ARTICLES Archives - Page 160 of 315

Simply Fascinating

I’m fairly jaded when it comes to observing watershapes: I’ve seen a lot of them, know how they work and tend to focus on weird details that go beyond what’s perceived by the typical observer. There is, however, a fountain that makes me feel giddy and even

Truth in Budgeting

Putting a residential pool project out for bid can be a perilous undertaking for a property owner – especially when the home in question is new and architects or custom-home builders are involved in the process. Quite often, the architect or home builder will reach out to a local volume builder who, for free, will come in and provide a quote based on

Sharpening the Focus

What are the issues that need to be considered in designing a new swimming pool? In two previous installments in this series, we first focused on the information-gathering process, and then on budgeting and setting expectations. In this third and final chapter, we’ll roll through what’s involved in

Test Your Knowledge #25

Florida Worker Who Lost BothLegs Sues City for Inground Pool

Ripples #36

Compiled and Written by Lenny Giteck Tom Cruise Mojo-Rich Pool Water Up for Bids on eBay On the odd chance you have no plans to be in the vicinity of Lourdes anytime soon, not to worry…eBay to the rescue! As of this writing, you may

Rearranging the Furniture

I know that I promised to start a string of blogs on my likes and dislikes in watershape design, but the news from the Genesis 3 Design Group about Skip Phillips and Brian Van Bower parting ways with David Tisherman must jump to the head of the line. I have watched these three gentlemen at work, separately and together, for

An Accelerating Spectacle

The last time I visited Dallas on business, I kept a crucial side trip in mind: I just had to see the Fort Worth Water Gardens with my own eyes. Designed by New York architects Philip Johnson and John Burgee and completed in 1974, the space has been iconic since day one. The way the space lures you in, drawing you past

Designing with Freedom

Up until 64 years ago, swimming pools had a lot in common with Henry Ford’s early cars: Just as you could get a Model A in any color so long as it was black, you could get a swimming pool of any size or shape so long as it was rectangular. Renowned landscape architect Thomas Church changed all that in 1948 with the kidney-shaped Donnell pool – and has left succeeding generations of watershape designers to face the challenge of helping their clients find the right-shaped pool for their given settings. Church was blessed with an open-minded California client who wanted a “pool as art,” with the practicalities of swimming treated as a secondary consideration. And Church delivered, big time: The pool’s flowing form was inspired by

What Goes with What?

What type of swimming pool do you put in the backyard of a Craftsman-style home? This question, presented during a course on 20th-century architecture I taught at the pool show in Las Vegas last November, is easy to ask but difficult to answer. In fact, this is