ARTICLES Archives - Page 54 of 314

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

Unable to resist, Jim McCloskey traveled across the country last month to see the New York Botanical Garden's exhibition on the art of Roberto Burle Marx just a few days before it closed. It was a revelation, he says, and gave him an even deeper respect for the artist and the man.

Communing with Roberto

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

Wrapping up a four-part series with a look at a project he's been covering detail by detail, Kurt Kraisinger pulls it all together by unveiling the completed poolscape -- and offering some concluding observations on working with clients while keeping an eye on design integrity.

Shaping an Environment

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

If there's one thing he's learned in completing projects for clients who can afford whatever they want, it's that planning is the key. But before that, notes Ryan Hughes, he needs a design that makes sense, suits the site and gives him every opportunity to pursue both fun and beauty.

Entertaining Possibilities

Some of our favorite projects have gotten us involved with an unusual class of clients. These folks are affluent enough that they travel extensively and own multiple homes in spots around the world - places they'll stay for stretches ranging from a couple weeks to several months each year. When it comes to developing or remodeling new acquisitions, they'll set some basic ground rules and step back, leaving the specifics to a trusted firm or individual who assembles a hand-picked

‘Big Easy’ Bound

I'm almost ready to board a plane for my trip to New Orleans and the 2019 International Pool|Spa|Patio Expo, and I have to say I haven't been this curious about what's going to happen at a trade show for many, many years. Change is definitely in the wind these days - with

The Power in Partnering

'When you work with someone in a cooperative effort to achieve a common goal,' wrote Curt Straub in a trailblazing article in October 1999, 'the odds are greatly reduced that you will wind up one day facing that person in a courtroom. 'The neat thing about this form of cooperation, also known in business circles as partnering, is that it can do much more than keep you off your lawyer's time clock. In fact, partnering is something that all of us in the industry can

It’s Easier Being Green

'Until quite recently,' declared Brian Van Bower in opening his October 2009 Aqua Culture column, 'it was difficult to find too many people in the watershaping industry who were willing to say much about "going green." 'For a while now, I've thought that was a mistake: It's been manifestly clear for several years that practices and programs related to energy conservation, water conservation and an overall sense of environmental responsibility are here to stay, and I always think it's better to

Now familiar with the unusual realities of the huge fountain-renovation project they'd undertaken, J. Wickham Zimmerman and Chris Roy had to figure out how to proceed despite difficult access, limited pipe penetrations and, of course, super-high civic expectations.

Grand Solutions

It's the nature of the game: One of the great sources of pride for any good watershaping business has to do with its ability to find solutions to difficult challenges - a new way to achieve something familiar when the established or conventional approach won't work, for example, or dealing with site constraints that repeatedly send you back to the drawing board. That's the sort of pride we had coming out of our work on the Arthur J. Will Memorial Fountain and its accompanying splash pad at Grand Park in Los Angeles, and it was intensified by the fact that this was the restoration of a 60-year-old fountain that had originally been built with an entirely different approach from anything we'd consider today - but whose physical constraints we couldn't