ARTICLES Archives - Page 44 of 314

While true perfection is an elusive goal, Grant Smith believes in pursuing it by exceeding engineering and construction standards and paying attention to fine aesthetic details. And as he reports here, sometimes he ends up chasing it for clients who like to change their minds.

Patient Perfection

When you target the high-end custom pool market, you have to be prepared to work with clients who like to change things along the way. It can be a real challenge because it causes delays, re-engineering and sometimes removing work you've just installed. More than anything, you have to remain patient, constantly listening and explaining the ramifications of changing things to the client. It helps when you have a good rapport from the start. All of that was true and then some for the project pictured here. It's located in an upscale neighborhood in Sherman Oaks, Calif. The property is about a third of an acre on a relatively flat corner lot completely surrounded by tall fichus hedges for privacy.

Installing a pond for basketball legend Shaquille O'Neal was a personal thrill, notes Greg Wittstock. But even if he and the all-star project team were a little bit starstruck, they stayed focused and approached the work as an expression of aquatic art at the highest level.

The Shaq Pond

It was the kind of opportunity that doesn't come along very often. This past Memorial Day weekend, members of the Aquascape family had the pleasure of installing a sprawling stream and pond system for none other than NBA Hall of Famer and four-time NBA champion, Shaquille O'Neal. A team of Aquascape Inc. employees and "Artists of the Year" came together to create a bucolic 22-by-50-foot ecosystem pond with a 70-foot stream for "the big man" on his sprawling 80-acre Atlanta-area home. Our talented project team collaborated on the installation of the pond with all sorts of input on a variety of our signature details.

Creating swimming pools that go sparingly on energy is a consuming passion for designer/builder Douglas Cook. Here he explains how combining energy-smart solutions, such as solar heating and power generation, can lead to dramatic savings.

Pathways to Efficiency

Creating swimming pools that save on energy costs is a consuming passion for Douglas Cook. As he explains here, he achieves best results with combinations of energy-smart solutions -- often including solar heating and power generation -- that can lead to dramatic savings.

A Cautionary Note

There is no question that watershaping industry is on fire right now. Over the past two-plus months, every single builder I've talked to, without exception, has said that they are busier than they've ever been with a constant stream of homeowners looking to either install a new pool or upgrade an existing one. I've heard the same thing from pool and spa retailers and pond builders. As I previously described in this space, the current surge in

New Talent Comes Aboard

Watershape University is pleased to announce the newest edition to the Wolfpack, Brett Herman, who will join our team effective July 27. Brett is an experienced writer and editor with a long work history in online education as a tutor and academic advisor.

Welcome to WaterShapes' new monthly section, Open Waters, where we explore the variety and creativity of wide world of water with a rotating roster of blogs, travelogues and other discussions of all things aquatic.

Oasis in the Prairie

Editor's Note: Welcome to our new department, Open Waters. It's a space we're dedicating to the variety of the watershaping world. Here you'll find a rotating series of blogs, videos, book and resource reviews, stories about charitable works in the industry, and travelogues including this discussion from Watershape University's Lauren Stack about her recent visit to the Tulsa Botanic Gardens. The property sits on a plateau known as "Persimmon Ridge" -- a 170-acre site likely a gift from a benefactor with roots in

From the Studio

As this strange time keeps on rolling and builders' phones continue to ring off the hook, Watershape University (WU) is serving our audience with our dynamic Wolfpack Webinar Wednesdays series of online educational offerings. When we started down this path, admittedly it was something of an experiment, but now with three months of presentations under our canine belts, we have been thrilled with

Through the past 15 years, golf-course designs have embraced a distinctly minimalist approach. It's a response, writes Ken Alperstein, to the fact that the number of courses being built has shrunk dramatically -- and that attitudes about water use are changing profoundly.

Demise of the Water Hazard

There's no question that watershapes have become scarce on new golf courses. Where owners and designers once tried to one-up each other in terms of elaborate course design, including the expansive use of lakes, ponds, streams and waterfalls, today minimalism is the guiding principle, meaning water is rarely part of the program. There are exceptions, of course, but they are extremely few and far between. As one example, we completed a project back in 2016 that included a 23-million gallon irrigation lake that is also an amenity/hazard. Located at the Scottsdale National Golf Club (SNGC) in Scottsdale, Ariz., it's the only significant

Just a Simple Pool

Moving from Washington State to sunny Palm Springs Calif., was a dramatic transition to say the least. Back in March, my wife and I went from one of the lushest and wettest places in the U.S. to one of the most barren and dry - and one of the hottest.

Remembering an Icon

Pool industry pioneer, Howard Arneson, passed away of natural causes, June 16th in San Rafael, Calif. He was 99. Although many people in today's pool industry may not be old enough to remember Arneson, he is largely credited with changing the industry in the early 1960s by popularizing the