construction
It may be a cliché, but I think there's something to be said for the notion that you need to know where you've been to see where you're going: The present and the future are always both a result of (and a response to) the past. For years, voices in this magazine have described, defined and advocated changes in the way the watershaping industry works. I, for one, have written volumes on what the pool and spa industry was once like and how the benefits of elevating our approaches flow to everyone from suppliers, designers and contractors to consumers as well. I've also meditated more than once on how professionals on the
The design and installation of the circulation, filtration and chemical-treatment systems for the pools at St. Lucia's Jade Mountain was a task of monumental proportions and extreme technical, physical and logistical difficulty. The effort was spearheaded by watershaper/hydraulics expert Chris Barnes, who spent months on site installing precision systems engineered to provide years of nearly maintenance-free service. Installing the circulation systems for the pools at Jade Mountain was a challenge unlike any other. I was first approached about the project by my good friend, Skip Phillips, who explained that he had already been working on the project's design for several years and indicated that it was going to be something truly amazing. He observed that the owner and his design team didn't have anyone in place with any experience with the installation of extremely complex watershapes and suggested that I might be the one to step up to the challenge and keep
Looking for a surface material as unique as the resort itself, the designers of Jade Mountain turned to David Knox of Lightstreams to create completely original tile products for use in the structure's 25 vanishing-edge pools, with each one to have its own unique colors and optical qualities. Here, Knox describes the process of deploying glass tiles throughout one of the world's most unique and extensive watershape environments. For me, Jade Mountain is not simply a resort in St Lucia: It's more of a spiritual and artistic achievement - and one I helped fashion through a period of 15 months. I felt that sense of operating on a higher plane during my first visit to the parent resort, Anse Chastanet, in March 2005. There was something different about the project, just as there was
Looking for a surface material as unique as the resort itself, the designers of Jade Mountain turned to David Knox of Lightstreams to create completely original tile products for use in the structure's 25 vanishing-edge pools, with each one to have its own unique colors and optical qualities. Here, Knox describes the process of deploying glass tiles throughout one of the world's most unique and extensive watershape environments. For me, Jade Mountain is not simply a resort in St Lucia: It's more of a spiritual and artistic achievement - and one I helped fashion through a period of 15 months. I felt that sense of operating on a higher plane during my first visit to the parent resort, Anse Chastanet, in March 2005. There was something different about the project, just as there was
They don’t come along very often, but every once in a while some of us are fortunate enough to become involved with a project that redefines what watershaping is all about. St. Lucia’s Jade Mountain was one of those remarkable opportunities, and no matter how long I’ll be in this business, I’m certain there will never be another project quite like this one. For starters, it stands as perhaps the most extensive and spectacular all-time use of the vanishing edge – ever, anywhere – all set in one of the most unusual buildings ever imagined for a resort property in a location that is almost indescribably beautiful. The brainchild of architect/owner Nick Troubetzkoy, Jade Mountain is
You hold in your hands an entirely unique issue of WaterShapes - distinct in that all four of the feature articles are about a single project called Jade Mountain. Time will tell, of course, but Jade Mountain may turn out to be
You hold in your hands an entirely unique issue of WaterShapes - distinct in that all four of the feature articles are about a single project called Jade Mountain. Time will tell, of course, but Jade Mountain may turn out to be
I've always believed that if you're going to do something, you should do it so well that the results are beyond compare. That basic philosophy has guided our company, GCS of Woodbridge, Calif., from the very start. It has led us to apply the highest standards to every one of our projects, all of which have been executed on large estates for ambitious, affluent, selective clients who invariably want something no one else has. We've been selective from the start as well, seeking clients who are in the process of creating the homes of their dreams and who want to have fun with (and in) their exterior spaces. In most cases, what they want are true oases - resort-like settings that give them a taste of
I've always believed that if you're going to do something, you should do it so well that the results are beyond compare. That basic philosophy has guided our company, GCS of Woodbridge, Calif., from the very start. It has led us to apply the highest standards to every one of our projects, all of which have been executed on large estates for ambitious, affluent, selective clients who invariably want something no one else has. We've been selective from the start as well, seeking clients who are in the process of creating the homes of their dreams and who want to have fun with (and in) their exterior spaces. In most cases, what they want are true oases - resort-like settings that give them a taste of
Why isn't the appropriate use of water a defining, central component in the education of landscape architects? That question has rattled around in my head for a long, long time, basically because it has no adequate or satisfactory answer. I'm a trained landscape architect and, as luck would have it, for nearly 20 years I've had one foot in the pool industry and the other in landscape architecture - and I've always felt like a rare beast moving back and forth between two entirely separate worlds. As I see it, this lack of affinity between these water-related industries has been a limiting factor in the advancement of the watershaping trades. For me, the lack of connection has always seemed nonsensical when it hasn't seemed tragic. As a watershaper, a big part of my work in recent years has been seeking ways to combine the best of both worlds and share what I know with university-level students in landscape architecture departments - students whose chairs I occupied some years ago and who still stand a good chance of graduating without ever having been taught anything at all about how water can
