ARTICLES Archives - Page 309 of 314

Retaining walls are made to do an awesome job: High or low, long or short, upslope or downslope, they’re called on to keep earth movement from wreaking havoc on watershapes or any other ‘permanent’ fixtures installed on hillsides. Keeping these walls from failing, says landscape design/build contractor Bruce Zaretsky, is a matter of good planning, design and engineering – much easier said than done, as he explains in this feature on making them work.

The Making of a Great Wall

Retaining walls are used for one simple reason: to hold something back. Whether you need to terrace down to a lower yard, hold up a house on a hillside lot or provide a level area for watershape installation, these walls are indispensable when you lack the room needed to grade a sloped area gradually. Of course, this notion of holding back the forces of ground movement is no small challenge, and proper engineering and construction are critical. Do the job well, and a retaining wall will hold up indefinitely. But if you cut corners or

Interactive waterfeatures are hot these days. Hotel chains, resorts, theme parks and even municipalities have jumped on what Jeff Horvath describes as an ‘interactive bandwagon’ to kick up interest among locals and tourists alike. It’s a simple formula: By attracting children and their families with a combination of design appeal, flexibility and fun, these innovative watershapes boost traffic – and revenues.

Dancing Waters

In conceptual terms, interactive fountains are really nothing new. In fact, fountains have featured water effects and sequencing lights since the turn of the 20th Century. What's emerged lately is a perception that these "dancing" waters are great sources of fun - a means for children to get soaked and for adults to stay dry and enjoy the show. This resurgence of interest has led designers and manufacturers to apply the knowledge and mechanics of the past in creating effects that delight the eye, capture the imagination and bring fun to

The project was massive: Four sets of spectacular model homes for a gated community set in the rolling hills above Newport Beach, Calif. – designed by three different landscape architects and each featuring its own creative use of water. By the time he left the site, says pool builder Kent Hart, he had installed more than 20 vessels of various types, shapes and sizes at the One Ford Road development – and found unique challenges in executing the architects’ divergent visions.

Making Models Super

Not every upscale pool contractor has to be working with his or her own designs to be successful in building beautiful pools. Our company, for instance, has established its reputation by excelling at making the ideas of others come to life. Examples of this can be found in the work we did at One Ford Road, a development where we were asked to follow through on designs prepared by three of Southern California's best-known landscape architects. We've found here and elsewhere that when you work with highly creative people (including those who designed the pools, spas and waterfeatures pictured on these pages), the process can be truly rewarding, exciting and even

Well Grounded

Last month we covered the "hows" of grounding pretty well. Using the definitions from the National Electrical Code (NEC) for guidance, we saw that in order to be considered effectively grounded, the non-current-carrying metal parts of all equipment associated with a watershape must be connected to the system grounding bus at the electrical service panel. This is accomplished by installing a green-colored (or green with a yellow stripe), minimum No. 12 AWG insulated copper conductor between the equipment's grounding terminal and the system grounding bus. This conductor is

A Tropical Oasis

When we think of water, much of the time we think of a tropical scene - Hawaii, the Caribbean or some other exotic island somewhere - a place we'd all like to go. Why not create that "somewhere else" in your clients' backyards? They'll thank you for all the money you'll save them on that cruise that probably would have been less than perfect anyway. And this tropical scene will be one they can enjoy not only this week, but for as long as they want. Imagine palm trees swaying in the wind, the sweet smell of

The Wonder of Moving Water

Throughout my entire working life, I've never moved too far away from the water. From my early days as a pool manager (beach bum) at a resort hotel in Miami Beach through many years in pool service and still today, I've always worked and played in and around water. Whatever it is about bodies of water that infects people's spirits and pushes their internal fun buttons, I have it bad: I love to sail, fish and snorkel, I like living near bodies of water and I just love to look at water. On top of all that, I'm a Pisces. If there's one thing I find that I tend to have in common with my customers, it's this passion for things aquatic and the pleasures that come along with them. This is powerful stuff, and I've come to believe that our innate fascination rises to an even higher level of drama and interest when

The Future is Now

In the year since we launched this "new magazine for a new era," many of you have called or written to tell us that you like what we're doing and that you share the magazine's fundamental vision: that the future of

As a design concept, Japanese gardens know no cultural or geographic borders: Elements of this style of garden design have been exported throughout the world to shape exterior spaces of all sorts in both public and private settings. Here, gardening and landscape design expert Elizabeth Navas Finley discusses the underlying principles of Japanese gardens, defining ways in which this simple approach to designing spaces can be put to use across a spectrum of applications.

Back to the Garden

The gardening impulse of the Japanese is truly ancient. In times before recorded history, sacred outdoor spaces around Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples were arranged according to this design vision. And through more than 1,000 years of recorded history, gardens have been created and refined by priests, warriors and emperors alike in spaces both public and private. The style isn't original in the strictest sense: In many ways, the gardens of Japan find their sources in Chinese gardening styles and landscape painting. But the Japanese developed and refined their borrowings to fit their own national taste for subtle naturalism and elegant rusticity. The result is an amazingly coherent and distinctive landscaping style that now can be experienced at hundreds of public gardens in Japan. The nice thing today is that you don't have to live in Tokyo to appreciate Japanese gardens - or to incorprate their principles into your designs. In fact, garden designers around the world now use the obvious elements of Japanese gardens - the stone lanterns, gravel and clipped azaleas - in naturalistic and asymmetrical settings of all shapes and sizes. In some cases, the total look of the garden is Japanese; in others, its principles are used to

A Good Grounding

Through the years, the #1 question asked of me at seminars and trade shows has been: "What's the difference between bonding and grounding?" I have wanted to do an answering article far some time, but I was concerned that its length would require it to be split into two pieces and that the every-other-month format of WaterShapes might make it difficult to maintain continuity of thought over a two-month span. I was pleased when our editor informed me that we would be going monthly for a while. I figured I'd strike now, while the fingers are nimble and the magazine issues more

Insights at the Kitchen Table

You're sitting at your clients' kitchen table, putting the finishing touches on their backyard pool/spa plan and getting ready to have them sign a contract. Then they say, "We really appreciate that you listened to what we wanted. That salesperson from the other company kept telling us what kind of pool he thought we should have. He just wouldn't listen. "Well, that's why we chose you to build our pool." And you think, how could he have been so blind? What was he thinking? Doesn't he see that his approach drives customers away? The lesson to be learned from this story is simple. It's taught in all the business schools, at countless seminars and innumerable conferences, and it boils down to one big