ARTICLES Archives - Page 192 of 315

Global Watershaping

Have you had just about enough of the current chatter about the environment? Have the terms “global warming,” “carbon footprint” and “sustainable landscape” become more irritating to you than they are inspiring? If so, all I can say is that I don’t think you’ll like the future. Indeed, for those of you who’ve spent the last little while waiting for the Green Revolution to fade away need to set aside any hope that it’s just a fad – just some trumped-up, pop-culture phenomenon that will go away as suddenly as it came to prominence. In fact, the green movement – or whatever you want to call it – is rapidly on its way to

Let It Rain

If you spend as much time as I do reading the myriad journals available to the landscape trades, you’ll no doubt have noticed their intense concentration on water quality and preservation. It’s about time these issues came to the fore: We’ve spent so much time as a society focusing on making our lives easier that many of us seem to have forgotten that water is a finite resource. Rest assured: I’m not somebody who believes that environmentalism is all about undermining the desire for beauty or luxury. Nonetheless and now more than ever before, it is apparent that we must find ways to manage, preserve and marshal dwindling water resources while at the same time we must continue to offer our clients spaces in which they can gather to enjoy beauty, tranquility or recreation. The hard fact is, only about three percent of the water on this planet can be

Inquiring Minds

Watershaping carries us onto the properties and into the private lives of our clients, and it does so to such a personal, even intimate level that I see the value and importance of getting to know them to the best of my ability. Invariably, that means asking the right questions and knowing how to listen and interpret the answers.This isn’t a new topic – in fact, it’s been about ten years since I wrote an early string of WaterShapes columns on

Gathering Places

Back in September 2009, I took advantage of my annual trip to the American Society of Landscape Architects’ Expo by stretching things out with a few extra days in Chicago. I’ve always loved the city and was particularly excited by the thought of finally getting a chance to see Millennium Park in person. I’d heard and read a great deal about it, of course, and my interest went way beyond our coverage of

Small Wonders

On several occasions through the past few years, I’ve been called on to design several projects that were both extremely small and extremely detailed. I’ve found that working in these intimate spaces is a tremendous challenge, with every single detail taking on tremendous importance and even something as innocuous as

This past summer, St. Louis saw the opening of Citygarden, a shimmering downtown park filled with art, dynamic spaces and an array of waterfeatures executed by the fountain specialists at Hydro Dramatics. Here, project manager Kerry Friedman guides us through design and development of the various systems, discussing the ways in which these watershapes are used to define both their surroundings and distinct recreation zones within the park.

Urban Statements

It was no easy task: We were called on to take the majestic landscape defined by the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers; use it as a template for an urban oasis filled with sculptures, plants and water; and develop a park that would mesh seamlessly with its surrounding urban spaces. Furthermore, they wanted this park to appeal to every conceivable user – people of all ages, needs and backgrounds – while also serving as a catalyst for growth and a profound revival of the city’s core. And not only was the space to carry that symbolic load, but it also had to function efficiently with long-term reliability. We at Hydro Dramatics (St. Louis, Mo.) know from experience that projects of this scope and scale require much planning and coordination to go along with large measures of innovation. We also know that these types of challenges make success that much sweeter. So we jumped into the task with all our energy, supporting the design team charged with developing Citygarden, a 2.9-acre parcel to be filled with

Electrolytic chemical generation has been used by various industries for more than a century, but it’s only recently that it has become familiar to watershapers, mainly in the form of saltwater chlorinating systems. Now, says watershaper/inventor Jeff Freeman, it’s time to take this technology to a new level, using its capacity to coax old chemical compounds into doing new tricks that meet a broad array of water-treatment challenges.

Elemental Finesse

{Multithumb} Ever since people decided to contain and control water for recreational and decorative uses, there have been competing ideas about how to treat it so that it remains safe for human contact. That environment has become even more intense in recent years, as questions and concerns have arisen about the continuing use of traditional chlorine chemistry to get this important job done. Today, for example, we hear a lot about “natural pools” – systems using plant material to absorb the nutrients that feed algae and bacteria. There’s also ozone technology, which needs to be combined with stabilized halogen to treat water effectively. Then there are copper/silver ionization systems and their cousins, the saltwater chlorinators, which have taken root and gained support in many quarters. My career working with alternative sanitizers began a few decades ago. About three years ago, my firm – Fluid Logics of Upland, Calif. – entered this arena with the thought in mind that the watershaping industry needed to take a broader view of the last of those alternatives, digging back through the 100-year history of electrolytic chemical generation and expanding the capacity of these systems to oxidize organic compounds and sanitize the water. For several years before then, I had

Among all of the elements defining superior naturalistic watershapes, accomplished pond/stream specialists know that edge treatments are generally what separates great work from the ordinary. Here, watershaper Steve Sandalis highlights these transitions, sharing techniques he uses to soften edges and create areas where grassy verges, plants, beaches and rocks combine to make impressions in various and seamlessly beautiful ways.

Softening Edges

We recently completed a project that truly thrilled a pair of well-traveled, highly educated clients: It was a large, complex waterfall-and-pond composition in the sloping backyard of an upscale home in an affluent southern California neighborhood. There were a number of reasons why the project worked so well, but if I had to break it down to one thing more than any other, it had to do with the range of edge treatments we used within the available space. On the side nearest the house, we established a clean lawn-meets-water detail – very disciplined in appearance and obviously man-made. Directly across the pond was a set of rugged waterfalls – much wilder and basically untamed. Bracketing those features, we filled shallow areas with emergent plants and hiding places for fish and frogs. It was a well thought out plan, certainly right for the space. But I know for a fact that

There’s a place in the world, says veteran watershaper Pete Cattano, for relatively modest swimming pools. Using a recently completed ‘garden pool’ to illustrate that point, he describes how great clients, an integrated landscape design, professional cooperation and careful construction can come together to deliver the best of everything swimming pools have to offer, even in a situation where the project’s scope and scale are quite down to earth.

Simple Green

Swimming pools don’t always need to be complex or innovative to be beautiful. In fact, I’d like to suggest that even the simplest of design programs, when handled well by the watershaper, can lead to outstanding results. The reasons are obvious and well known: With water, we manage the world’s most beautiful and alluring design material. If we do a good job, put that water in the right place and build our structures well, the potential for achieving gorgeous results is almost always within reach and we organize reflections, flows, sounds, hardscape and plants. If all of those elements are in control and integrated into the same thoughtful program, in other words, even the most basic of projects can be so aesthetically on target that it will elicit strong emotional responses. All of these factors were in play with the small pool discussed here: With just 800 square feet of surface area, it sits in the front yard of a modest but attractive home in the Five Towns area of New York’s Long Island and is distinguished by

Inflows and Outflows

In most watershapes, we circulate and treat water through use of pumps and filters – and although we still don’t think about it much these days, we do so because fresh water is in precariously short supply and we can’t simply fill and dump it as we please. Yet even a perfect watershape – that is, one devoid of leaks, never subject to splash-out and never in need of backwashing – occasionally requires the addition of new water if only because evaporation will carry it away, bit by bit. In fact, there’s no way to cut Mother Nature out of her share, or to keep her from