ARTICLES Archives - Page 45 of 315

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

When you work high above the ground, you have to see things from different angles, say high-rise specialists Mark and Zachary Trapani. The rigors and complexity of working with elevated watershape installations requires careful investigation and problem solving at every turn.

Rising High: Part 1

Working on high-rise installations is a specialty that can test even the best in our industry. Rooftop pools are a constant challenge and every project comes with its own list of idiosyncrasies. Odds are what works in one location won't in another. It's work that requires solving problems with close investigation and inventive thinking. We've worked on hundreds of rooftop pools and spas; the vast majority have been in New York City where we're either figuring out what went wrong with an existing watershape or determining how to locate a new vessel in an existing building. In either situation, our goal is to provide a

A Perfect Coda

The conclusion of the pond installation process offers moments to create lasting client impressions. As Dave Garton points in this final entry in his series on client relations, it's a critical juncture where all of the physical work and management of expectations come together.

Bad Exposures

Tying form boards to structural steel is a huge mistake, says Paolo Benedetti: There's no standard or rationale that supports the practice, and as he notes here, that's simply because doing so conjures a host of problems and can result in structurally incompetent walls and shells.

Conservation Works

Looking at water resource issues it's easy to despair. Starting with the fact that over a billion people experience some level of water scarcity is obscure to those of us who have lived our entire lives without having to even consider the availability of water beyond

Charging for Design

Charging a fee for design work is one of the foundations of true professionalism across multiple disciplines. That's why Michael W. Nantz won't give away his watershape ideas, partly because it's a solid revenue stream, but also because it builds up a base of pride and self-esteem.