Professional Watershaping
As a pool designer, my preference is to sit down with prospective clients, listen to what they have to say about a pending project and, working with their ideas, the site and the budget, come up with a program that makes all of us happy and proud. For the most part, that's the way things go for me these days. But I also know that, on certain occasions, it's necessary to go with the flow. In the project covered here, for example, a super-affluent property owner had called on a respected architect to
'As winter draws to a close here in the northeast,' wrote Bruce Zaretsky to start his May 2009 On the Level column, 'we begin preparing in earnest to deal with the inevitable springtime rush. There are contracts to sign, materials to order, plants to grow, schedules to set and hires (if any) to be made. And we do all of this knowing that, once the weather breaks, we want to burst out of the gate like an odds-on favorite at the Kentucky Derby. 'To make this happen,' he continued, 'we
'Here in America, our idea of history goes back only so far,' wrote Stephanie Rose to open her May 2004 Natural Companions column. 'We don't have the "ancient" structures that still set the tone and architectural vocabulary the way they do in Europe, Asia and other places. 'For those who prefer modern or contemporary styles, this lack of history may
Each custom design project is, of course, different from any other. The client may be a known quantity, but the site and the budget won't be and, as professionals, we always end up responding to unique sets of variables with eyes wide open. In the first part of this series, we looked at the disembodied details and components that made up one of these unique design packages. Starting with this part and continuing into the next, we'll examine at what was involved in assembling that particular set of features and, in this article, look specifically at how my collaboration with the client proceeded from initial contact to acceptance of a preliminary design. Obviously, what I'll describe here is
'Over and over at seminars and trade shows, watershapers ask me three distinct but interrelated questions: "How do you get into the high-end market?" and "How do you deal with wealthy customers?" and "How do you handle those kinds of jobs?" 'The short answer to all of them,' began Brian Van Bower in his Aqua Culture column in the April 2004 issue of WaterShapes, ' is that I've set myself up for it and am prepared to
Long known for his advocacy of the power of positive thinking, Brian Van Bower explains why he's also done all he can as a watershaper to get involved, stay involved and become part of social communities that have helped him advance his professional agenda for decades.
'As is true of many business sectors, the architecture, engineering and construction industry . . . has its own language,' noted Dave Peterson to start his March 2009 Currents column, 'and the construction documents generated by those professionals (watershapers very definitely included) are the medium through which everyone communicates. 'The challenge for watershapers is that we've
'Exceptional projects for outstanding clients don't fall off trees: You need to reach these people somehow,' declared Brian Van Bower in his Aqua Culture column for March 2004, 'and make your presence known. 'There are numbers of ways of achieving this contact, and I'd argue that
'Last month,' wrote Brian Van Bower to open his Aqua Culture column in the February 2004 issue of WaterShapes, 'I jumped into the New Year with a discussion of how the trends we face these days are influencing our recent experiences in business, society and life in general. 'All that was intended to set up this column's discussion of where we, as the watershaping industry, might be going in the months and years to come. . . . Rather than get into the aimless game of offering predictions, I'll delve instead into
In recent years, I've witnessed or participated in enjoyable conversations about the fact that pools, spas, fountains and other waterfeatures are now more complex than they've ever been. What I've heard and seen less often, however, is equivalent bantering about the fact that engineering plans for such projects must keep pace if these elaborate watershapes are to perform - as they should - well into the future. In this context of progress and success, it should trouble watershapers that large numbers of builders persist in relying on generic structural plans when it's time to break ground on their projects - even on those that
