deck-level
People don't usually have trouble with boundaries and will honor requests to "Keep Out," for example, or leave certain doors to "Employees Only." But there are also cases where we generally take issue with limitations on behavior whether stated or implied, and I can think of no better instance in which this takes place than with water in public spaces. Despite designers' best efforts over the years to make it clear where bathers are welcome and where they are not, the public has steadily defied boundaries by trespassing into waters that were never directly designed for human interaction. In fact, you might say that formal, decorative fountains are a forbidden fruit from which many of us have taken the occasional bite. During the past two decades, watershape designers have looked very specifically at the irresistible urge we have to touch water in an effort to shape all-new boundaries between public nuisance and design nuance. Along the way, we've learned which elements offer a deliberate, positive signal - a real "permission to play" - and are now wielding this power of interactivity to create and define a broad range of
I've spent a lot of time in the past few years thinking about the things that generate the most interest in what we do as pool builders - and even more time turning those thoughts into designs and effects that meet my customers' desires. Once I started down this path, there was no way to turn back: There's a market out there at the high end that most pool builders never even approach, and breaking through with these clients takes persistence, skill and talent. As important, it also takes a willingness to stop looking at pools, spas and waterfeatures in the context of traditions and conventions that just don't line up with the needs or expectations that these customers at the highest levels have these days. These are customers who won't settle for the ordinary. They won't accept plans that stick
