Bidding on Value

I’d like to bring up an old observation of mine: In looking at the high-end watershapes that win awards or achieve some sort of public acclaim, it seems to me that the designs are increasingly coming from outside the mainstream pool and spa industry.

This is just a strong impression, and I don’t have any statistics to back up my case. But when I look around me and see who’s doing the most celebrated work, I find that the designs have been done by architects, landscape architects and even engineers rather than pool builders.

And I’m talking about high-end pools, the kind that make real statements about the nature and craft of watershaping. That end of the business seems to be flowing away from pool builders and toward creative forces in other sectors.

I’m not trying to be divisive here. I know I write for a magazine that’s trying to break down barriers between all watershapers rather than maintain them. But as a professional with deep roots in the traditional pool/spa industry, I must ask the question: Why is it that so many professionals from other branches of the contracting and construction industry are garnering so much of the watershaping work, credit and (presumably) revenue?

DOWN TO DOLLARS

As I weigh that question in my own mind, I find myself reaching only one conclusion: Watershapers from the rank-and-file pool industry are continuing to undervalue their own products – and often do so at the expense of good design. As a result, people who probably don’t know as much as they should about the nuts and bolts of pool construction are stepping in and filling the void.

The interesting thing is that this is all about money – but not in the way most people usually think.

For all of our high-minded discussions of design, integration with the environment and raising the bar in recent years, the “bottom line” is often the bottom line. The hard fact is there’s a strong correlation between professionals who charge an adequate amount of money for their work and those who find themselves in a position to extend the state of the art with respect to creativity and excellence.

Ironically, this broad undervaluing of design work on the part of many low-end and mid-range pool builders comes from a myopic concentration on costs. This really bothers me: In thinking mainly in terms of cost, mark-up and margin, the pool/spa industry has for years doomed itself to the “make a nickel on a buck” mentality.

This results all too often in under-priced bids and a lackluster design sensibility – and leaves the door wide open for creative people in related trades to sweep in and fill the ever-broadening demand for innovative, expressive watershape designs.

You could drive yourself crazy with a sort of “chicken or egg” discussion about what comes first – good design or adequate compensation for good design. The way I see it, however, that debate is beside the point because the only way to expand clients’ budgets is by expanding their thinking. And the only way to free yourself to expand your creativity and provoke that thinking is to be paid for what you know.

In other words, good design and good pay go hand in hand, no matter which comes first.

The pool-builder side of the watershaping industry seems to be moving in the right direction, but the pace of change has been glacial. In fact, if I were to offer a “state of the industry” assessment, I’d say that the ship has been righted, the sails have been repaired, a steady hand is on the tiller and the wind’s blowing in the proper direction – but we still have a long journey in front of us.

ARCHITECTS OF CHANGE

How we react to the fact that architects and other designers are exploring the watershaping realm with greater frequency than ever before is crucial.

Some may be tempted to fear this competition because it comes from people with all sorts of degrees and credentials. A better way to view the increased involvement of high-end, credentialed designers is to accept it as evidence of the power and value of stretching and reaching for greater levels of design artistry and engineering expertise within the watershaping industry – and then to make a personal commitment to keep pace with the trend.
Using my own work to illustrate that second path, let me start by saying I’ve seen a huge increase in inquiries and requests for designs from architects and landscape architects. As I’ve pushed myself to elevate the value of what I do (and the dollars I require), I’ve sensed increasing acceptance on the part of architects. In fact, many have granted me a place at the partnering table and have become valued allies rather than intrusive competitors.

Lately, for instance, I’ve been collaborating a lot with a highly regarded South Florida architect. He has no shortage of ego: In the early stages of our working relationship, he actually went so far as to tell me not to talk directly with his clients. He didn’t know me that well and obviously did not trust me to speak to his clients “in an appropriate fashion.”

Rather than let that bother me (too much, anyway), I decided to let my work and my knowledge of architecture and design do the talking. Eventually, we had a couple of key personal breakthroughs in our relationship (one involving some good food and wine) to the point where he now trusts me implicitly and even sells my involvement as a benefit to his clientele.

It took a while, but he’s gone from wanting to hide me to selling the fact that he has ready access to a top-notch watershaper.

INSIDE THE LEARNING CURVE

There’s another side to this story. I’m at the point in my career where I’ve now shifted toward the design side and tackle more consulting roles – and now find myself on the inside track on many high-end jobs. This has placed me in a very interesting position when it comes to assessing what happens when a price-minded pool builder steps up to the plate in the big leagues.

Not long ago, I designed a high-end custom project for a waterfront property in an area just north of Boca Raton. This was killer stuff: a 10-by-90-foot fountain out front with a 360-degree perimeter overflow and adorned with statues and custom lighting (and that was just the entry!) as well as a 100-foot pool overlooking the ocean. The pool has a unique center-shallow design, and the adjoining perimeter-overflow spa is finished completely in tile. Surrounding the pool are several platforms with great landscaping and statuary, and the topper is a spectacular fountain with 42 separate jets (each with an individual fiberoptic light) right on the waterfront.

After completing the design, I was asked along with several other pool contractors to submit a construction bid. Mine came in at $360,000, and I was pleased to see that some of the bids were in the same ballpark. (It’s good to know that there are people out there who understand what’s involved in these kinds of projects and have the courage to bid accordingly.)

Because I was a consultant on the project, I was privy to the bids as they came in – and was shocked by what I saw in a couple of the other bids: The bidders just didn’t have a clue. The contractor who got the nod came in a good $100,000 below my bid – and he wasn’t the low bidder!

Even for the wealthiest of clients, it seems that a six-figure savings is a hard thing to pass by – even though I urged the general contractor to go with a more experienced builder. Having designed the job, I knew for a cold fact that there was no way the job could be done for $260,000 or even $300,000 – and I was right.

The winning bidder now concedes that he didn’t know what he was getting himself into and certainly will lose money on the job.

In all fairness, what this contractor is going through is not entirely a bad thing – although even the best education isn’t worth going broke. Still, as I just mentioned, he learned a valuable lesson about bidding. He also gained the experience of working at a very high level – an investment of time and effort that will probably come back to him several fold in the future.

BREAKING NEW GROUND

As I see it, this well-meaning contractor fell victim to a limited view of the work and the value to be placed on it. That’s what it’s all about: There is real value in stretching what you do and placing yourself in new situations.

I remember, for instance, the first time I ever showed one of my drawings to a client. I was nervous, and for good reason: I was asking to be paid for doing something that was fairly new to me. Still, that kind of pressure forced me to extend my reach and to grasp for increased levels of performance.

I continue to find myself in situations even today where I get those quivering feelings, situations where the outcome is somewhat uncertain. For several months, for example, I’ve been involved in an extremely high-end residential project – even grander than the one I just described. I was brought in by an architect who had done what so many architects do in planning watershapes – he’d drawn a blue smudge on a site plan.

When I took a closer look, I really didn’t like what I saw either with respect to the design or the engineering. For starters, the trough on the vanishing edge was grossly undersized. I spoke my mind and was asked by the architect to step and rework the design in a way that I thought reflected the client’s desires – and would work properly once installed.

When I sat down at the fateful team meeting to tell everyone what I thought, I was really keyed up. I knew that the changes I would be suggesting would affect other parts of the program – the width of a beautiful waterfront walkway and several other structures. Fortunately, because I was a member of the design team, my opinion was greeted with respect and open minds.

ILLUMINATING STEPS

I was on safe technical ground in this case, but there was another part of the project that pulled me into an area where I really didn’t have much business rendering an opinion. Among other things, the job includes three spectacular waterfeatures that include wet walls: Water flows down across beautiful stone into a trough and then flows through glass walls into other troughs.

As work has moved forward on these three features, the architect has involved me in discussions of their lighting design, and I found myself hearing terms such as foot candles and lumens that were only vaguely familiar. This portion of the job is going on right now, and the current plan is to install 43 75-watt quartz-halogen lights – something like $21,000 in lighting for three 20-foot waterfeatures.

It’s all fascinating and spectacular stuff, but the bottom line is that I don’t know much about any of it. So I contacted designers I knew at Crystal Fountains in Canada who do know about these things and picked their brains. They’ve been a tremendous help – and the experience has encouraged me to do everything I can to develop my technical knowledge in this area.

I know that the next time I get involved in discussions about lighting schemes, I’ll damn well be better prepared to participate in the discussion.

The kind of experience and learning that goes on when you’re involved in high-end projects like this is not something that can be quantified and marked up. Rather, it’s all part of the rich experience that comes when you put yourself in positions that cause you to stretch your knowledge and your abilities.

Before you can get to a place where you’re comfortable with challenging and (at times) uncertain situations, you’ve got to free yourself from the notion that everything you sell is to be marked up by a certain percentage. Truth is, on many jobs where the watershape is considered an integral part of the environment (as opposed to a freestanding clump of concrete, steel and plumbing), it can be almost impossible to know exactly what kind of margin you’re earning.

This brings us full circle to the overall concern about value and pricing: When you charge fees based on what you know rather than quantities of material, equipment and labor spent installing something, then you will be earning enough money so that you don’t have to account for every nickel and dime.

And the thing is that all of this applies not just at the high end, but also to midrange projects, where budgets are important to everyday working folk. Creative design principles can be applied across a wide range of projects, whether you’re building $40,000 pools or $400,000 paradises. Your creativity and expertise add value to the work, and that translates directly into dollars no matter the economic profile of your clientele.

In other words, charge what you’re worth. You’ll improve your bottom line, and you’ll also enhance your status as a design/construction professional.

Brian Van Bower runs Aquatic Consultants, a design firm based in Miami, Fla., and is a co-founder of the Genesis 3 Design Group; dedicated to top-of-the-line performance in aquatic design and construction, this organization conducts schools for like-minded pool designers and builders. He can be reached at [email protected].