Professional Watershaping
As is true of many business sectors, the architecture, engineering and construction industry (commonly and conveniently abbreviated as A/E/C) has its own language – 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 come to the table a bit later than
The availability of new and different materials has been a driving force behind the design revolution that has defined the watershaping industry for the past ten years. One key to that development, observes Kirk Butler of Cactus Stone & Tile, has been the willingness of suppliers to step into more progressive roles as purveyors of unique products that have blown the creative process wide open for watershape designers and builders – and their clients. In our business as a stone and tile supplier, we’ve often heard in the past 35 years that designers and contractors get tired of repetition: They come to us, they say, hoping to find things that inspire them to create projects that are new, unique and exciting. Frankly, we on the supply side are subject to the same sentiment: While we may be intimately familiar with materials our designers and builders have used over and over again and have no objection to working with the tried and true, we’re restless, too, and are always trying to find something new to bring to the table. Whether we’re working with a pool designer, a landscape architect, an interior designer, a home builder or even a homeowner, we believe everyone benefits from access to a wide array of quality products and materials. In our case at Cactus Stone & Tile (Phoenix, Ariz.), this means we literally travel the world to find and procure the widest possible range of hard-surface products, be it stone or tile. We beat the bushes across Europe and Asia and visit the far reaches of South America, dropping in on trade shows and fairs, introducing ourselves at quarries and processing facilities and doing whatever it takes to
Through the past several months, we’ve heard all sorts of voices discussing the current state of economic affairs – including mine in last month’s “Aqua Culture” column, but, more predominantly, those of representatives of the 24-hour-a-day news media. Anyone who isn’t living in a cave is by now aware that we’re caught up in an economic crisis of global proportions and that the consequences may be dire. We’ve heard that line so often and with such fervor, in fact, that it’s
If you’re paying even the slightest bit of attention to the world at large, you’ve probably heard more than you ever wanted to know about current economic conditions. Indeed, everything that has happened in the past year or so with both our national and the global economy has made it hard for some people to think optimistically about the future. These are perilous times, as some say, and in one way or another, I know we’re all being affected by what’s going on. But that doesn’t seem to be the whole story. In fact,
What happens when you take a large group of landscape architecture students and, for a solid week, rigorously school them in the fundamentals of watershaping? You might be surprised: Even though that seems like a short span, my charges took to watershaping like fish to water when I introduced them to the subject this past spring - and the results were both remarkable and inspiring. As their instructor, I witnessed not only their keen interest but also saw ample evidence that they were applying highly refined design processes and quality design productions in their watershape-related coursework. So despite what some skeptics have been telling me for years, you actually can
Several years back, I was in a seminar at the International Pool & Spa Expo when the instructor asked everyone who had an e-mail address to raise a hand. Way back then - it was in the late 1980s or perhaps even the early '90s - using the Internet for communication was a brand-new concept to most people and there were only a few people in the room who lifted an arm. I wasn't one of them, and at that point I had no idea that e-mail and Web sites would ever become such an integral part of my life. At that time, in fact, I didn't think I'd ever need an e-mail address. After all, I
Professionals often seek ways to distinguish themselves in their chosen fields of endeavor. For watershapers and others who work in design- and construction-related disciplines, one prized distinction is consistency when it comes to drawings: It’s something that makes them easier to work with and more valued as collaborators. Indeed, established firms repeatedly use the same drafting conventions, project after project, to a point where their plans become known and well-regarded for being easy to understand – and their projects much easier to
It seems to be a trend: In more and more of the conversations I’ve been having with watershapers, the level of interest in what’s involved in working overseas has really spiked in recent weeks and months. I recall a time several years back when curiosity about overseas work focused on the glamour and excitement of stepping into uncharted territory. Now, however, there’s a certain urgency to the inquiries, and my guess is there are at least three reasons behind it. First, there’s the enduring sense of the prestige and energy that
As watershape designs have become more creative, more competitive and ultimately more valuable to our clients than they once were, it’s natural that we have started paying more attention to protecting our output – what some call our “intellectual property.” This is indeed a large and important issue for many people in our business, virtually to the point where watershapers are now facing the same sorts of concerns that have preoccupied architects and landscape architects for decades. And we’ve caught up with our colleagues at a bad time: With technology being what it is now, the opportunities for
In December 2004, WaterShapes introduced ‘The Platinum Standard,’ a registry of projects that embodies watershaping at its finest. Now, as part of our celebration of the magazine’s 100th Issue, Eric Herman offers ‘The Platinum Standard II,’ a fresh set of 20 projects that have graced the pages of the magazine in the past three-and-a-half years – projects that demonstrate clearly that watershaping has become an art form in its own right. I’ll never forget the day Jim McCloskey suggested starting a magazine on systems that contain and control water. We were walking near his home in Woodland Hills, Calif., when he broached the idea, saying it had come to him as something of an epiphany while
