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Where you've come from often has everything to do with where you're going. As a case in point, let me describe a project that had its origins all the way back at the very start of my work as a watershaper. My pool industry career began soon after I graduated from college. At the time, I was living in a garage in a rough part of Los Angeles and really wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I had studied ancient history, three-dimensional design and industrial design and had been accepted as a PhD candidate in pharmacology at the University of the Pacific. I was convinced I wanted to be a designer, but I wasn't sure which field I should enter. Then one day, at a time when I was about as broke as an organ grinder without a monkey, I answered an ad in the newspaper looking for
Most of us are in business to earn a living, which is probably why so many of us think of the high-end market as the place to be. In general, of course, the bigger the job, the larger the paycheck will be. But when I look more closely at the work I've done through my career, I believe we might be overlooking valuable opportunities for personal and professional growth by being so single-minded in pursuing grand, big-ticket jobs. When I started my business 15 years ago, I was happy to find work on small borders in small spaces. Since then, I'm proud of the fact that I have worked my way up to designing for multiple-acre estates. To be sure, I much prefer having a few large jobs to a bunch of smaller ones, but
A couple months back, the National Association of Home Builders held its annual convention in Orlando, Fla. - a massive January affair that drew more than 120,000 attendees to view all manner of products falling under the broad umbrella of "home construction." One of the annual centerpieces of NAHB's event is the New American Home program. Each year, select local contractors build a state-of-the-art home in the show's host city to put the absolute cutting edge of residential design and construction on display. During the convention, show organizers sell tickets for tours, and thousands of people tour the home. Once the tours are concluded, the home is sold and becomes a deluxe private residence - and a lot of money from ticket sales flows to charity. I was fortunate enough to be asked to
Sometimes, it's the simple things that trip you up. As a case in point, I was recently called by a homeowner who was wondering why the tile was falling off the outside wall of a raised pool that had just been installed by another builder. Unfortunately, that builder apparently hadn't known how to pull off this standard detail. The pool had been raised eight inches out of the ground in keeping with the design intent. This is a detail I use frequently to create a seating area around pools, but I was a bit mystified by this particular choice of elevation: It was too high to be a step (most building codes call for maximum 7-1/2-inch outdoor risers) and too low to serve very well as a bench. (Actually, it was just about right for
I was all set to write a column about the virtues of small jobs compared to big jobs, but I've had an experience that leads me to share something more important with you this time. Most of us have had these moments in our lives in which we are suddenly jarred into evaluating our existence for one reason or another - episodes that give us reason to pause and reflect on who we are and what we're doing and why we're doing it. As I write this, I'm dealing with an illness in my family that has quite literally knocked the legs out from under me. As I've spent time these past few days talking with friends and relatives, I've found myself quite often laying on the living-room couch and staring out the window into my backyard - and finding
Through the past few months, I've run across several representatives of the pool and spa industry who have expressed concern that some of us in the business of educating watershapers are encouraging landscape architects to move in the direction of the pool industry's traditional market. I can understand the anxiety. After all, landscape architects are degreed professionals in a closely related exterior-design field and have been academically trained in principles of design, while most of us in the mainstream pool and spa industry have no such background or relevant certification. It probably isn't paranoia to regard these design-oriented professionals as having something of an edge. There's also the simple fact that
Understanding the client is frequently the most important factor in creating a successful design. In the case of the project highlighted here, for example, it was a given that the clients were highly educated and knowledgeable with respect to design, style and materials: He's a top-flight graphic designer with an amazing grasp of color, line, architectural details, presentation materials and techniques; she's a degreed interior designer with a wonderful artistic flair. They're also two of my best friends: He and I taught together at UCLA and have known each other for more years than I care to admit. They've known about the focus of my business for years and said they hadn't wanted to call me because the project
With a busy schedule, it's too easy to use the same tools repeatedly in project designs. Yes, you can mitigate the repetition to a certain extent by using those tools differently each time, but the fact remains that many of us tend to design over and over again with the same plants, hardscape materials and structural approaches because it's what we know and trust. But let's face it: Most clients don't want exactly what someone else has; instead, they want one element from this garden and a special plant from that one. From a design perspective, selecting new plants every time is
Reader Chris Walton asked a great question in response to comments I've made in a couple of recent columns about the value of detailed plans: "Why do we in the pool industry lump sales, design and project assessment into one job description?" In the message surrounding his question, he explained in some detail that his firm, PoolDizine, Inc., of Jacksonville, Fla., takes basic plans and proposals for swimming pools and other watershapes and turns them into complete and extremely detailed sets of construction documents and plan drawings that can be used in generating accurate bids and that also provide detailed specifications for the construction process. To be sure, he has an interest in altering
To me, setting natural stone has always seemed something like assembling a very large jigsaw puzzle: All the pieces have to fit together, and there's definitely a right way and a wrong way to make it happen. I start the process systematically by laying stones out in an adequately large area and then just looking at them. As I go, I visualize how each will work as part of the overall composition and identify stones with either convex or concave contours that might fit together in some visual way. I'm constantly asking myself, "If I put this stone here and this other one right next to it, how will it work? Should I pick another stone and use a different combination?" Nature helps me in coming up with the answers, because
