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Recently, much has been written and discussed in our local Los Angeles media - newspapers, magazines, television - about an influx of architectural styles to our area that "just don't fit in" and are generally thought of as being a blight on our collective landscape. This isn't anything new, of course. I recall similar dustups in the 1970s and '80s when the stylistic serenity of old, established neighborhoods was being disrupted by the insertion
Recently, much has been written and discussed in our local Los Angeles media - newspapers, magazines, television - about an influx of architectural styles to our area that "just don't fit in" and are generally thought of as being a blight on our collective landscape. This isn't anything new, of course. I recall similar dustups in the 1970s and '80s when the stylistic serenity of old, established neighborhoods was being disrupted by the insertion
The area surrounding Phoenix is graced by the presence of numerous Native American tribes and nations. In fact, Maricopa County hosts one of the largest concentrations of such communities in the United States. As Phoenix and its suburbs have sprawled in recent years, several communities have had to forge constructive relationships with these sovereign nations to make continued growth possible. At first, there was often tension and conflict, but now relative tranquility and cooperation flourish to the point where it's a cultural environment that defines the character and charm of
The area surrounding Phoenix is graced by the presence of numerous Native American tribes and nations. In fact, Maricopa County hosts one of the largest concentrations of such communities in the United States. As Phoenix and its suburbs have sprawled in recent years, several communities have had to forge constructive relationships with these sovereign nations to make continued growth possible. At first, there was often tension and conflict, but now relative tranquility and cooperation flourish to the point where it's a cultural environment that defines the character and charm of
The area surrounding Phoenix is graced by the presence of numerous Native American tribes and nations. In fact, Maricopa County hosts one of the largest concentrations of such communities in the United States. As Phoenix and its suburbs have sprawled in recent years, several communities have had to forge constructive relationships with these sovereign nations to make continued growth possible. At first, there was often tension and conflict, but now relative tranquility and cooperation flourish to the point where it's a cultural environment that defines the character and charm of
Everywhere you turn these days, you see watershapers tackling projects that would have been unthinkable even a few years ago. It wasn't that long ago that simply raising a spa seemed like a big challenge, but these days vanishing edges, perimeter overflows and other ambitious details have become relatively common. And it's not just technology: Watershapers are gravitating toward great materials, colors, hardscape, plants and amenities - signs of real growth and, for the most part, a very good thing. With this broadening list of possibilities, however, have come some growing pains. The industry's like a teenager with
My daughter and I just returned from our annual trip to visit family in Connecticut and used the occasion this time to travel all over the northeast - from Boothbay Harbor, Portland and Camden in Maine to Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket and other parts of Massachusetts as well as slices of New Hampshire and Rhode Island. I'm never disappointed by the beauty I find in that part of the country. The landscapes are much lusher than they are at home in southern California, a fact that drives home the point that I spend most of my time in a desert. The old-growth trees back east are
I'm steadily reminded of one key point: No matter how talented any one of us might be, the work ultimately is not about us. For intensely creative people equipped with the necessary measures of self-confidence and ego, that point can be tough to accept and absorb, but it's true: For all our skills, we nonetheless work with our clients' visions, and the reality is that creating sympathetic designs for them takes time, patience and lots of effort. As a result, I'm passionate about uncovering what my clients are truly after in their garden and watershape designs. It's an investment of time and energy at the onset of the relationship that always
While discussing his column for this issue, I visited one of David Tisherman's projects and observed one of the most dramatic examples I've ever seen of the
Water moving in all sorts of different directions (but always in controlled ways) is a hallmark of one our favorite designers, architect David Tardiff. We've built the watershapes for many of his projects, and we've particularly enjoyed those that put both his vigor and special subtlety on display. Time and again, his designs have challenged us technically while rewarding our clients with results that always seem to leave them proud, amazed and thoroughly satisfied. As we've discussed in our previous WaterShapes articles, a large part of our business is about executing watershapes for architects and landscape architects in the backyards of mostly affluent clients in southern California's Orange County. Each designer has his or her own creative style and sensibility, leaving us to adapt the work we do to their "idea sets" while lending our years of practical experience in engineering and construction to the process. In working this way, we find that everyone comes out a winner: The designer creates work that is based in reality; we stretch and expand our skills to realize truly spectacular design concepts; and most important, clients gain refined spaces that hit the mark with respect to both functionality and aesthetics. The two projects we'll visit on these pages are
