with tiny figures creeping over its greenish surface, it looked to me as though a squat flying saucer had dropped in to slurp up water from Lake

It didn't take Paolo Benedetti long to notice that his prospective client's house was giving way on a slowly collapsing hilltop. Armed with a fresh soils report, he designed a spa and stone deck that alleviated the slope's creeping -- and the homeowner's worries as well.

Add a Spa, Save a Home

Not long ago, I received a call from a young electronics entrepreneur who asked me to come and meet with him about the possibility of adding a swimming pool or spa to his multi-million-dollar hilltop property. The home had been built in the early 1960s, he told me, and he'd just completed a major remodeling project. He also indicated that he knew I was expensive, but that he'd already met with a number of other contractors and wanted to

Ripples #98

The 'Facekini' Becomes a Big Hit With Chinese Female Swimmers

The Aquatic Quiz #8

USA Swimming Shows Support forHigh School Swimmer with Leukemia

The Aquatic Quiz #7

Prince George Learns to SwimIn Buckingham Palace Pool

Among all the ways there are to achieve great looks with backyard poolscapes, says Keith Monk, there’s one approach that probably deserves more attention than it gets: artificial rockwork. Here’s a look at why he thinks it’s one of the overlooked keys to turning ordinary pools into extraordinary watershapes.

Poolside Panache

When a backyard has a swimming pool, homeowners generally want their watershape to be a key visual component in the overall composition. Too often, however - and this is particularly true of many of the older ones I see - the pool is unexciting both on its own and as part of the landscape. That's definitely not the style these days. Homeowners either want to make a statement by having a pool that is a visual knockout complete with big rocks and grottos and waterfalls; or they want it to play a more understated role but be a major part of a

Preventing Plaster Dust

For more than 50 years, lots of swimming pool builders, plasterers and service technicians have operated under the assumption that the plaster dust they commonly see during the first two weeks after plaster application is normal, unavoidable and acceptable. None of that is

Ripples #97

Congressman's Tongue-in-Cheek Idea: Install a Truth-Testing Swimming Pool

The Directory Is Back!

I have the great pleasure of announcing that another major service for users of the WaterShapes.com web site is now fully up and running in streamlined digital form: The WaterShapes Resource Directory, which we last published as a printed document in December 2010 and have been updating

It's not often that a designer gets to return to a past project and update it for new owners. But that was the opportunity Raymond Jungles was offered with this property -- a Mid-Century Modern showplace in the Florida Keys.

A Private Paradise, Revisited

In many ways, this project is a study in personalities: of the original clients, of the home's architecture and, ultimately, of subsequent owners who purchased the property and called me back to it years after my initial work had been completed. The first time through, the owners were close friends of mine. We had remarkably similar tastes, so my basic charge was to do exactly what I thought needed to be done, much as if it were my own home. The house is a beautiful example of Mid-Century Modern, a style that fits well in the special environs of the Florida Keys. But when I first visited the site, I could tell that someone had tried to turn it into