materials selection
‘Not long ago, I was asked by a reporter from The New York Times to define the main difference between swimming pools now compared to what they were 20 years ago. As we talked,’ wrote David Tisherman in his Details column for the December 2007 edition of WaterShapes, ‘it became clear that she was mostly thinking about technological breakthroughs in pumps and chemical treatments and the like. ‘I confirmed for her that, yes, those products had come a long way. But I wouldn’t let her stop there, suggesting that there was much more than
Lots of homeowners believe that they can save money by “cutting out the middle man” and supplying materials such as tile and stone directly to a design or construction firm. The theory is that they will avoid markups and will be paying only for installation. That may literally be the case, but it’s
Through the past decade or so, the popularity of all forms of outdoor fire has increased dramatically. No matter whether it’s a fire pit, a fireplace or a fire bowl or box, more often than not these days, our clients are asking for some type of decorative fire treatment as part of their
One of the most common themes repeated in this magazine is that selecting materials for projects can make the difference between truly artistic designs and those that are either inappropriate or just plain boring. It’s a point worth pressing: Materials truly matter, and the importance of knowing your options and keeping pace with changes in the marketplace can never be overestimated. Through the past few months, for example, I’ve been working with a couple who live in a home that’s an architectural
Everything about this project was classic and beautiful. For one thing, the home has the soft look of a French country chateau. For another, it’s located in Hancock Park, one of the oldest of Los Angeles’ upscale downtown neighborhoods. And when you add in the fact that it sits on a half-acre-plus lot on a quiet street, we had the pleasing sense that we’d landed on a refreshing oasis at the heart of a bustling metropolis. We also enjoyed the privilege of working here with Andres Cardenes, a wonderful architect who had collaborated with these clients on and off for several years. In their latest endeavor, he had come in to refurbish the home along historic and formal lines – something that often happens in this neighborhood, which boasts numerous restored and beautifully maintained homes across a range of architectural styles. Our firm, New Leaf Landscape of Agoura Hills, Calif., had worked with Cardenes on previous projects. When he called, he talked a bit about the situation and let us know that he thought we’d be a great fit because of the way we
Root Design has always focused on developing environments that delight, inspire and occasionally surprise clients, but the project seen in this, the first of two articles, may well be the company’s most elaborate to date. Here, Ben Dozier and Michael Percy describe what went into designing and building across the entire site, including the multiple watershapes that helped transform this estate into an oasis filled with plants, light, sounds and water. Although it doesn’t always work out this way, the best-case scenario for us at Root Design (Austin, Texas) is to accept full responsibility for all exterior spaces of a given property, from the footprint of the house out to the property lines. In these situations, our team is able to establish designs with wall-to-wall continuity in response to the environment, the architecture and our client’s wishes. We commit ourselves in these circumstances to taking homeowners and their guests on a journey, starting the moment they enter the property and moving all the way through to the yard’s farthest reaches and all the spaces in between. Along the way, they’ll enter a variety of small or large vignettes, conceal-and-reveal discoveries, dramatic focal points and multiple rewarding destinations – each conceptually linked as a coherent “whole.” In this case, we were called upon to
Sometimes watershaping is so much fun that it seems less like a job than a labor of love. That was absolutely the case with the watershape pictured here: I was given free rein to do exactly what I thought was needed in collaboration with great clients and a wonderful project team on a spectacular property. And as if that wasn’t good enough, we ran into virtually no problems along the way, even though we were working in a city sometimes known for setting obstacles in the way of ambitious designs. We at Pure Water Pools (Costa Mesa, Calif.) get involved in numerous custom projects every year, and the work just seems to get more creative, interesting and satisfying as we move along. I’m not willing to say we’ve peaked by any stretch of the imagination, but it feels good to think that this may well be
Some clients don’t know any limits when it comes to their ambitions – and that’s certainly been true in this case. His mountain-sized home is set on a relatively flat four-acre parcel in otherwise hilly Ramona, Calif. The client himself describes the building as looking like a casino, and indeed it does have a decidedly “eclectic” architectural look. What he wanted was a backyard to match – a free-wheeling composition that might best be described as a Tommy Bahama-inspired tropical resort. He let me know that the family
I’m sort of a curmudgeon when it comes to wood decks. They’ve been on the scene for a good 50 years now, and many of them are just fine – but I’ve spent an awful lot of time in my career loathing what I see and helping my clients remedy the short-sightedness of those who set them up in the first place. At times, I just wish everyone had stuck to stone. What really gets my goat are the uninspired linear expanses that poke aimlessly off the backs of houses. Residential developers often resort to
The Importance of Watershaping’s Color Palette