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The art and craft of building wooden bridges has been overtaken through the years, with steel and reinforced-concrete structures almost entirely supplanting them for the past 100 years or so. But designer/builder Dan Moosman has bucked the modern trend, providing his clients with Craftsman-style wooden bridges that now grace landscapes across the country and make strong aesthetic statements wherever they’re placed.
Spanning Space and Time
Bridges have been important to humanity for thousands of years.  They've provided avenues of travel between disconnected spaces and have, as a result, been critical to commerce, settlement, warfare, travel and even poetry and literature.  To this day, they are iconic in certain cities or regions (think Paris or New York), and there has always been a distinctly romantic air that accompanies their obvious utility. My relationship with bridges in general (and with wooden bridges in particular) began during my childhood near Nebraska's Niobrara River.  The big, load-bearing structures crafted to span that river in the late-19th and early-20th centuries absolutely fascinated me. I'd spend hours climbing on those old structures and was amazed by the way they creaked as their tension and compression members supported truly formidable weights.  At the same time, I came to value the presence of
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As is the case in every aspect of the design of spaces intended for public use, the development of lighting systems for parks, plazas, resorts or historical sites requires increased attention to a series of creativity-thwarting factors including cost, durability and safety, says lighting-design guru Janet Lennox Moyer. Here, she offers insights into what it takes to go beyond those basic needs and truly bring public places to life once the sun goes down. (Photo: Lighting by Randy Burkett Lighting Design; photo by William Mathis)
Public Light
When we work in public settings, the basic demand on lighting designers is for straightforward fixture layouts capable of providing enduring effects and requiring minimal ongoing attention.  That doesn't sound particularly exciting - and it's not, unless the lighting designer uses it as a baseline and reaches above and beyond.Parks, plazas, resorts and historical sites (among many others) are all spaces that really should come alive at night, but their lighting designs often run counter to that vitality by being so utilitarian that they spark boredom rather than energy.  It's easy to understand why this happens:  Because such spaces play host to high levels of traffic and often multiple uses, they demand lighting treatments that
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As is the case in every aspect of the design of spaces intended for public use, the development of lighting systems for parks, plazas, resorts or historical sites requires increased attention to a series of creativity-thwarting factors including cost, durability and safety, says lighting-design guru Janet Lennox Moyer. Here, she offers insights into what it takes to go beyond those basic needs and truly bring public places to life once the sun goes down. (Photo: Lighting by Randy Burkett Lighting Design; photo by William Mathis)
Public Light
When we work in public settings, the basic demand on lighting designers is for straightforward fixture layouts capable of providing enduring effects and requiring minimal ongoing attention.  That doesn't sound particularly exciting - and it's not, unless the lighting designer uses it as a baseline and reaches above and beyond.Parks, plazas, resorts and historical sites (among many others) are all spaces that really should come alive at night, but their lighting designs often run counter to that vitality by being so utilitarian that they spark boredom rather than energy.  It's easy to understand why this happens:  Because such spaces play host to high levels of traffic and often multiple uses, they demand lighting treatments that
Read More
During the past decade or so, fountains that feature rotating granite balls have become familiar in myriad settings, from theme parks to upscale backyards. The trick of floating weighty rock spheres on thin sheets of water in rounded sockets is actually a simple one, says fountain expert Anne Gunn, but it’s nonetheless an effect that is utterly fascinating to children and adults who enjoy moving hugely heavy objects with the slightest of touches.
Spheres of Influence
If ever there was an example of the power of simplicity, it's been the rise of what we call floating-granite-ball fountains.  They've been around since the early 1990s and are now found in a range of commercial and even residential settings. I hadn't ever seen one when I joined HydroDramatics back in 1996, but I do know that soon after I started we began receiving a steady flow on inquiries about them - and it wasn't long before we received our first commission for a floating sphere for a major automobile manufacturer in Detroit. As has been the case every time a prospect has asked about one of these fountains since then, school administrators wanted
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During the past decade or so, fountains that feature rotating granite balls have become familiar in myriad settings, from theme parks to upscale backyards. The trick of floating weighty rock spheres on thin sheets of water in rounded sockets is actually a simple one, says fountain expert Anne Gunn, but it’s nonetheless an effect that is utterly fascinating to children and adults who enjoy moving hugely heavy objects with the slightest of touches.
Spheres of Influence
If ever there was an example of the power of simplicity, it's been the rise of what we call floating-granite-ball fountains.  They've been around since the early 1990s and are now found in a range of commercial and even residential settings. I hadn't ever seen one when I joined HydroDramatics back in 1996, but I do know that soon after I started we began receiving a steady flow on inquiries about them - and it wasn't long before we received our first commission for a floating sphere for a major automobile manufacturer in Detroit. As has been the case every time a prospect has asked about one of these fountains since then, school administrators wanted
Read More
200601MF0
Across the Grounds
It's no exaggeration to say that landscape design, whether residential or commercial, is in something of a rut these days.  Nor is it saying anything new. Even in settings separated by great distance - a planned community in Plano, Texas, for example, compared to one in Toms River, N.J. - you'll find almost the exact same hardscape and planting treatments.  There's just an incredible homogeneity in design these days. If you find yourself depressed by that predictability (or are stuck in those creative doldrums yourself), I strongly recommend picking up a copy of Breaking Ground:  Portraits of Ten Garden Designers (Artisan, a division of Workman Publishing, 1997).  Written by Page Dickey, this heavily illustrated 208-page text treats us to insightful and intimate looks at a set of extraordinarily diverse
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200601MF0
Across the Grounds
It's no exaggeration to say that landscape design, whether residential or commercial, is in something of a rut these days.  Nor is it saying anything new. Even in settings separated by great distance - a planned community in Plano, Texas, for example, compared to one in Toms River, N.J. - you'll find almost the exact same hardscape and planting treatments.  There's just an incredible homogeneity in design these days. If you find yourself depressed by that predictability (or are stuck in those creative doldrums yourself), I strongly recommend picking up a copy of Breaking Ground:  Portraits of Ten Garden Designers (Artisan, a division of Workman Publishing, 1997).  Written by Page Dickey, this heavily illustrated 208-page text treats us to insightful and intimate looks at a set of extraordinarily diverse
Read More
200601DT0
Off the Deep End
A big part of properly designing watershapes to meet specific client needs has to do with understanding how they'll be using the body of water.   I always explore this issue with my clients, which is why, for the most part, I don't do many pools with traditional deep ends - despite the fact that, for decades, most pools have been built with them.  To me, in fact, the whole concept of deep water in residential swimming pools is basically misguided and largely obsolete. Consider exactly what it is that bathers can do in the deep end of a pool:  They might dive, tread water or swim to the bottom to retrieve coins or pool toys - and, unfortunately, they can drown there, too.  Yes, people also drown in shallow water, but there's no doubt that deeper waters provide
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200601DT0
Off the Deep End
A big part of properly designing watershapes to meet specific client needs has to do with understanding how they'll be using the body of water.   I always explore this issue with my clients, which is why, for the most part, I don't do many pools with traditional deep ends - despite the fact that, for decades, most pools have been built with them.  To me, in fact, the whole concept of deep water in residential swimming pools is basically misguided and largely obsolete. Consider exactly what it is that bathers can do in the deep end of a pool:  They might dive, tread water or swim to the bottom to retrieve coins or pool toys - and, unfortunately, they can drown there, too.  Yes, people also drown in shallow water, but there's no doubt that deeper waters provide
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200601SR0
Searching for Perfection
Although we think of them together as activities in the world of exterior design, watershaping and landscaping have some significant distinctions. The watershapers who design and build pools, spas, fountains and waterfeatures, for instance, fully intend them to be structurally static and unchanging (a firm hope, anyway, especially in earthquake country) once they are completed.  By contrast, the landscape professionals who design and install the gardens, trees and plants that may surround a watershape work with dynamic, constantly changing materials. What this means is that perfection is a much more elusive quality for landscape professionals by comparison to watershapers.  Indeed, for us on the green side, achieving the kind of perfection one often
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