Pools & Spas
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. In the case of this project, that old truism was right on the mark. From the start, what my clients seemed to want most was to look at every image I could muster and ask questions and make comments about each one. And it worked: Through their words and body language during these sessions, they offered me almost all of the information I had to have to deliver precisely what they wanted. And that was great, because when I
For the past ten years or so, high-end designers and builders have focused extensively on hiding things that disrupt a viewer's visual pleasure or violate the clean lines and sleek surfaces they've lavished on their watershapes. This may be why you see so few diving boards and slides these days. It may also be a contributing factor in the speed
Tireless in his quest for information about and approaches to the creation of toxin-free pools and spas, John Cohen has spent years weighing observations of nature and the human body and figuring out ways to use what he's learned to help people swim in pure, clean, safe water.
Through the years, we've worked on lots of projects in remote locations all around the world, from Sri Lanka to Bermuda. In a few instances, we've worked without any site visits - but our strong preference is to see where we're working: It helps move our process along if we get the lay of the land and have the opportunity to meet with clients or architects or property representatives on site. The reasons for this preference are obvious: We draw ideas from what we see, nail down a sense of scale and proportion and head to the drawing board armed with
For years, John Cohen has dedicated himself to meeting the needs of clients averse to using traditional sanitizers. As he reports in the first in a series of articles, his quest began with a narrow-minded 'expert' and has since pulled him toward a biologically inspired set of solutions.
For more than 50 years, our company has focused on designing and building swimming pools for municipalities, universities, health clubs, state parks, swim clubs, subdivisions, apartments and hospitals - with some residential projects added in for good measure. We're good at what we do, and if we've learned anything through the years, it's that we're successful because we approach each and every project as being
When it happens this way, it's truly special. The clients had seen my work and had been so impressed that they said they didn't want to "sway" me in one direction or another by offering their own design ideas and suggestions. Almost as important, they had the wherewithal to set me loose in pursuit of what I thought should be done throughout the entire space - everything from the watershapes and the outdoor kitchen to the plants and furnishings and small decorative details. As I discovered and they already
Very often these days, we're a pre-selected contractor and get involved in projects early enough that we participate in their development almost from inception. That's great, because it gives us the opportunity to define what needs to happen to make the most of the glass-tile finishes we're frequently asked to install. In this case, however, another contractor had the first shot at the job, which involved extensive work on an unusual vanishing-edge pool as well as an innovative spa and a nice little waterfeature. Long story short, that other company had apparently never
In advancing my career as a watershape designer, I've put major stock in education to give me an edge. I've taken multiple courses in computer-assisted design, for instance, along with all sorts of technical-skills classes to keep me up with what's current in the field. But I've noticed as well that the accumulation of experience is a huge additional asset, mainly because it reflects what I've already tried, survived and learned from - but also because having done some of the things I've tackled through the years gives me
For me and my business in around 2008, this project was a real rite of passage. At that point, pool-construction and shotcrete-application companies like ours were well established and had lineages stretching back to the 1950s. Just the same, we were having a hard time gaining recognition from architects, landscape architects and developers who were pursuing quality, prestige construction. The irony is, my own firm had
