contours

The technology known as the Global Positioning System (GPS) originally was assembled to guide missiles in military operations, but watershaper Paolo Benedetti sees civilian use of this satellite-based navigation system as one of the next technological frontiers for high-end designers and contractors. Here, he tells how he’s already put it to use – and how it helped him stave off an earth-bound disaster that was just waiting to occur.

An Aerial Assist

This is a story about a job that didn't happen - not yet, at any rate. It all started when I was brought in to bid on a hillside swimming pool project and ended months later, with the dust still settling and the project scuttled for the moment. And nobody could have been happier with that outcome than I was. That fact that my client and I decided to pull back and wait is not so unusual, but given the fact that the decision was driven by advanced military navigation technology makes this one of the most unusual situations I've ever encountered. The upshot

On paper, reports Ben Dixon, the design fired everyone’s imagination by taking a garden-variety, linear waterfall and enhancing the visual effect with a set of serpentine twists and turns. But making that effect work on site was a different matter – one that called for ingenuity on the part of the construction crew as well as the waterfall system’s supplier.

Custom Contours

This waterfall could've been built in either of two ways: A system of internal reservoirs and a long, narrow nozzle could've been formed as part of the structure itself, a task that would've placed huge burdens on the forming crew and the person shooting the gunite; or a manufactured fixture could be used to create the desired effect. Sensibly, the folks at Tango Pools in Las Vegas chose to pursue the latter option, deciding it would be better to