cooperation Archives - Water Shapes

The Power in Partnering

'When you work with someone in a cooperative effort to achieve a common goal,' wrote Curt Straub in a trailblazing article in October 1999, 'the odds are greatly reduced that you will wind up one day facing that person in a courtroom. 'The neat thing about this form of cooperation, also known in business circles as partnering, is that it can do much more than keep you off your lawyer's time clock. In fact, partnering is something that all of us in the industry can

A Beautiful Partnership

I saw a news item last September that I've been meaning to call to your attention ever since. Broadcast by an ABC affiliate in Boston, the brief human-interest feature told the story of a facilities-hungry YMCA, a long-closed school pool in East Boston and the partnership the Y's leaders forged with

The circumstances in which urban fountains are created these days is complex and ever-changing, say Robert Mikula and Simon Gardiner -- a situation they discuss in the first of two articles on building a sense of multi-level participation among key groups of stakeholders.

A Sense of Participation

In his 1980 book, The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces, William H. Whyte described seven elements needed to make urban spaces successful: seating areas, ready street access, sun, the availability of food, the presence of trees, features that promote conversations among strangers and water - particularly in the form of water features and fountains. As an example of this formulation, there is no more illustrative space than New York's

2017/11.2, November 15 — Tiny Spaces, Lazy Rivers, Public Waters and more

THE ESSENTIAL E-NEWSLETTER FOR WATERSHAPE DESIGNERS, ENGINEERS AND BUILDERS November 15, 2017 www.watershapes.com FEATURE ARTICLE…

First created for use in the supercharged, hyperactive environments of aquatic theme parks, interactive waterplay systems now offer the designer of public and semi-public spaces an arsenal of fun-inducing features. They work in just about any setting, says Pam Pasotti of manufacturer SCS Interactive – anywhere you think people might take up the invitation to get wet in the name of pure, unadulterated fun.

Invitations to Play

Interactive watershapes are all about invitations to play. For designers, interactive watershapes provide invitations to use water and the control of flowing water to create unique play environments. For children, teenagers, parents and other adults, they are invitations to play with one another in a safe and exciting aquatic playground. It's a form of invitation that's rapidly gaining popularity in an era when playtime for both children and adults has become excessively passive and dominated by surfing the net, playing computer games or staying glued to

Designing a New Paradigm

There was a time not long ago when the mere thought of pool builders and landscape designers getting together on equal footing and having meaningful conversations about backyard design would have met with skepticism: There is not, it seems, much love lost between the trades. But times are changing, and if the dialogue begun around a table last August is any indication, there's a tremendous amount to be gained by keeping the communications channels wide open.

Bridging the Gaps

Take a quick look at the area surrounding almost any pool, spa or waterfeature and you're sure to see living proof that plants and man-made bodies of water go hand in hand. No matter what form the greenery takes - grass, hedges, trees, shrubs, flowers, even cacti - the fact is that plant life is seen virtually everywhere decorative or recreational water is found. For all of this close physical proximity, however, landscape designers and the installers of pools, spas, fountains and other watershapes have generally tended to operate in