construction

Paramount Offers Telescoping Water Effects
Paramount Pool & Spa Systems (Chandler, AZ) makes the Parascope, a telescoping waterfeature that rises…
Room Additions
It's been my good fortune through the years to have worked with some wonderful clients who've inspired me to take the extra step, think in different ways and do everything possible to make them happy. This family was on that level: They love entertaining friends and relations, yet more than anything, the four of them enjoy spending time together - a throwback to the "Leave It to Beaver" spirit of the 1950s and '60s. At every turn, they were easygoing and patient in ways that made
Augmenting Reality
For a watershaper who's spent a career designing and installing natural-looking ponds, streams and waterfalls using pumps and liners, this project was both an unusual treat and a distinct challenge - a dream job, as I saw it. I was called to the property at the suggestion of a landscape-maintenance company that wanted nothing to do with what the homeowners were asking, and the reason was pretty obvious: A spring-fed stream flowed across the property as it had done for at least hundreds and perhaps thousands of years, and it needed
2018/9.1, September 5 — Additive Exercise, Shaping Nature, Relining the Neptune Pool and more
THE ESSENTIAL E-NEWSLETTER FOR WATERSHAPE DESIGNERS, ENGINEERS AND BUILDERS September 5, 2018 www.watershapes.com FEATURE ARTICLE…
Subtracting a Deck
Lots of pools built in the 1960s and '70s and even through the '80s were surrounded by ribbons of concrete decking of uniform width, all the way around.  Frequently, those decks were too narrow to make them of much use for more than walking around the pool:  lounge chairs are too long to be set up facing the water, and a poolside table and chairs cover far too much ground to be included. The solution that runs through the heads of lots of homeowners is simply to
On the Waterfront
Did you ever have a client who knew exactly what he or she wanted in a project, only to change direction once he or she heard the price? That happened with the poolscape discussed in this article - but with an unusual twist. The homeowner, a prominent South Florida businessperson, had purchased the waterfront property with its existing pool. And he wasn't finished: He also purchased two neighboring homes, flattening one to make way for a sculpture garden and setting up the other as staff housing. When we saw the site for the first time, the main residence was
Moving a Mountain
We've participated in the construction of lots of great golf courses through the years, but this one was something special. It started for us at Pinnacle Design (Palm Desert, Calif.) with a call from one of the world's top golf-course architects, Ted Robinson, Jr., who let us know that we had to rush to prepare a presentation for a client in South Korea. As he explained the situation, if we couldn't win over the chairman of the conglomerate that was building the 27-hole course, the job would go to
2018/8.2, August 22 — Playing the Angles, Grand Landshaping, Halprin in L.A. and more
THE ESSENTIAL E-NEWSLETTER FOR WATERSHAPE DESIGNERS, ENGINEERS AND BUILDERS August 22, 2018 www.watershapes.com FEATURE ARTICLE…
Retaining-Wall Waterfalls from Blue Thumb
Blue Thumb Distributing (Saginaw, MI) makes Formal Falls waterfall systems for use in a variety…
Healing Ways
Through the years, Bruce Zaretsky has designed enough healing gardens that he knows just how comforting they can be for patients, caregivers and loved ones.  But they only work, he notes, when designers keep some basic principles and several user-specific design factors in mind.