installation
Dream jobs seem to come in bunches for watershapers: If you do the best work you possibly can, apply your education, stand by your work and, most of all, leave your clients happy, nice things that happen with one job seem to lead almost inevitably to other great jobs. That’s exactly what happened with this project: I was led to it by satisfied clients who became my best salespeople and told all their friends how delighted they were with the work we’d done and how much they were enjoying the results. By the time I actually met this new client, there was no question about us having the inside track; indeed, we just jumped right into the job’s specifics. From the start, we were given tremendous creative freedom, there was no big concern about budget and the work was all about
Sometimes finding just what you need is as easy as looking in your own backyard. That’s what happened for Greg Whittaker of Whittaker Homes, one of Missouri’s largest home builders, when he began searching for the right partner to provide dramatic watershapes for New Town, an innovative community in St. Charles, Mo., a suburb of St. Louis. Situated on the site of what had been a farming community, New Town is intended to invoke and embody a comfortable lifestyle for the 21st Century. Parklands filled with water were the key to Whittaker’s vision not just for aesthetic and thematic reasons, but also for stormwater management. While visiting St. Louis’ Forest Park, a venerable civic treasure, Whittaker saw the
As I see it, successful landscape lighting is a two-part process: First, the designer applies aesthetic principles that create the art, then he or she supports that artistic vision with scientific and technological savvy. One without the other doesn’t work: You can’t effectively practice the art until you’ve mastered the science. In my 17 years as a lighting designer, I’ve encountered lots of professionals who have the artistic part of the equation down pat but fall well short when it comes to working with electricity. The plain fact is, you can use the best fixtures in the world and understand the aesthetic issues like the back of your hand, but if you can’t consistently deliver power to those fixtures at correct, reliable voltages, the overall system will not perform properly and has the potential to become a maintenance nightmare. There’s no way a single article can bring anyone up to speed with all of the issues involved in the science lighting. Instead, my intention here is to introduce watershapers to a basic, commonsense approach to laying out low-voltage, halogen lighting systems, the goal being to enable you to converse intelligently and persuasively with lighting designers in the interest of helping
Although the eye is commonly drawn to structures and other architecture elements found in any given exterior environment, very often it is trees that serve as visual anchors in modern landscapes. Indeed, they tend to be the largest objects on most properties and will often become focal points even in settings in which they might have started out in supporting roles. This dominance or even potential for dominance is why, as a lighting designer, I believe that trees should always receive
Throughout ancient times, water was central to the thinking of Arab, Persian, Moorish, Moghul and Turkish architects and designers, with largely anonymous representatives of each civilization preparing elaborate spaces with fountains, reflecting pools and other watershapes at their hearts. In the past, these societies' greatest architectural works almost invariably featured elaborate watershapes that bespoke their technical skills as well as a general love affair with the beauty, luxury and necessity of water. With new developments burgeoning across much of the Middle East these days, fountains and watershapes of all varieties are once again playing important roles in design as
Throughout ancient times, water was central to the thinking of Arab, Persian, Moorish, Moghul and Turkish architects and designers, with largely anonymous representatives of each civilization preparing elaborate spaces with fountains, reflecting pools and other watershapes at their hearts. In the past, these societies' greatest architectural works almost invariably featured elaborate watershapes that bespoke their technical skills as well as a general love affair with the beauty, luxury and necessity of water. With new developments burgeoning across much of the Middle East these days, fountains and watershapes of all varieties are once again playing important roles in design as
Landscape-lighting design is my obsession: Not only do I make my living at it, but it has also reached a point where it informs the way I look at every landscape and watershape I encounter - whether I'm working on those spaces or not. When I visit almost any site - and particularly when I spot an interesting garden - I almost instantaneously begin formulating ideas about how I'd light it. That's a good thing, because it keeps me professionally sharp, but it's also a bit addictive: Once you start visualizing how dynamic particular places can be when properly lit, you get hooked on the mental exercise and start enjoying the intensity of the experience. In the beginning, of course, those clear visualizations
Landscape-lighting design is my obsession: Not only do I make my living at it, but it has also reached a point where it informs the way I look at every landscape and watershape I encounter - whether I'm working on those spaces or not. When I visit almost any site - and particularly when I spot an interesting garden - I almost instantaneously begin formulating ideas about how I'd light it. That's a good thing, because it keeps me professionally sharp, but it's also a bit addictive: Once you start visualizing how dynamic particular places can be when properly lit, you get hooked on the mental exercise and start enjoying the intensity of the experience. In the beginning, of course, those clear visualizations
Specializing in naturalistic watershapes obviously requires an appreciation of nature, says Atlanta-based pond/stream specialist Robert Vaughn, but doing a good job of emulating what happens in and around natural bodies of water also calls for a refined set of design and installation skills – especially when the goal is to create watershapes that appear right at home amid rolling topographies and densely wooded landscapes. The Atlanta area is a great place to be a watershaper these days. The natural landscape is beautiful with its undulating terrain and dense tree canopy, and there are plenty of affluent, upscale neighborhoods in which skills may be applied in support of clients who have the wherewithal to demand something special. That combination of attributes adds up to great opportunities for companies like mine – Earthwerx of Carterville, Ga. – that focus on crafting nature-inspired paradises in substantial backyards. Indeed, this is a market in which prospective clients are passionate about enjoying their homes and their surroundings instead of engaging in the hassles and perceived risks of travel. In addition, where property values and home equities in other markets have taken a hit in the past year, the
From my first visit, I knew I'd be spending a lot of time here developing the watershapes and landscapes on this amazing site. Set on a bluff in Del Mar, Calif., the whole property slopes down from the street level to the back edge of the property. Beyond was an open space offering uninterrupted views of a river estuary, native coastal scrub studded with rare, indigenous, protected Torrey Pines and the Del Mar shoreline's pounding surf. There were also the spectacularly patterned cliffs at Torrey Pines State Park - a vista and set of colors that ultimately determined material choices for this project. It helped that I was completely at ease with
