ARTICLES Archives - Page 301 of 312

There’s no rule that says installing realistic faux rocks has to be difficult. In fact, states Rock & Water Creations’ Rodger Embury, if you let nature do the detail work, making faux rocks believable is within reach of almost any contractor who knows his or her way around rebar and gunite. In this pictorial, he demonstrates the process by using pre-cast rock panels to create rock faces and cantilevers in and around watershapes.

Instant Geology

Some may disagree with me, but I don't see faux rockwork as a "sculptor's art form." For more than 25 years, I've made sure that Mother Nature is the one who does the detail work; what I do is take copies of her artwork to job sites and install them in creative and interesting ways. A long time ago, I developed a method of making castings of real rocks using my own formulation of fiberglass and epoxy. These are exact replicas of the real thing: Once mounted on steel structures in swimming pools or other hardscape applications, the panels are

The true artistry of stream building is found in the closing phase of construction, says landscape designer Rick Anderson. Here, in the final installment of his series on streamcrafting, he walks us through the concluding steps he takes to transform a raw installation into a finished watershape that dazzles the eye with its natural look and delights the ear with its gentle sound.

A Stream Comes to Life

Now comes the fun part. The final stage of building a stream is where all of the planning and close attention to the stream's earthen substructure, transitions in elevation, liner alignment and hydraulics come into play as you move to build in details that effectively mimic nature. In the first two installments of this series (click here for part 1, here for part 2), I discussed in detail how you excavate and grade the site, place the major transition stones, lay in the liner and install

As watershaping moves toward new creative frontiers, the trade is approaching a point where it’s tough to set a boundary between craft and art. One who clearly has crossed the line into fine art is modernist sculptor Barton Rubenstein, who uses water to create a range of intriguing aesthetic experiences. They might not look like other watershapes, but he insists that the physical and aesthetic principles he applies are all quite familiar.

Fluid Expressions

It's an age-old paradox, this relationship between art and science. On the face of it, things artistic may seem solely the realm of high-flying thinkers and philosophers who spend their days at the far reaches of interpretation and meaning. By contrast, engineers and scientists would seem to be dealing purely in the certainties of what is quantifiable and real. The truth is, I don't know of a modern art form that doesn't involve technology of some kind. Conversely, most branches of modern science call upon researchers to apply a great deal of intuition and creativity to the processes of exploration and discovery. In other words, neither the arts nor the sciences could exist without ideas and disciplines derived from the other. That's especially true when it comes to water systems. Whether created for aesthetic or recreational purposes, art and science can come together here in a particularly compelling and interesting way. By combining technical disciplines with

The thing that makes a painting great isn’t the pigment mixed on the palette or the brush used to apply it. Those are merely tools, observes landscaper Jim Lampl, who finds art and beauty in the way the strokes are laid on the canvas. The same holds true for watershapes, he says: The art and beauty aren’t in the stones or plantings, but in the way all of the components and materials are composed on site.

Natural Intuitions

I believe that what we strive for in our watershapes is evident in the paintings and sculpture of the great masters. The harmony, the beauty, the drama, the excitement of the senses, the total captivation of the viewer create an experience we call great art. The more we can reflect on this work and use it as a lofty benchmark, the more effective our watershapes become. I've always believed that the best way to work at the highest level is to follow the tenets of

Bold Outcroppings

Let's talk about really big boulders - the five- to eight-foot kind that weigh in at two to five tons apiece - and how they should be integrated into watershapes. The whole process of placing these big boulders begins with the design of the pool and relates to the kind of scale you're trying to achieve. Big boulders make other features seem small by comparison and can often overwhelm (rather than accent) a design if

Considering the Truly Unusual

This past summer, I had the pleasure of traveling to Europe - specifically Northern Italy and Southern France. Along the way, I was lucky enough to see the lavender fields of Provence in peak bloom and many unusual and beautiful gardens. My travels were particularly rewarding in the region around Lake Maggiore in Northern Italy, well known for having some of Europe's most beautiful gardens. We started off by visiting the islands on the lake and their villas, complete with their classic-style gardens. The climate of the area allows for growing many of the plants I'm familiar with in Southern California, but the

Bidding on Value

I'd like to bring up an old observation of mine: In looking at the high-end watershapes that win awards or achieve some sort of public acclaim, it seems to me that the designs are increasingly coming from outside the mainstream pool and spa industry. This is just a strong impression, and I don't have any statistics to back up my case. But when I look around me and see who's doing the

For All You Know

I'd humbly like to add my own voice to the growing list of those who are encouraging watershapers to seek payment not just for what you do, but also for

When coherent sheets of water fall gracefully from a height and down into just about any pool, spa or basin, you can bank on the fact that onlookers will be hooked. The effect is a true feast of sight and sound, says waterfall supplier Maria Hetzner, and it’s well within reach of any watershaper. Here, she briefly explains what makes these systems tick, then conducts a tour of a variety of sheet-fall applications in both residential and commercial settings.

Falling Water

As customer demands continue to push the creativity of watershapers to new limits, industry professionals need to stay atop the trends - and nudge those of us on the supplier side to new levels of creativity as well. In some cases, this means learning how to construct new environments, such as the vanishing edges and beach entrances so many clients now want. In other cases, this expanded creativity comes from a need to know what products are available from manufacturers. Although once they were the product of on-site construction skills, sheeting waterfalls now fall largely into the category of

None of us like it, but the simple fact is that contractors of all sorts – watershapers included – are all too often hauled into court to defend their actions. To aquatic consultant Curt Straub, this process of resolving conflicts in front of a judge is costly, painful – and almost completely avoidable. Here, he offers a powerful alternative that can help designers, engineers and builders avoid the courtroom doors.

Who Needs Litigation?

Most watershapers and their businesses have been (or at some point will be) exposed to some form of litigation. We do indeed live in a litigious society, and if you have yet to experience this sad reality at close hand, just wait a while: It's the nature of the contracting business, and your turn almost certainly will come. Doing battle in a courtroom has often been described as the world's most expensive indoor sport, one about a half step away from hand-to-hand combat. It's stressful, costly in time and money, incredibly distracting and generally no fun at all. In my own experience, litigation is the ultimate in misery and frustration: Even when you win, you walk away feeling like you've been through some kind of meat grinder. In an effort to stave off the costly, time-consuming, unpredictable and generally unsatisfying outcomes that all-too-often arise through the conventional judicial system, many companies have been turning in recent years to Alternative Dispute Resolution. In fact, this trend has so much momentum and respect that Congress passed the Alternative Dispute Resolution Act and the President signed it into law in October 1998. This legislation mandates that all federal courts must develop and implement ADR programs. I'm not always in support of things our government does, but in this case, I believe strongly that ADR programs and other mediation strategies can help all of us lift the