Travelogues & History
It’s speculated that the exterior spaces at Playboy Mansion West must be the most photographed in the world. That’s hard to quantify, of course, but it’s certainly safe to say that since construction began in the 1970s, the home of publisher Hugh Hefner and its famous swimming pool and grotto have been used ceaselessly to promote
Truly a large-scale project full of unique technical challenges in an unusual and important civic setting, the renovation of the watershapes at Jambalaya Park in Gonzalez, La., is easily the most unusual project our firm has ever tackled. The park covers seven beautifully wooded acres in an older section of town that’s mostly residential but sits directly behind
I’ve spent enough time exploring Los Angeles that I’ve found a few underappreciated gems in my time – at least so far as watershaping is concerned. One of them is Suiho En, the “Garden of Water and Fragrance” – otherwise known as “the Japanese Garden next to the water-treatment plant.” It’s an unusual location for such a contemplative space – six-and-a-half acres of
It’s a grand watershape built at a time and place when “grand” was in fashion in so many ways. Ever since 1940, when the Raleigh Hotel and its beautiful swimming pool opened to the public for the first time, the establishment has made a statement about the sun-drenched glory of a prime South Florida location as well as the glamour of an era gone by. Designed and built by renowned architect L. Murray Dixon, the hotel and pool are located in South Beach, Miami’s famed Art Deco district. The pool’s curvaceous shape and modern styling reflected the hotel’s architecture and the aspirations
When the weather cooperates, Seattle is a breathtaking place. I particularly enjoy approaching the city from the water: The skyline is backed by tall mountains and offers lessons in scale, proportion and visual integrity you just don’t get from a typical cityscape. My very first visit to Seattle, however, took place long before I had
It’s not a story I tell very often, but my wife and I spent our honeymoon not in Hawaii, not in Paris, not even at Niagara Falls. No, instead we went to Pittsburgh. We’d scheduled our wedding for August dates without consulting my eastern relations, the principle among them my Aunt Genevieve, my own family’s matriarch and in all ways a formidable woman. As it turned out, she’d scheduled
When I drove to downtown Los Angeles a few months ago to take photographs of Ricardo Legorreta’s glorious purple aqueduct in Pershing Square, I parked a few blocks away in a lot near the civic center. It was a gorgeous day, so I decided to linger a while and take in Grand Park – a large, new green space stretching between
I first visited New York City back in 1978, stopping to visit my sister (who lived there at the time) when I was on my way to Europe for a grand backpacking adventure. I had just a few days to look around, and she ran me ragged through museums and stores and up and down the Empire State Building. One hectic afternoon, we stopped by Rockefeller Center, where I was transfixed by
I lived about 20 miles from the heart of downtown Los Angeles when I was growing up, but it was a place I visited only rarely. I recall a school field trip to historic Olvera Street, and my father once took me to his office in a downtown
I’ve had the good fortune to visit Barcelona twice in my lifetime – once in 1977, when I was 22 and about three months into half a year’s traveling all over Europe; and again in 1994, when I was there for a European pool show as editor of Pool & Spa News. On both occasions, I was in the city for six days – but the two adventures could not have been more
