Travelogues & History

Desert Dazzle
Marilyn Monroe’s legacy has a new home in a plaza directly adjacent the recently dedicated Downtown Park in Palm Springs, Calif. It’s a beautiful park with an ingenious design that blends modernism of the fabled resort city, while harmonizing with the desert environment. It also features a truly beautiful and inventive watershape.   ...
The Beauty of Paseo Santa Lucia
Mexico’s equivalent of the San Antonio Riverwalk is known as Paseo Santa Lucia in the city of Monterrey, a place replete with fountains, public art, businesses, apartments and beautiful spaces that attract thousands. Watershaper JC Escudero reports it’s a place well worth visiting, and appreciating from both an aesthetic and technical perspective. ...
Extravagant Depths
A place known for breaking records, Dubai in the U.A.E now boasts the world’s deepest pool. Deep Dive Dubai recently opened its doors providing adventure seekers with an aquatic experience that is unlike any other, one that includes an underwater city and a host of innovative features and amenities. ...
The Uncommon Garden
For more than two decades, watershape designer and builder Ryan Oakes has leant his talents to the ongoing creation of a place known as “The Uncommon Garden” located in Chapel Hill, N.C. Here he takes us on walk through the history of a space so unique, whimsical and imaginative that it defies convenient description – and, yes, it does feature dragons.   ...
Highly Transpicuous
Pools are hitting new heights, literally. In recent weeks, two record-breaking pools opened in Dubai and London, quickly becoming media sensations, both for their daring designs and decidedly elevated locations. ...
Why ‘No’ Mosquitos at Disney World?
Despite being located in Florida swampland, there are few to no mosquitos at Disney World? The reason behind that notable lack of airborne bloodsuckers stands as one of Disney’s many great, yet little known, technical achievements and (spoiler alert) the solutions are mostly based on how the movement of water is engineered and managed throughout the enormous and decidedly soggy property. ...
Stepping into History
On February 17, Watershape University presented a special on-location edition of its Wolfpack Webinar Wednesdays. Hosted by Dave Peterson, the program took a deep dive into a massive natural swimming pool project currently being installed in one of Southern California’s most historic private residences. ...
Concrete Contemporary
Concrete is amazing material. Its presence in the modern architectural landscape is so widespread and diverse, it can be easy to miss the masterful way it's been used both as a structural and aesthetic element. Here's an example of both, a modern classic Eric Herman discovered near his home in the California desert.
The Eternal Joy of Water
In this delightful and insightful essay, Anthony Archer Wills takes us on a far-flung journey into bathing traditions and the use of water in fine art. A pursuit, he explains, that is both exciting and worthwhile because to create with water is to understand its profound influence on our forms of creative expression, emotion and even spirituality. 
Fins of the Father
Unbeknownst to many, one of our nation's Founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin, was arguably also our "founding" swimming enthusiast. Along with helping our nation win its freedom and establish our system of government, Franklin had quite a lot to say about the value of swimming  -- he even invented swim fins.