ARTICLES Archives - Page 119 of 315

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

The Aquatic Quiz #6

Australian Swimming Champ Ian Thorpe Comes Out as Gay

Ripples #96

Aspiring Model on Vacation in Mexico Shows Colostomy Bags to the World

The Aquatic Quiz #5

World Cup Nude SwimmingPhotos Outrage Teammates

Tackling a major fountain project in a significant public space is nothing new to Jon Mitovich and the staff at Roman Fountains – but getting it done at breakneck speed? That, he says, brought out something special in everyone who participated in designing, engineering and building the reflecting pools intended to set off a key sculptural addition to the front of Dallas’ AT&T Stadium.

A Mirror on Infinity

Some projects carry obvious prestige, and this is one of them: The pair of reflecting pools and the sculpture that rises above them stand in front of AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas - home to the Dallas Cowboys and, several times a year, host to nationally televised football games. But certain of these prestige projects take on extra dimensions - and this was one of them, too: The mirror-finished dish that surmounts the watershapes

Ripples #95

Kim Jong Un Supervises Swimming Drill for North Korean Naval Officers

Grounded Value

'In recent weeks,' wrote Bruce Zaretsky to open his On the Level column in the July 2009 issue of WaterShapes, 'I've spent a good bit of time speaking to landscaping colleagues, garden clubs and symposium attendees about our general need to get smarter when it comes to how we think about landscapes. 'This is all part of my perpetual campaign to