Finding Ways

Looking beyond standard modes of operation is nothing new for watershapers: It’s how many of us grow professionally.

In my case, for example, I’ve moved in a variety of different directions in my career, and I’ve found that each of these endeavors has added substance and insight to both my business and professional acumen. Some experiences are more valuable than others, of course, but I’ve always found something positive and a few times have watched my business transform and grow before my eyes.

Looking back, it’s been quite a journey. I began my career more than 20 years ago with a degree in landscape architecture. I proceeded to become a licensed professional, but then I took the unusual step of getting another license as a landscape contractor then another as a pool builder, with each step expanding my opportunities and horizons.

But even that was not enough. I also felt that teaching was important, and I wanted to write as well. Both offered me avenues for communicating with colleagues and like-minded professionals and positioned me to help myself and others profit by our exchanges. Capping it all off, I’ve recently become a part-time inventor and a participant in the development and distribution of some exceptional products.

It all keeps me very busy – and remarkably engaged by what I do for a living.

EYE TO EYE

Along this 20-year path, I’ve collaborated and partnered with lots of other professionals and have almost always found that two heads are better than one. When a working relationship takes off and I come to share a vision with someone else, I find that our differences – in thought processes, skill sets and overall approaches to problem-solving – become significant assets rather than obstacles.

Through the years, I’ve been lucky enough to capture lightning in a bottle on more than one occasion, working with and playing off a spectrum of diverse minds in fun and productive ways.

One current collaboration flowed from exchanges I had with a student in one of my Genesis 3 “History of Water in Architecture” classes. For those who aren’t familiar with them, these are intense, 20-hour short courses in art and architecture history that throw small groups of professionals into close contact for three days. Along the way, many of the students develop strong working relationships they carry beyond the classroom into their business and personal lives.

The instance I’m about to describe was and is exceptional.

A few years back, Ray Morrow was the source of an endless stream of questions in my classroom – reminiscent of the Horshack character from the old Welcome Back, Kotter television show. I learn from and therefore love questions, and Ray was absolutely full of them. (He also explained at great length how he should work by himself because he was no good in groups, but I let him know he wouldn’t get a passing grade otherwise, so he gave in and joined a team.)

His loner spirit struck a chord with me and we became friends – professional birds of a feather. It wasn’t too long before we came together again and started discussing ways we could collaborate and help each other professionally. It took some doing, but we eventually found an opening and went for it.

What was unusual in all of this is that, by training and experience, Morrow was no ordinary watershaper. Instead, his background was in haute couture, vintage menswear and antique jewelry, and it was interesting to see how his history expressed itself in his landscape designs: There’s an ornamental quality that looks very much as though it extends from the worlds of textiles, vintage clothing and quality jewelry, and I must say he’s been tremendously successful in transferring design principles from one field to another.

Moreover, he has an outsider’s perspective when it comes to the ways he brings his clients together with exterior environments. In his case, it strikes me that he has something of an advantage over most of us in that, lacking in formal landscape education, he works from a set of design principles rather than from the constraints of self-imposed design rules.

His projects look vaguely classical and somewhat ornate, but I can’t pin them down to any design school or period. It’s clear that he bases his work instead on his own aesthetic sense – and that in his case it clearly works.

BEAUTIFUL DREAMS

Morrow and I finally started working together, and after a brief period in which we collaborated on a few projects I began to learn all about his extreme knack for designing and fabricating beautiful fixtures he’d work into his landscapes, including various gates, lighting fixtures and waterfeature spouts.

He started from the same place lots of talented, innovative, inventive watershapers do – that is, by being completely dissatisfied with the look of products generally available in the marketplace. But where most of us hold our noses and compromise, Morrow’s past experience gave him the fabrication skills he needed to do something about the situation. And often his solutions were gem-like and, in a word, brilliant.

I was immediately impressed by what I saw of Ray Morrow’s landscape features, including a variety of distinctive lighting fixtures he’d tailored to the very specific desires of his clients and the looks and needs of the projects for which they’d been fabricated. (All photos by Timothy Dunham, SomeThingsCreative.com)

What triggered his creativity was a fateful trip to a major-chain lighting store, where he was told that the selection of exterior-grade fixtures was static – no upgrades or customizing possible. This upset him to a point where he began making fixtures on his own, working with clients who were willing to pay many thousands of dollars for just one of his fixtures, each was a work of art never to be duplicated. It’s just the thing for clients looking for and willing to foot the bill for something completely unique.

After seeing his portfolio, I recognized immediately that Morrow’s talent should be made available to a broader audience and suggested as much to him. By thinking in terms of production rather than single pieces, I said, he could keep the quality materials, keep his unique finishes and bring the cost within reach of many more clients.

In genuine artiste mode, Morrow was disturbed by the suggestion and saw my idea as an attack on his substantial artistic accomplishments. I persisted just the same, secure in my knowledge that the lighting industry’s selection of landscape fixtures tends to be both unexciting and unimaginative. As I saw it, he could fill a void in the marketplace and truly shake things up in a positive way.

I gradually wore him down: We began to take the discussions about our possible collaboration more seriously and the result was a new company devoted to presenting a variety of unique hardware. And it all extended from my willingness to keep an eye open for unique opportunities and find colleagues who are willing to share a vision.

As expressed above, I see good collaborations as having a possible value far greater than the sum of the parts. The synergies Morrow and I have developed are indeed far more powerful than either of us expected.

Morrow’s creations reflect both his artistic background and his appreciation for the history of watershaping. His energy led me to suggest a collaborative endeavor that fits in perfectly with my career’s trajectory and reflects my ongoing desire to keep broadening my professional horizons.

Was I pushed to this by the current economic climate? Certainly, this has pressed many of us in watershaping businesses to delve into areas that we would have avoided just a few years ago. In fact, I know of many designers and builders who have taken on service routes, started selling chemicals or partnered with other professionals to pick up new revenue streams. It’s a time when lots of us are thinking outside the box – and that’s just what I did in seizing this opportunity to work with a talented colleague.

MASTERING THE FUTURE

My point is simple: I started with a fresh degree in landscape architecture and have now reached the point where the list of my professional pursuits is too long for just one business card or company.

I like not being able to describe what I do in a single word or sentence. Yes, I have lots of irons in the fire and there are elements of chaos in my life, but I see that as strongly positive in an environment where it takes all of whatever skills we have to keep things rolling. As I see it, being engaged in multiple endeavors in multiple industries is a good thing – pathways that lead me in new directions and constantly keep me on my professional toes.

For many years, I’ve written and spoken fondly of the bygone concept of the “Master Builder,” a single individual who sculpts projects on multiple levels. It’s an idea that fell to the wayside early in the last century – basically about the time we started developing big, multi-story buildings and distinctions started growing among architects, engineers, contractors and various artisans who now moved into self-contained professional categories.

Before then, there was a time when whole projects were controlled by one mind – and I’m among those who, in my own career, have tried to recapture that tradition in my own work to whatever extent I can. My pursuits with Ray Morrow have taken me several steps in this direction and follow after numerous other steps I’ve trodden to take control my professional life, broaden my horizons and make my projects and my career uniquely my own.

I believe there’s a need for more of this spirit in the watershaping industry. We need more people who won’t compromise and who will stand up for quality, excellence and service to others. We need fewer people who simply pick things from catalogs and more people who want to be uniquely creative.

It’s all about challenging ourselves, looking for opportunities, forging alliances and finding willing, capable collaborators. And if I find that combination in a guy who used to work with clothing and jewelry, so much the better and more interesting.

Mark Holden is a landscape architect and a landscape and pool contractor specializing in watershapes and their environments. He has been designing and building watershapes for more than two decades, and his firm, Holdenwater of Fullerton, Calif., assists other professionals with their projects. He is also an instructor for the Genesis 3 schools and serves on the faculty at California State Polytechnic University in Pomona. He can be contacted at [email protected].