architectural style

2020/8.1, August 5 — Getting into Fountains, Building for Service, Hydraulic Basics and more
THE ESSENTIAL E-NEWSLETTER FOR WATERSHAPE DESIGNERS, ENGINEERS AND BUILDERS August 5, 2020 www.watershapes.com FEATURE ARTICLE…
2019/7.2, July 24 — Digital Delights from the WaterShapes Archives — and more
THE ESSENTIAL E-NEWSLETTER FOR WATERSHAPE DESIGNERS, ENGINEERS AND BUILDERS July 24, 2019 www.watershapes.com FEATURE ARTICLE/August…
2018/1.1, January 10 — Toxin-Free Results, Vacant-Lot Vision, Channel Drains and more
THE ESSENTIAL E-NEWSLETTER FOR WATERSHAPE DESIGNERS, ENGINEERS AND BUILDERS January 10, 2018 www.watershapes.com THE NON-TOXIC…
2012/5.2, May 23 — Paladian Design, Conveyor-Belt Excavation, Hoover Dam and more
May 23, 2012 WATERSHAPES.COM FEATURE ARTICLE Palladio, Jefferson and You Palladian architecture is so pervasive,…
2012/2.2, February 22 — Spanish Colonial Details, Hiding Drain Heads, Sutro Baths and more
February 22, 2012 WATERSHAPES.COM FEATURE ARTICLE Spanish Accents Designing watershapes to fit with architecture in…
Spanish Accents
In the first entry in this series of articles, we opened a discussion of the hurdles watershapers encounter when attempting to integrate pools or spas with architectural styles that historically never had swimming pools
Graceful Transformation
Everything about this project was classic and beautiful.  For one thing, the home has the soft look of a French country chateau.  For another, it’s located in Hancock Park, one of the oldest of Los Angeles’ upscale downtown neighborhoods.  And when you add in the fact that it sits on a half-acre-plus lot on a quiet street, we had the pleasing sense that we’d landed on a refreshing oasis at the heart of a bustling metropolis. We also enjoyed the privilege of working here with Andres Cardenes, a wonderful architect who had collaborated with these clients on and off for several years.  In their latest endeavor, he had come in to refurbish the home along historic and formal lines – something that often happens in this neighborhood, which boasts numerous restored and beautifully maintained homes across a range of architectural styles. Our firm, New Leaf Landscape of Agoura Hills, Calif., had worked with Cardenes on previous projects.  When he called, he talked a bit about the situation and let us know that he thought we’d be a great fit because of the way we
Inside a Classic Style
The history of residential architecture took a real turn toward mass production with the emergence of the modern suburb early in the 20th Century.  Especially in the years after World War II, middleclass families increasingly left urban congestion behind and headed for open outlying areas where developers were hard at work in preparation for their arrival. Some developers put distinct stylistic stamps on the neighborhoods and communities they were building.  Among the most popular and recognizable of these  styles was the Spanish Colonial Revival - a look that has special prominence on the West Coast but that has surfaced throughout the United States and in places as far flung as Europe and China.   This style is so popular and has been used so much in so many variations that it is, these days, tough to nail down exactly what is or is not true to early Spanish Colonial motifs and ideas.  That's not surprising, because this malleable style itself represents a cobbling together of ideas borrowed from Roman, Islamic and even Native American cultures. Those deep roots, coupled with a scattering of design focus that has blurred borders and distinctions and any sense of stylistic purity, makes it tough for 21st-century watershapers and other designers to
A Garden Surprise
LeRoy, N.Y., is an historic village that's most famous (or most notorious?) for being the birthplace of Jell-O.   Far more significant to me, however, is the fact that the town is filled with beautiful 19th-century homes that run the architectural gamut from Colonial to Italianate to Victorian in style.  It's a beautiful place, and the site of one of my firm's most unusual projects in recent memory. The home featured in this article is a Second Empire Italianate estimated to be about 140 years old.  It's a prime example of 19th-century craftsmanship, from the Mansard roof with its scrolled cornices to the drive-through porte-cochere and the wraparound porch with its beefy wood railings.   It's definitely an architectural treasure, filled with the kinds of details that have been lost as far as today's custom-built homes are concerned.  Mindful of those special touches, we set about designing a similar level of detail into the landscaping in creating gardens and watershapes that brought real tranquility to