ARTICLES Archives - Page 261 of 314

The Art of Influence

In this business, there's no avoiding the fact that you have to be able to work with people. That may seem an obvious point, but if you're like me and tend toward the shy side, stepping out of your shell to work with others is not always easy. I've always admired those with easy-going social skills, but I've never been one of them - and I know in this industry that I'm far from alone. In my case, I've found my way around my basic tendencies by taking advice I've found to be incredibly helpful in my work with clients as well as in my relationships with sub-contractors and fellow employees. That advice comes from one of the true classics of 20th-century American publishing, none other than Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People. If you're not familiar with this volume beyond its name, you might be impressed by the fact that Carnegie's seminal self-help book was first published in

Simple Green

Understanding the client is frequently the most important factor in creating a successful design. In the case of the project highlighted here, for example, it was a given that the clients were highly educated and knowledgeable with respect to design, style and materials: He's a top-flight graphic designer with an amazing grasp of color, line, architectural details, presentation materials and techniques; she's a degreed interior designer with a wonderful artistic flair. They're also two of my best friends: He and I taught together at UCLA and have known each other for more years than I care to admit. They've known about the focus of my business for years and said they hadn't wanted to call me because the project

Staying Current

With a busy schedule, it's too easy to use the same tools repeatedly in project designs. Yes, you can mitigate the repetition to a certain extent by using those tools differently each time, but the fact remains that many of us tend to design over and over again with the same plants, hardscape materials and structural approaches because it's what we know and trust. But let's face it: Most clients don't want exactly what someone else has; instead, they want one element from this garden and a special plant from that one. From a design perspective, selecting new plants every time is

A Question of Balance

Reader Chris Walton asked a great question in response to comments I've made in a couple of recent columns about the value of detailed plans: "Why do we in the pool industry lump sales, design and project assessment into one job description?" In the message surrounding his question, he explained in some detail that his firm, PoolDizine, Inc., of Jacksonville, Fla., takes basic plans and proposals for swimming pools and other watershapes and turns them into complete and extremely detailed sets of construction documents and plan drawings that can be used in generating accurate bids and that also provide detailed specifications for the construction process. To be sure, he has an interest in altering

Echoing Green

The combination of water and plant material is so pervasive and obvious in natural and man-made settings that it's easy to take it for granted. In urban parks, rural settings and countless backyards, where one finds the blue, one also finds the green - and we all seem pre-wired

Backwashing Basics

Backwash valves are the unsung heroes of many a fine hydraulic system. Seldom considered other than when in use, these handy devices simplify filter maintenance, significantly extend filter cycles and even serve to stretch the service lives of a filter’s internal components. Ensuring that level of reliable performance, says hydraulics expert Steve Gutai, is a matter of understanding the role these valves play and selecting the right one for the given application. Backwash valves are simple in concept: They reverse the flow of water through a filter and, in so doing, dislodge dirt and debris that has built up on the surface of and in the filter medium. This procedure has a couple of key benefits in both sand and diatomaceous-earth filters: First, it improves filter performance by breaking up and flushing out the near-solid cakes of dirt and oil particles that build up in the media over time. Second, it prolongs filter cycles and extends the time between major (and messy) cleanings. Third, because they minimize those invasive cleanings, backwashing helps to extend the service lives of a filter’s internal components. For all that, I keep seeing systems in the field in which backwash valves are

Known as specialists when it comes to executing the designs of top-flight architects and landscape architects throughout Southern California, pool builders Martha and Randy Beard get involved in a wide range of fascinating projects in some of the region’s most exclusive enclaves. Here, they discuss their work on the watershapes of architect Mark Singer, who’s built a sterling reputation by creating contemporary homes with stark, dramatic geometries.

Contemporary Sensibilities

One of the great things about working with different architects and designers the way we do is that, as builders of pools, spas and other watershapes, we enjoy opportunities to work across a broad range of design styles and sensibilities. In this instance, we're focusing on one of our favorite Southern California architects, Mark Singer. He's known regionally for crisp, clean, minimalist designs and is well regarded for his work on breathtaking lots along the coast in Laguna Beach, Newport Beach and other well-heeled cities overlooking the Pacific Ocean. To our good fortune, most of his projects include pools, spas, courtyard waterfeatures, outdoor sculptures and other amenities that enhance and extend his contemporary designs. Our most recent project with Singer was completed in the summer of 2004 at an older home in the beautiful beach community of Corona del Mar. The house itself was not originally designed by Singer, but it had been remodeled by him several times in the years since. In fact, so much has been done at this point that it's practically impossible to distinguish this residence from projects he has pursued from the ground up. COMPLETING A SCENE The homeowner is a wealthy land developer, a self-made man and a major fan of

Ideal for tall spaces with precious little floor space, rain curtains offer watershapers a striking design option perfectly suited to a variety of retail, office and assorted other commercial spaces. As with any specialized effect, says fountain designer and supplier Jon Mitovich, working with rain curtains calls for a good understanding of just what makes the systems tick – and what it takes to set them up to achieve the best possible results.

Shaping the Rain

For many of us in the watershaping business, the design and creation of fountains and water displays follows a predictable set of functional patterns. Given the traditional tools of the trade and our repertoire of nozzles and spray apparatus, for example, we tend to fashion effects and shapes from the ground up, literally throwing water in the air in a more or less uncontrolled manner. From a design standpoint, the problem with this tradition is that it eats up space like nobody's business: The pools needed to catch free-falling flows of any noteworthy height need to be large enough to capture water subject to the effects of splash, wind drift and overspray. The higher the spray, the larger must be the footprint of the pool to contain it adequately. As a rule, these pools need to have diameters of twice the height of the spray - by any measure a significant contribution of expensive commercial real estate to the creative effort at a time when property owners are motivated to make every available square foot an income producer. As an alternative in this space race, watershapers have found dry-deck or curbless fountains to be a great way to

Daryl Toby has built his career on two passions – one for world travel, the other for landscape design. Indeed, he spends months at a time overseas, seeking out fresh sources for antique construction materials and art objects for use in his firm’s own designs while importing them for others. Here, he shares in words and images the appeal of turning to the past to stoke the creative fires of contemporary watershape and landscape projects.

Objects of Desire

When you execute complex projects for sophisticated clients, your ability to satisfy them and their tastes by bringing something different or interesting or unique to the table can make all the difference. As our firm has evolved, we've increasingly come to focus on identifying these compelling touches, which for us most often center on old-world influences that resonate, sometimes deeply, with our clients. I've always loved to travel and have spent extended periods in Asia, Latin America and Europe. At some point, it occurred to me that by working not only with the principles of classical European and Asian garden design, but also with authentic, imported materials and art objects, the work would take on greater meaning and interest for me - and for my clients as well. To that point, our firm had followed a path of influence that still reflects itself in our replication of ancient stone-setting techniques. While traveling in China and Japan, I began spotting stone pieces and other objects we could use directly in our watershapes and gardens and started acquiring pieces for that purpose. This step beyond evoking not only the style but actually using elements of authentic design quickly turned into a powerful element in our work. As we moved further in this direction, the channels opened wider, the creative possibilities blossomed and we soon began incorporating more and more of the materials and ideas that I'd encountered

You really can find opportunities in unexpected places, insists Mehrnoosh, a Los Angeles architect and designer who enjoys making refined aesthetic statements in previously plain suburban environments. To illustrate her point, she takes us to a project in a modest neighborhood to define how simple architectural and landscape elements – and water – can bring elegance and tranquility to otherwise overlooked and underappreciated spaces.

Suburban Spaces

I've always been fascinated by the concept of urbanism as defined by Thomas Jefferson: He boiled it down to the notion that everyone should have his or her own private space as well as a buffer against the outside world. In a sense, the physical concept of the front yard fits perfectly within Jefferson's utopian ideal. At root, it's an ingenious setup that has probably endured for so many centuries because, on some level, it addresses our primal need to have land all around us. By the very configuration of our residential spaces, we each have a small, open, pastoral area that separates the privacy and sanctity of the home from adjacent public areas, sidewalks and streets. The problem is that in many modern cities and suburbs, the amount of room allocated for front yards in particular has dwindled as property values have soared and lots have become smaller and more tightly packed as a result. And when you combine that spatial shrinkage with the increased desire for safety and privacy on the part of many homeowners, it all works together to place ever-higher premiums on how we choose to make use of our small slices of front-yard land. To my mind, this dynamic set of trends