Test Your Knowledge #17
How many pools will you find on Allure of the Seas?
Filling the Energy Gap
  In September 2001, the late Mark Urban wrote passionately about the value of making watershapes as energy efficient and resource conscious as they could possibly be.  Ten years later, his words are as insightful as they ever were: Everyone is concerned these days about electricity, gasoline and natural gas and all other forms of energy.  What is amazing is that, despite this surge in interest, very few people have considered 
Ripples #28
    Compiled and Written by Lenny Giteck Dear reader, you’re in for a real treat! Ripples dedicates this entire edition to…Humans Behaving Badly Around Swimming Pools. Please hum the theme song from “The Pink Panther” while you swim 
Weighing Options
  In the weeks since we announced the suspension of WaterShapes as a printed magazine, I’ve gotten a fair amount of friendly advice about how I should do things differently in moving forward. With all-new apologies to the reader who complained about our use of 
Simply Wonderful
Through the years, I've spent lots of time in Philadelphia, both on business and visiting with family and friends scattered throughout the area.  I've been there so many times, in fact, that I started hunting a bit farther afield for 
Setting a Front-Yard Stage
  Last time, Bruce Zaretsky discussed the importance of making a good first impression with a home’s landscape, starting with defining a pathway to the main entry.  Here, he picks up that discussion while setting a broader front-yard stage. Today’s homes have many entries:  front doors, service entries, back doors, garage doors and more. As a landscape designer, it is always my goal to 
Levelling the Bidding Field
  It shouldn’t be too surprising that, as a designer and builder who cares about quality and craftsmanship, I’ve spent some time thinking about bidding and ethics. As I see it, bidding against other contractors to win the opportunity to install a project is a fair and worthy exercise if the project’s specifications are 
Test Your Knowledge #16
Why did Hisashi Koze swim the South China Sea?
Quality Don’t Come Easy
    In 2001, as part of his ‘Aqua Culture’ column in WaterShapes, Brian Van Bower penned a thought-provoking piece entitled “Quality Don’t Come Easy.”  In it, he decried what he saw as a dearth of quality craftspeople in the watershaping trades — and in the broader construction industry as well.   “Time and again,” he noted, “I commiserate with colleagues who just can’t find good people who are dedicated to 
Ripples #27
  Compiled and Written by Lenny Giteck   Partying Prince Harry Jumps (or Falls)  Into Nightclub Pool Fully Clothed   You remember Prince Harry — the other one. The younger brother who developed quite a reputation as a wild party animal, whose judgment was not always up to British royal snuff. One episode that comes to mind: the time he dressed as a