ARTICLES Archives - Page 164 of 317

Making Things Easier

There’s nothing like a good breeze to turn swimming pools and other watershapes into magnets for debris – especially if there are still plenty of leaves on the trees. We had gusting winds of record strength here in Southern California the other day – enough, in fact, to make the national news. When I walked out into my backyard the next day, the skimmer basket was full and the pool cleaner had

Seeing a Bigger Picture

Even these days, when new houses tend to be overly large and their lots tend to be quite small, it’s rare to encounter a situation in which there’s nothing in a backyard other than a basic patio. Indeed, there’s almost always something more to do in designing a backyard — and on many happy occasions, there’s actually a good deal to be done in integrating spaces beyond the patio into

What Is a Designer?

When people talk about pools these days and have something ambitious in mind, many of the conversations focus on vanishing edges, perimeter overflows, infinity edges, knife edges, wet decks, disappearing edges and whatever other terms one might use in describing water-in-transit effects. In lots of these cases, if not most, these discussions are misdirected: Just because

Test Your Knowledge #21

In What City Were the Recent Pan American Games Held?

Life on the Leading Edge

Late in 2001, WaterShapes columnist Brian Van Bower wrote passionately about innovation and the value he saw in pursuing trends, accepting change and moving steadily forward. As we stand at another set of crossroads a decade later, the foundation he defined back then has

Ripples #32

Compiled and written by Lenny Giteck ‘Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie’ Dead, ‘Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie’ Alive?

WaterShapes TV, Part 4

To see WaterShapes TV, Part 4, click here mySpace

Reaching and Teaching

As you might imagine given our plans for AquaticSpacesNetwork (see my last blog entry, “Charting a New Course,” for details), I’ve been thinking a lot lately about reaching out to consumers. Along the way, it has occurred to me that good information is almost always universally useful — that is, information that helps build

Beyond Baroque

When I first began organizing these “Travelogues” several months ago, my sincere intention was to focus on watershapes found within the United States. Partly it was a gesture to the restricted travel budgets of modern times, but I also wanted to highlight the fact that

Inside ‘Outdoor Rooms’

Once I’ve worked my way through traffic-related issues of patio design (see “Defining the Flow” in the November 9 edition), I turn my attention to an array of other factors that influence the space, starting with