ARTICLES Archives - Page 241 of 315

Any backyard project that encompasses tons of stone, hundreds of square feet of glass tile, a complex waterfall structure, a large bridge, an island spa and other features focused on fun, elegance and beauty is likely to be something special. In this case, it happens to be one of master watershaper David Tisherman’s most intricate achievements to date – one he guides us through in this pictorial, which captures the challenges as well as the glorious results of an enormous collaboration.

One for the Future

As milestones go, the project depicted in these pages has been a big one for me - and for lots of other people as well. The grand estate with its outsized home is located in the countryside near Hanover, Pa., a remote setting that offered a set of challenges that has in many ways redefined what is and isn't possible in a whole region when it comes to watershape design, engineering and construction. A full two-and-a-half years in the making (a period broken up, of course, by stretches in which there was no activity on site), this stands as one of

For more than 25 years, sculptor Dale J. Evers has created sculptures that feature a broad spectrum of marine and aquatic life. In recent years, however, the focus of his work has moved from the refined atmosphere of art galleries into the world of watershape and landscape design – a shift, he says, that has energized his work and led him to a mode of design that lets him draw his cues not only from nature, but also from clients and settings.

Alive by Design

The most famous artists and designers often become known for one particular style or motif. When we see the cubism of Pablo Picasso or the drip paintings of Jackson Pollack, for example, we firmly link those distinctive artistic "moves" with the artists themselves. In some cases, those associations are extremely positive and add to the artist's or designer's mystique and prestige - certainly the case with Picasso and Pollack. For other artists who are less famous, however, an identifiable mode of expression can lead to confinement, predictability and, in some cases, a needless limitation of vision and creative possibilities. Since I began my career in the early 1980s, I've focused on capturing aquatic life forms in mixed-media sculptures to such an extent that my name is associated with the genre - although I'm certainly no Picasso. Indeed, in the years I've been active, there have been so many sculptures, statues and paintings depicting whales, dolphins and fish that the genre I love has become something of a cliché. So many consumers love such images that a vast number of enterprising artists have stepped in to meet the demand. The problem is that so many of these efforts are uninspired and

Familiarity with historic architectural and garden styles presents landscape professionals with many opportunities to serve both clients and our collective design heritage, says landscape architect and scholar Greg Pierceall. A cluster of homes in Attica, Ind., offers a case in point – a situation in which knowledge of the ins and outs of the Greek Revival style was the key to reviving an entire neighborhood.

New Revivals

As landscape professionals, most of us seek not only to innovate and drive the industry to new levels, but also endeavor as necessary to learn about basic design principles and styles that have inspired and ignited design movements in past centuries. By studying the range of architectural and landscape styles that have gone before us, we learn to use historical cues to guide us in our current tasks. At the same time, our knowledge of what was done in the past positions us to develop variations on themes and do things

Water conservation is something every one of us needs to take seriously, observes irrigation-system expert James Minnich. For landshapers, he says, this means understanding and using technologies that make conservation easier – and making certain clients know that they, too, have a role to play by enabling professionals to install efficient, environmentally sound systems.

Water Wise

Conserving water in a serious way is something many of us have had to do at one time or another. Whether it has resulted from drought or some other condition affecting local supplies, we know that any sort of shortage has significant implications not just for us, but for our communities, clients and landscapes as well. In those landscapes, water conservation is about finding ways to reduce water use and coming up with more efficient ways to use it. This is essential to ensuring the survival of plants (and our livelihoods) and has to do with giving gardens the amount of water they need to thrive: Too little, and plants will shrivel up and die; too much, and many will drown just as surely. For the most part, what landshapers encounter is the need to cope with shortfalls and pronounced dry spells rather than floods, which is why most professionals install irrigation systems that make it easier for

With a history that now spans more than 35 years, artificial fog systems have found their way into a fascinating range of both practical and aesthetic applications. Here, John Mee – son of the man credited with creating the first fog systems – relates the history of the technology, discusses how it works and examines the characteristics that make it a natural for a broad range of uses, including many associated with watershapes and landscapes.

Banking on Fog

From the streets of London to the forbidding environs of horror movies, fog has always been capable of stirring our imaginations. It's the stuff clouds are made of and an enduring symbol of mystery, and it's not too surprising that enterprising people would try to figure out how to generate and use this most elemental of atmospheric vapors as a practical tool and distinctive design element. To start our story, let's flash back to 1970, when the first-ever artificial-fog system made its debut at the World's Fair in Osaka, Japan, as part of Pepsi's revolutionary Pavilion of the Clouds. Just a year earlier, my father, cloud expert Tom Mee, had founded Mee Industries to provide instrumentation that was to enable the government to do a better job of studying clouds and airborne pollution. I can only imagine what it was like for him to receive a call from Japanese artist Fujiko Nakaya, who asked him to develop a system that would generate a cloud to would enfold the outside of a 200-foot dome as a key element of her design for the pavilion. Interestingly, Nakaya was the daughter of the man who had pioneered snowmaking technology, and I've always been intrigued that she wanted to make a

For any landscape professional who started working before about 1990, the thought of learning computerized design programs is one that can instill fear in even the hardiest. But landscape architect Laura Saltzman is a strong advocate for overcoming that apprehension, having found modern CAD to be both a powerful sales tool as well as a significant professional edge.

Embracing Technology

For many years, I sat on the sidelines and watched others learn to use CAD to their professional advantage. I'm a fine artist by background and training and have always had great confidence in my ability to draw freehand. But I also yearned to become proficient with computers because I was convinced they'd streamline my work, offer me additional tools that would facilitate expansion of my business and, overall, make me a better landscape architect. I was completely

A Natural Transition

Did you know that there's a strong trend toward creating ponds that are made for swimming in Germany and Austria? That revelation came by way of a terrific book I just finished - Natural Swimming Pools: Inspiration for Harmony with Nature by Michael Littlewood (Schiffer Publishing, 2004). Littlewood is an American landscape designer who moved to Europe several years ago and has since become involved in the design and installation of naturalistic watershapes that are a distinct departure from run-of-the-mill concrete pools we encounter in the United States. Indeed, he and scores of other watershapers throughout Europe are setting up vinyl-lined ponds that lack most of what we'd recognize as pool features or equipment, but are deep enough and big enough for swimming and other forms of aquatic exercise. And the simple fact is that their European clients seem inclined to

Revealing Elegance

It often happens that the way people enter a space has everything to do with the way they experience it and come to regard its overall design. This was much on my mind as we concluded our work on the Long Beach Island project I've discussed in my last few "Details." By orchestrating access and movement toward the backyard/pool area, we developed a string of transitions that lend a sense of surprise and delight to those entering a beautifully designed and constructed space that literally seems like a world apart. As discussed in previous columns, the backyard features a

Whenever a landscape includes a retaining wall, says Chicago-based landscape designer Jerry Miraldi, it should be both functional and aesthetically pleasing as well. In his case, however, personal circumstances have led him to broaden that basic rule, adding accessibility to the range of factors he considers in blending walls seamlessly into their landscapes.

More than Functional

It may seem an odd source of inspiration, but I've always been interested in retaining walls. Even as a child, I'd see photographs of terraced hillsides rich with crops and wonder, "How did they do that?" I've since done my homework and have found historical evidence indicating that the skills needed to build these structures goes back many hundreds of years. I'm now applying those same skills today in devising soil-retaining systems for my clients. Whether it's farmers creating flat spaces on which to

Creative Genus

In looking back over several recent projects, I noticed that I've been using one particular genus of plants more frequently than just about any other. Its name probably evokes thoughts of petri dishes and bacterial colonies for most of us, but this plant genus - Pittosporum - has truly held an extremely valuable position in most of my plant palettes in recent years and is one of the most useful of all plant types I use. I find myself pointing them out every time I take clients to a nursery to view and select plants, and it seems I'm always trying to find ways to fit one or more of its many varieties into my planting plans. I treasure them for their great variety in