Pools & Spas
Lots of pools built in the 1960s and '70s and even through the '80s were surrounded by ribbons of concrete decking of uniform width, all the way around. Frequently, those decks were too narrow to make them of much use for more than walking around the pool: lounge chairs are too long to be set up facing the water, and a poolside table and chairs cover far too much ground to be included. The solution that runs through the heads of lots of homeowners is simply to
Did you ever have a client who knew exactly what he or she wanted in a project, only to change direction once he or she heard the price? That happened with the poolscape discussed in this article - but with an unusual twist. The homeowner, a prominent South Florida businessperson, had purchased the waterfront property with its existing pool. And he wasn't finished: He also purchased two neighboring homes, flattening one to make way for a sculpture garden and setting up the other as staff housing. When we saw the site for the first time, the main residence was
I've noticed through the years that, from my perspective at least, some of my favorite projects come with the best stories. The poolscape seen here is definitely one of these. The client started things off by purchasing a house in an ultra-high-end neighborhood, then personalized it with all sorts of details, materials and finishes that turned the existing house into an extremely comfortable Country French-style estate. The one element it lacked, he figured, was a nice swimming pool. While he was considering his options, the home next door - one with
One of the important lessons I learned as a young watershaper is that I am not a surveyor. Working on a pool design in the hills south of California's Napa Valley many, many years ago, I found myself on a sloping lot, broke out my line level and figured I could, with some patience and care, map all of the relevant elevations and develop a suitable design based on my observations of the contours. As it turned out, I was
If I've learned anything through the years, it's that a successful, truly satisfying project generally requires a good client and, quite often, a great project team. What the good client was after in the project discussed here was pretty simple - that is, an oval-shaped pool to go along with a large, oval-shaped shade structure another contractor was to install alongside it. Making a fine start, the client called in Skip Phillips of
There are few things in the world of watershaping as dramatic or devastating as a popped pool. On their way up out of the ground, they'll shatter decks and coping, break pipes and conduits and, often, leave cracked shells behind and generally make a terrible mess. They also lead to one big first question from the owner: "So can you make it go back down?" I'm pleased to report that none of the pools I've built has ever risen above its assigned grade, but I live and work in the south, often in areas where
Safety is never far from my mind as I design for my clients, but as important as it is, it's seldom the only thing on my mind as a project comes together. In fact, balancing the need for features we must include for safety's sake with our everyday passion about never compromising on aesthetics is something I consider with every detail. Whether it's the extent to which
When we get involved in backyard projects, it's rare these days that we don't have a fairly high level of creative control: We're the ones who figure out where to place the pool, what shape it should have, how it should be finished and what should surround it with respect to the hardscape and landscaping and even the furnishings. That's why it's a bit funny that this is the second in a pair of projects we've recently published through WaterShapes in which many of the fundamental shots were called by others - in this case by a talented home-construction firm that brought us in after the footprint for the pool and spa had been
It's strange how things can work out with a project. In this instance, we were called in to design the outdoor environment to go with a couple's weekend/vacation home on the water of Grand Lake o' the Cherokees in northeastern Oklahoma. It was a beautiful, inspiring setting, with the home situated at the end of a peninsula that reached out into the lake, and it quickly became a favorite gathering spot for a couple generations of a fun-loving family. We developed the design based on a few parameters offered by the clients as well as the nature of the incredible site and the distinctive
The masters of 20th-century residential architecture have a profound influence on design to this day. From Charles and Henry Greene through to Frank Lloyd Wright and on to John Lautner and many others, these giants of design continue to push modern interpreters on to new levels of excellence in concept, form and execution. Among all of the spectacular houses these architects built, few speak to us with greater energy than Wright's Fallingwater, a spectacular home he designed in 1935 in Mill Run, Pa. Cantilevered over a stream flowing to a dramatic waterfall, the project has inspired envy among generations of architects and homeowners who'd love to capture even a portion of its special magic in another setting. This is a tale about one such attempt, a house built about 20 years ago with
