ARTICLES Archives - Page 90 of 312

A Timely Proposition

I grinned from ear to ear a couple weeks ago while reading a press release from the National Swimming Pool Foundation. It was about a request for proposals to create a "Learn-to-Swim Index" - a system designed to track how many people are completing formal swimming lessons in the United States - and I'm still smiling today. What NSPF is after, I believe, is

When a client approaches a designer with something specific in mind, working out project parameters can be a challenge. But in this case, writes Steve Sandalis, the homeowner offered guidance for a backyard pond that was more than welcomed -- and inspired indeed.

Lofty Inspiration

With some watershaping projects, homeowners enter the process with a very specific vision in mind. This can, of course, be problematic if their thinking doesn't align with the character of the site or the extent of the available budget. With this project, however, the clients' deep-seated desires were never an issue. In fact, the space the clients envisioned had a source of inspiration so sublime - and the property was so well suited to the desired look - that there was no reason even to question how things would turn out. The clients live in a large home in San Marino, Calif., just a couple blocks away from

Faced by a firm deadline and the realities of over-winter construction in Canada, Barry Justus knew he had little time to spare -- and a whole lot to accomplish in a few short months if he was to have any hope of completing a grand-scale project in time for a springtime party.

Against the Clock

Living and working on a part of the globe where the winters are severe is almost balanced by how hospitable the weather generally can be for the rest of the year. That, of course, is something we count on as watershapers in the Canadian marketplace: The joy of leaving winter weather behind is something our clients fully appreciate, so much so that they're willing to go the distance with

#24: Rain Curtain

This is one of those cases where, from a design perspective, I said just about everything I wanted to say about rain-curtain effects in the video linked below. They look great, they sound even better and my clients love them. So what else is there to consider? Well,

Hearing Voices

'In all of the discussions in print and in seminar rooms about advancing the watershaping trades,' declared Brian Van Bower in opening his Aqua Culture column in WaterShapes' July 2006 issue, 'it seems to me there's been a missing voice - that of the client. 'We spend lots of time dissecting, praising, disputing, criticizing and encouraging one another, but somehow we seem to have bypassed the thought that

The Power of a Pool

Through the past couple years, I've followed with great and growing interest a collection of news items about international efforts to bring safe, spacious swimming facilities to urban waterways. If memory serves, the first stories I noticed were about the Flussbad ("river pool"), a proposal to transform a section of a canal into a

Urban Bliss

I recently spent several weeks in Kirkland, Wash., doing what I could to help my daughter and her family prepare for the arrival of our grandson-to-be. One of our outings on a sunny Sunday was to a playground in nearby Bellevue, a place where the cityscape is

Meeting Minds

'What if you were so bad at your job that a person in a related field decided, for the good of his own business, he had to learn your business and replace you rather than cope with your incompetence?' That's how Brian Van Bower eased his way into his Aqua Culture column in the May/June 2011 issue of WaterShapes. 'Most people,' he continued, 'would say that this would be a justified response to the fact that you

Oxygen Rescues

In a well-balanced pond, the oxygen content of the water is seldom an issue. But if things move off course, notes Mike Gannon, it's essential to find the cause -- and then apply one of three possible remedies tailored to the urgency of the need and the extent of the budget.

A Personal First

As I noted a couple weeks back, my to-do list of household projects has long included installation of a small fountain. In the place I had always intended to put it, I figured that the watershape would be visible from the redwood deck where we do most of our warm-weather entertaining; from the stone deck where we