ARTICLES Archives - Page 260 of 314

Searching for an effective and natural way to improve water quality in both man-made and natural bodies of water, inventor Bruce Kania turned to the experiences of a childhood spent exploring and fishing in the waters of the upper Midwest. Inspired by the diversity and sheer wildness of the natural, floating islands that can occur there, he’s developed a system that not only enhances water quality but also provides a haven for wildlife.

Island Life

So often, the art and science of invention begins with the study and appreciation of nature. While growing up in Wisconsin, I was repeatedly exposed to the naturally occurring islands often found floating on bodies of water amid the conifers in the northern, peat-bog region of the state. I couldn't help noticing that these islands were exactly the best places to go fishing. They were just terrific, presenting a structure under and around which fish, for whatever reason, loved to spend their time. Moreover, every floating island I've seen in nature is host to all sorts of flowering plants including American Speedwell, Monkey Flower, Blue Flag and even examples of the few native varieties of North American wild orchids along with incredible varieties of other broad-leaf plants, grasses and even trees. In many cases, I've seen species that don't abound in the surrounding environment but

Landscape designer Bruce Zaretsky has a passion for stone walls, especially those of the stacked variety made without the aid of mortar. Observation of the handiwork of others and his own experience have shown him that there’s a fine line with these walls between those that are beautiful and enduring and those that are little more than expensive heaps of rock. Here, he shares a number of practical tips aimed at results of the beautiful, enduring kind.

Walls of Stone

As a landscape designer and installer, I have an abiding fascination with stone. I love the feel of it and its myriad colors, veins, streaks, shapes and textures, and I particularly admire its strength and flexibility. We pave with it, sculpt it and run water over, under and through it. It doesn't need painting or much care, looks great with plant material and has, as those who work with stone will point out, a timeless quality that cannot be reproduced with artificial materials. The best thing about stone is that when you use even one piece in an aesthetically meaningful way, you've

Concrete Discussions

Concrete is so essential to the work of watershapers and so pervasive in all forms of construction that it's a bit too easy to take it for granted. Using myself as an example, I'll confess to having fairly thin knowledge of the material, its history and the myriad uses to which it is put to use - until, that is, I looked through Concrete: A Pictorial Celebration (published by the American Concrete Institute in 2004). This wonderful, 260-page book offers a (mostly) visual tour of the fantastic and utterly essential applications of concrete that have indelibly marked the advance of modern society, worldwide. It's organized into several sections, each one chock full great photos accompanied by informative, albeit brief, textual passages. It's not a technical discussion by any means; instead, it's an almost dizzying tour of the

The Gap Attack

Sometimes, it's the simple things that trip you up. As a case in point, I was recently called by a homeowner who was wondering why the tile was falling off the outside wall of a raised pool that had just been installed by another builder. Unfortunately, that builder apparently hadn't known how to pull off this standard detail. The pool had been raised eight inches out of the ground in keeping with the design intent. This is a detail I use frequently to create a seating area around pools, but I was a bit mystified by this particular choice of elevation: It was too high to be a step (most building codes call for maximum 7-1/2-inch outdoor risers) and too low to serve very well as a bench. (Actually, it was just about right for

Why We Do What We Do

I was all set to write a column about the virtues of small jobs compared to big jobs, but I've had an experience that leads me to share something more important with you this time. Most of us have had these moments in our lives in which we are suddenly jarred into evaluating our existence for one reason or another - episodes that give us reason to pause and reflect on who we are and what we're doing and why we're doing it. As I write this, I'm dealing with an illness in my family that has quite literally knocked the legs out from under me. As I've spent time these past few days talking with friends and relatives, I've found myself quite often laying on the living-room couch and staring out the window into my backyard - and finding

Degrees of Separation

Through the past few months, I've run across several representatives of the pool and spa industry who have expressed concern that some of us in the business of educating watershapers are encouraging landscape architects to move in the direction of the pool industry's traditional market. I can understand the anxiety. After all, landscape architects are degreed professionals in a closely related exterior-design field and have been academically trained in principles of design, while most of us in the mainstream pool and spa industry have no such background or relevant certification. It probably isn't paranoia to regard these design-oriented professionals as having something of an edge. There's also the simple fact that

Contrasting the Arts

If you've been reading WaterShapes for any length of time, you've probably noticed that we take more than a bit of pride in presenting the arts and crafts of watershaping in the broadest possible ways. From modest and subtle to bold and elaborate, the work

The gardens of James van Sweden have influenced an entire generation of landscape architects and designers, and his firm – Oehme, van Sweden – has designed scores of renowned public and private spaces in the United States and around the world. Here, he profiles the recently completed Chicago Botanic Garden and its Great Basin, describing what it’s like to approach, bid and execute design projects at the very highest level.

The New American Garden

The Chicago Botanic Garden is located, oddly enough, a good 40 miles from that city in the suburb of Glencoe, Ill. And although it is specifically named for the Midwest’s greatest city and might seem a municipal endeavor, it is actually maintained by private donations and serves to display the entire region’s rich flora and scenic beauty. The garden is organized around a large body of water known as the Great Basin, which was created some 60 years ago by dredging the area and diverting the Skokie River to create a series of islands and lagoons. The largest island, known as Evening Island, was the initial focus of our work in redesigning the space. My firm, Oehme, van Sweden and Associates of Washington, D.C., became involved in the project

Effective landscape-lighting design requires a careful balance of several key elements, explains Janet Lennox Moyer, the chief among them being the fine art of lighting plant material. In this feature, one of the world’s leading authorities on the subject of exterior lighting describes the way she approaches this part of her projects, revealing the thought processes and practicalities involved in making greenery come alive when the sun sets.

Shaping the Night

We all know that plants are beautiful in daylight. Perhaps less well known is the vast visual potential they posses when carefully and thoughtfully lit at night. It's no small challenge. Indeed, maximizing the beauty of most any landscape while also ensuring that your lighting design works well throughout the lifetime of the landscape requires a keen understanding of both plant materials and the lighting techniques that will bring them to life when the sun goes down. Furthermore, surrounding watershapes with well-lit spaces and foliage will add a distinctive aesthetic dimension to the overall design. To my mind, there's no substitute for paying attention to every plant in the plan, because overlooking any of them or ignoring the role each has to play in the overall landscape will almost invariably detract from the effectiveness of the lighting design. You can't overlook technology, either, or the need to sort through the variety of techniques that can be used to light plants while keeping an eye on a wide range of practical, aesthetic and creative issues. When you encompass all of this successfully, the results will often

As ponds and lakes become more common amenities for large estates and commercial properties, says George Forni, increasing numbers of clients are demanding water quality more akin to that of swimming pools than to natural bodies of water – and very often, he adds, they want cleanliness and clarity to be attained without any chemicals. Here, he shows how this can be accomplished, in this case in a system of large ponds on a 100-acre estate.

A Crystal-Clear Mandate

Our projects generally take two forms. On the one hand, we're called upon to "heal" ailing bodies of water that have been set up with inadequate or improperly functioning circulation and filtration systems. Although other people's mistakes mean good business for us, I won't say that we ever look forward to seeing potentially beautiful ponds or lakes cursed by unappealing or even unhealthy water conditions. On the other hand, we often have the opportunity to join a project at the design phase and handle the installation as well, applying what we know about water quality from the first conceptualization of the watershape. That's always a welcome prospect: Not only is it exciting to