Pools & Spas
If you use the words “ozone” and “environment” in the same sentence, most people are going to think of the ozone layer and emissions that may be harming it. Most do not think of manmade ozone and how this remarkable compound yields
When these clients decided that they wanted to have a swimming pool, they knew above all else that they did not want another box of blue water. By contrast, as avid patrons of Disney World, the Princeton, N.J., homeowners had decided that their pool should be what they called “Disney natural” – not as completely naturalistic as a real pond, but natural enough so that they and their children could suspend disbelief and pretend that they were swimming in a pond. Before we came on the scene, the clients had
Through the past two years, a handful of voices in this magazine and elsewhere have called for building pools without drains as a means of virtually eliminating suction-entrapment incidents. The response to this suggestion has been strong, both for and against. In sifting through some of these discussions – including a key interview with Dr. William N. Rowley that appeared online last fall on the WaterShapes Web site – one item caught my eye: It came from a watershaper who clearly didn’t have
‘ As familiar as it may seem, plaster is far more complicated than most people think. As a consequence of that complexity, it has for years been the subject of discussion, controversy and a great volume of research and analysis. All of that has been dedicated to reaching
As I mentioned in an article in the last edition of this newsletter (November 3, 2010), many people misunderstand the relationship between electrical grounding and electrical bonding. Let’s pick up the discussion where we left off. Although grounding and bonding are closely related, they do serve separate purposes — both of which work together to increase
Automation of some kind is standard with most swimming pool projects these days. Almost every project my company does, for instance, now includes an Aqualink system from Jandy (Vista, Calif.) or something similar. These systems feature a panel in the equipment area that controls
Do you really know the difference between grounding and bonding? If you do, great. But the truth is that most people — including lots of construction-oriented watershapers who should know better — do not understand this fundamental distinction, which is why this
There’s no denying the difficulty of building a high-quality inground pool, but the welcome fact is that the earth can conceal a range of little imperfections, from small leaks to minor structural defects. When you build a pool or some other watershape above grade as an integral component of a multi-story building, however, everything you do is magnified because the work is always exposed. Essentially, you lose the margin for error that might be possible with an inground installation. This past spring, work was completed on two high-rise watershapes our firm engineered as part of L.A. Live, a multi-purpose, entertainment-oriented complex situated near the Staples Center and the Los Angeles Convention Center in downtown Los Angeles. The pool/spa combinations were placed on the fourth and twenty-sixth floors, and although they have simple rectangular forms, they represent the absolute
Among the most gratifying of all projects are those in which designers are able to forge links between different areas of a property, creating an unfolding, choreographed experience that generates notes of anticipation along with reassuring sensations of comfort and familiarity. In our work at Root Design Company (Austin, Texas), we’ve found that water is a powerful tool in defining those sorts of connections within a property, whether it is used in bold ways, as with fountains or swimming pools, or as subtler secondary or tertiary elements, including runnels or small waterspouts. In the project depicted here, we used multiple watershapes within architectural spaces that organize those settings and bring motion and continuity to the overall space. It all ties together visually, with each path leading to intriguing destinations that serve as rewarding visual experiences for anyone who visits. As we see it, the key ingredient in this project was our client, who understood
The following is the text, somewhat altered for this audience, of a letter I’ve sent a number of health departments in the course of working on projects for our clients. There is no doubt that the recent wave of legislation, codes and standards regarding suction entrapment has caused confusion – not just in the pool and spa industry, but also among lawmakers, inspectors and contractors as well as pool and spa owners. These mandates, however well intended, have all too often been confusing or contradictory and frequently reflect neither
