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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
'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
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
'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
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
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
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
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
The great Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx has been part of my consciousness for many years. I first heard of him in 1991, when a friend who'd seen an exhibition about his work at the Museum of Modern Art in New York gave it a rave review. At the time, however, it was mostly his unusual name that stuck in mind. Then came 2007, when WaterShapes published an article by Raymond Jungles that recounted his experience in working with Burle Marx in Brazil and fully opened my eyes to the
As a matter of habit and long practice, my design process for an outdoor environment begins the moment I arrive on site, starting with an assessment of the property's physical qualities. Indeed, before I let structures, features and visual details start dancing in my head, I focus on grading, drainage and basic spatial relationships. In my experience, this overview of the practicalities will help drive the design - and allow the aesthetic decisions to flow smoothly into view at the appropriate time. In the case of the project that's been under discussion through this string of four articles, for example, my early assessment of
