ARTICLES Archives - Page 51 of 312

Changing Times

Before I headed to New Orleans early in November, I contacted Bill Drakeley and Dave Peterson to see if they were available for dinner on Sunday night before the show opened. They were, and we met in a little bistro near the hotel where they were staying. I wanted more information about their new Watershape University, its relationships with other organizations and its ambitions moving forward. I had no inkling that, within days after the show concluded, they'd suggest

The interview with Alison Terry, Dave Penton and Jimmy Reed that began in our last edition concludes here with their discussion of an amazing spa and the high-wire act they performed to complete it while finishing the renovation of what was once an oddly inadequate backyard.

Safely Elegant

An Interview with Alison Terry, Dave Penton & Jimmy Reed by Jim McCloskey The first time I visited this backyard, the pool was complete and beautiful, but there was one discordant detail: Along the far end was a wooden fence that cut off the view. I was there with tile specialist Jimmy Reed, and this wasn't a feature he mentioned. So, being both polite and sufficiently dazzled by the pool, I didn't bring up the sore thumb. The next time I saw the backyard, I immediately figured out that the fence had been a temporary detail: I was there with pool builder Dave Penton, who at the time was

Designing watershapes in locations where electricity and water are scarce and expensive has taught Shane LeBlanc the value, wherever he's working, of focusing on conservation. A case in point is this project -- one in which the client started out as an efficiency skeptic.

Specific Efficiency

In recent years, I've had the good fortune to tackle a number of watershaping projects in the islands off the coast of eastern North America. From the West Indies to the Caribbean, I've learned in pursuing these projects that fresh water and electricity can be amazingly expensive commodities. These are, of course, settings in which numerous clients want to take advantage of water-on-water views. Trouble is, the vanishing edges that achieve these effects are questionable choices where the energy required to run them is costly; where winds and evaporation

Pools of Light

'If there's ever been such a thing as a match made in heaven, swimming pools and landscape lighting lay a strong claim to that perfection.' That's how Mike Gambino opened his Currents column in November 2009. 'Separately, they take little-used spaces and transform them to all-day hubs of activity and sources of constant beauty. Together, however, the magic

An Unexpected Treat

There have been a few times in life when I've turned a corner and gasped. Coming through the long tunnel into Yosemite Valley for the first time and seeing Bridal Veil Falls, Half Dome and El Capitan all at once did it for me. Seeing the Fountains at Bellagio for the very first time did it, too. Beyond that rare sort of experience, however, I've been pretty unflappable. Just a few weeks ago, however, gasping erupted again as I made my way through

Feeling Right at Home

'My daughter and I just returned from our annual trip to visit family in Connecticut and used the occasion this time to travel all over the northeast,' wrote Stephanie Rose in opening her Natural Companions column for November 2004. 'I'm never disappointed by the beauty I find in that part of the country.' 'What I find most beneficial in travel

Faced with a blank slate and a design-oriented, home-builder client, Juliet Wood listened closely and created just the sort of backyard fun zone the homeowner wanted for active children -- not to mention a place to entertain friends, work with clients and find herself some relaxation.

Creative Linkage

It may not happen as often as I'd like, but every once in a while a project comes along unexpectedly and turns out to be just fantastic. In this case, I was referred by a pool builder I didn't know to a home designer/builder I didn't know, either. The pool builder had found me via the Internet after the designer/builder had let him know that she was interested in finding a talented pool designer who could help carry her residential projects to a new level. He'd liked what he'd seen on my web

Brought in on what was originally a simple resurfacing job, Jimmy Reed, Alison Terry and Dave Penton ended up completely reworking this backyard. In Part 1, we look at what it took to convert a sad, old pool into a vibrant, highly textured work of art fully suited to a great setting.

The Magic Carpet

An Interview with Alison Terry, Dave Penton & Jimmy Reed by Jim McCloskey The project under discussion here is one I've followed for several years. I first visited the site with Jimmy Reed, a tile-installation specialist based in Calabasas, Calif., as part of a day-long tour of some of his favorite completed projects as well as a few in progress. At that point, the work on this pool was complete, but nothing substantial had yet been done with the spa, which wasn't even part of our conversation. The second time I saw the backyard was several months later: I was on a similar ride-around with pool contractor

#35: Diving Platform

I've written on several occasions that I'm not a fan of setting my pools up for diving in general and particularly not of equipping them with diving boards: Those planks are difficult to fit into beauty-oriented designs, seem old fashioned and create all sorts of technical, safety-related issues in design and construction that I discuss in detail in the video linked below. To me, it's more than enough to put diving boards in the doghouse. But many people, including some of my

Seats at the Table

In uploading this set of newsletter articles to the WaterShapes database, I was struck by the fact that two of them involve large measures of cross-disciplinary collaboration - in one case between a designer and two skilled contractors, in the other between a pool designer, a home designer and a skilled contractor. As I've spent time these past few weeks thinking about what's happened in the