Pools & Spas
In 2002, only 15 percent of new pools were installed with saltwater chlorine generators. Today, the percentage is much higher, with some industry analysts saying that upwards of two-thirds of all new pools are being built with chlorine generators. Those exact figures may be debatable, but the fact remains that there are now an estimated 1.3 million saltwater pools in the United States. The reasons behind the boom are several, but consumers most consistently say they enjoy the soft, soothing feel of saltwater. They also appreciate the fact that it’s easier on their eyes, nose and skin compared with traditionally sanitized pools – and that they don’t have to store and handle hazardous chemicals, making maintenance both easier and more convenient. For all of the well-deserved popularity of this technology, pool designers and builders need to know
Sometimes watershaping is so much fun that it seems less like a job than a labor of love. That was absolutely the case with the watershape pictured here: I was given free rein to do exactly what I thought was needed in collaboration with great clients and a wonderful project team on a spectacular property. And as if that wasn’t good enough, we ran into virtually no problems along the way, even though we were working in a city sometimes known for setting obstacles in the way of ambitious designs. We at Pure Water Pools (Costa Mesa, Calif.) get involved in numerous custom projects every year, and the work just seems to get more creative, interesting and satisfying as we move along. I’m not willing to say we’ve peaked by any stretch of the imagination, but it feels good to think that this may well be
Striving to avoid anything that might compromise the visual integrity of his projects, Paolo Benedetti is always on the lookout for ways to conceal drain heads, skimmer lids and other undesired intrusions. Here, he takes aim at spaside controls, describing a quick, effective means of removing them from view by hiding them in a niche topped by a lid made from the same material as the coping or decking that surrounds the spa. One of my pet peeves is
The renovation and restoration of historic watershapes and their surroundings is a rather peculiar specialty. After all, such projects don’t come along very often and never amount to enough to be considered a primary business focus. Even so, whenever and wherever they present themselves, those who get involved must always be ready to meet sets of very specific and often unusual challenges. The fact that these sites are historic, for instance, means that they also tend to be old, so they almost invariably come with surprises with respect to how they were originally built, what sort of remodeling and repair work has been done through the years, how they’ve been maintained and, often, the degree to which they’ve suffered from neglect or even abuse. Original plans can be hard to come by, so from the start there’s a need for a good bit of educated guesswork and a fair measure of improvisation. On top of that, you also have to be prepared to deal with members of any number of community organizations and historical societies ( not to mention concerned citizens, donors and benefactors) – all of whom have
There’s no doubt about it: Projects in which watershapers participate from the start in the overall design of a custom residence offer rare opportunities for creative integration that don’t come along very often. That was just the positive situation we encountered here – and the results are among the finest we’ve ever achieved. The project was organized by Lewis Bloom of Bloom Builders (Bethesda, Md.). We at Alpine Pool & Design (Annandale, Va.) have had the privilege of collaborating with him often through the past 20 years and have enjoyed a wonderful working relationship every step of the way. In this case, we were asked to get involved with a spec house he wanted to build on a steeply sloping, heavily wooded lot overlooking the Potomac River as it passes through Bethesda. Heading the design team was a prominent local architect, Robert M. Gurney, who has earned a reputation for beautiful Contemporary approaches to both residential and commercial projects. More to the point, he’s also known for his ability to maximize connections between built spaces and the areas that surround them. Everything seemed to mesh, and we
Through the past few years, a number of my most interesting projects have been all about revising outdoor environments for upscale residential clients, generally with the thought in my mind of integrating exterior and interior spaces. That seems simple enough, but these tasks have frequently been complicated by unusual site features and the fact that what clients want at the outset isn’t exactly what the site seems to require. In a few of these situations, I’ve needed to reset the stage entirely by remodeling significant architectural elements of the house to fuse indoor and outdoor spaces; in others, I’ve had to revise and reconfigure everything on site except the house. As I roll through these various scenarios, the thought I always keep uppermost in mind has to do with making everything seem as though
Delivering the keynote address to the World Aquatic Health Conference in September 2008, Dr. Steven N. Blair asked a simple question: Does swimming reduce your risk of dying? As he stressed then and repeats in detail here, the answer is a resounding yes. Indeed, the findings he offers stand among the most compelling reasons ever offered to promote swimming and other forms of aquatic exercise to the general public. Medical science has long seen exercise as a crucial part of a healthy lifestyle. In fact, there’s an enormous amount of evidence about its health benefits – so much that the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services recently stepped up with its first-ever guidelines for physical activity. Lots of individuals, organizations and other entities have proclaimed the positive outcomes of exercise through the years, but never before had the U.S. government published an official set of guidelines. These government recommendations were largely the result of
Every so often, our company is confronted by the belief among certain design professionals that, as it is used by the pool industry, shotcrete is simply not viable for use as structural concrete in high-profile watershaping projects. The assumption, I’ve learned, is that the pool industry is filled with contractors and specification writers who know little about the material and therefore tend to produce substandard results. I could argue the merits of the case, but let it suffice to say that the upshot of this widespread belief is that institutions and commercial clients hesitate to use shotcrete and instead prefer cast-in-place concrete, which they perceive as having greater quality and reliability in watershape applications. We at Drakeley Swimming Pool Co. (Bethlehem, Conn.) recently encountered exactly that prejudice: A private high school that was in the process of designing and building a state-of-the-art aquatic center and an
From its very first issue, this magazine has made one key point over and over again: Soil conditions determine the way a watershape’s shell is constructed; to achieve success in construction, the approach must be established by a competent engineer and followed on site. Through the years, numerous contributors to the magazine have described the process of placing watershapes on hillsides or dealing with soil conditions that lead to differential settlement. So far, however, relatively little attention has been paid to the challenges of working in locations where
It’s not unusual for watershapers to have their signatures. For some, these noteworthy effects extend from their educations and personal design preferences, while for others, inspiration comes from distinctive qualities found in local landscapes or from tailoring designs to suit the characters of their clients. In our case, we at Hydroscapes (Fountain Hills, Ariz.) pull on all of the above and more in our design work. Through the years, we’ve done a lot of projects associated with Contemporary-style architecture – a specialty, perhaps, but not what we’d call a signature. This work has led us to invest lots of time in studying modern masters including Frank Lloyd Wright and John Lautner – and, as they did, in learning about Japanese garden design and the work of the great Craftsmen architects such as Greene & Greene. Those influences flow neatly together for us because all of those designers embrace simplicity of line and form as well as elegance in the use of colors and materials. It doesn’t hurt that these legacies suit our personal tastes as a husband-and-wife design team – and it helps even more that a majority of our clients these days seem to start with similar ideas in mind: They want
