ARTICLES Archives - Page 183 of 312

Clients and Color Consistency

For many of us in the custom watershape and landscape business these days, working with decorative concrete is an almost daily activity. In my business, for example, we custom-cast fountains, make poured-in-place coping, fabricate countertops, create pilaster caps — you name it. And we can make whatever

Hearst Castle: A Question of Balance

I just don't get Hearst Castle. Why should we celebrate the gross-scale purchases of historical artifacts and period-inspired structures by a wealthy American whose main pleasures seem to have involved amusing himself and overwhelming others? I am willing to concede that Hearst's San Simeon compound and collections impress

A Mini-Lesson on Water Quality

In this series of occasional newsletter articles, the staff at Aquascape — a waterfeature design and installation company headquartered in St. Charles, Ill. — will offer information, advice and tips on creating and maintaining quality ponds, streams, waterfalls and pondless waterfeatures. Along the way, the coverage will range from the very basic — the sort of information you can use in training new staff and helping your clients — to the very advanced. To get things started, here's

Remembering Ferruccio Vitale

By Mike Farley As someone who has spent years digging into the history of landscape and watershape design, it comes as something of a surprise to me that, alongside the luminaries who dominate discussions of the origins of familiar design approaches, motifs and styles, stands at least one practitioner who is not

On Water and Being Human

In this age of incredible cleverness, we are constantly devising more and better and faster ways to distract and entertain ourselves in an apparent collective effort to stay a step ahead of the vague fears that permeate our lives. As a designer and builder of watershapes, I recognize that many of my clients are seeking

The Hazards of Water Migration

Water passing from one level to another will always be a popular feature in watershapes — from the familiar spillways from spas into pools to the intricate flows found in many fountains, reflecting pools, runnels, rills and even koi ponds (to name a few possibilities). Depending on the application, these features might

Shades of Paradise

One of the most common things I hear from my clients is that they’ve been inspired by experiences they’ve had at vacation resorts and want to recapture those good times in their own backyards. I’ve heard this often enough that I keep an eye out for volumes on resort design as I wander through bookstores and hunt for material online. It’s a narrow subject, of course, so I don’t run across too many relevant titles. That’s why I was immediately pleased to find Paradise by Design by Bill Bensley (Periplus Edition, 2008). My pleasure quickly turned to delight: The book is certainly about designing resorts – but it

Inside Manuevers

With vast experience in both the residential and commercial markets, Kevin Ruddy is one of the watershaping industry’s foremost experts on the design and construction of indoor swimming pools and their surrounding environments. Here, in this first of two features covering a complicated residential project, he discusses the painstaking process of designing a pool and the systems that integrate it with the surrounding structure. It seems counterintuitive, but indoor swimming pool environments are wholly and entirely distinct from their outdoor cousins. The differences are mostly contained in the fact that, indoors, the designer needs to consider not only the pool and its hydraulic performance, but also the enclosure and the air-handling and dehumidification systems that makes these spaces comfortable and enjoyable for clients and their guests. Through years of designing and installing indoor pools, we at Omega Pool Structures (Toms River, N.J.) have learned – sometimes the hard way – what works and what doesn’t. Now, supported by more than two decades’ experience, we’ve

Once known only as rare and unusual elements in watershape and landscape designs, fire features have now become familiar in both residential and commercial settings. As Kevin Doud explains, firms dedicated to meeting this growing demand typically offer fully engineered, pre-assembled systems that meet rigorous safety standards – but still have the flexibility it takes to enchant clients while adding flames to the spectrum of aesthetic possibilities.

A Flair with Flames

Fire effects have grown tremendously in popularity in recent years, especially among swimming pool designers and builders who use them in developing various fire-on-water features. On one level, it seems that these professionals (and their clients) have noticed that systems that contain and control fire serve as wonderful complements to systems that contain and control water. On a grander scale, however, it’s apparent that, as watershape designers and builders have become more and more creative, fire features have risen in the estimation of those who want to give their clients something special – something few others have. At my company, Grand Effects of Irvine, Calif., we’ve focused on making it easy for watershapers, general contractors and landscape designers and architects to bring fire into the picture across a range of applications. To that end, we’ve developed an array of completely off-the-shelf systems, ready to install, and have done all of the engineering and testing required to build confidence into every product. In doing so, we’ve studied possible effects and developed

Through the Lens

Welcome to the first installment of “References,” an occasional feature that highlights professionals who contribute to the watershaping process. I (and eventually some others) will be using this space to identify people who have had a significant effect on my work – and to suggest how similar associations might be helpful to other watershapers. This time around, I’ll deal with something that has always been dear to my heart: