placement
The advent of underwater LED lighting has changed the way we look at and perceive swimming pools and spas once the sun goes down. In contrast to past days, when a single incandescent light blasted the eyes of anyone nearby, lighting is now a far subtler design feature - an intricate, integral part of a pool's aesthetic presence and the key facilitator in creating an ideal backyard ambiance once the sun goes down. But LED technology brings a learning curve with it - one that is even more of a challenge in an era when pool designs are increasingly dynamic and complex. And no matter whether you're a veteran or a
Through all my years of writing these Travelogues, I have discussed less than a handful of traveler-accessible watershapes that didn't make the grade. It wasn't that they were horrible, but rather that they were a little bit "off" in my estimation. Just recently, however, I saw a fountain that should never have been built - it just wasn't worth the bother - and it's the first time in writing more than 100 of these essays that I'm actually advising
'In my observation,' wrote David Tisherman in his Details column for the August 2006 edition of WaterShapes, 'steps tend to be afterthoughts and are seldom fully considered. But I've always taken them seriously because I see them as prime gathering places where people sit, move in and out of the water and in general spend a great deal of time.' 'Children also jump from the steps into the deeper water and
'I do not understand how anyone can live without one small place of enchantment to turn to.' - Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings As watershapers, we draw upon the sound and presence of water to soothe souls, using nature to guide and inform us. In the small pond project featured here, for example, the watershape component of the composition is meant to
Whenever I visit the area with any time to myself, I enjoy visiting the Art Institute of Chicago. Not only does the museum host a collection of artwork expansive enough to include Renaissance masters as well as cutting-edge Modernists, but it also has what may be the best museum shop I've ever encountered.
It'd be well worth the visit even if it didn't also have a wonderful waterfeature - the Fountain of the Great Lakes - on its west side.
I'm a sucker for fountains that make me think not only about how they work but also what they mean, and in this case the interpretation of the way the Great Lakes flow and interrelate leads to a few moments of interested reflection. It's not exactly literal, nor is it very complicated: It's just a charming an allegorical representation of five vast, interconnected lakes that contain more than a fifth of the world's fresh water.
I find it amusing that the fountain was controversial in its day. Some were upset because the imagery wasn't quite literal enough. Sure, if you're visualizing a map of the lakes it's a bit difficult to read the relationships of the five figures as a clear representation of the system, but that seems trivial.
And then there were objections because there's a certain amount of metallic breast on display; that, too, seems trivial in such a classical set of forms. (You have to wonder if, back in 1913, those same prudes ran around putting their version of sticky-notes all over any Rubens painting the museum might have been fortunate enough to acquire or borrow.)
Personally, my only complaint is that the fountain isn't where it was originally placed: In 1963, it was moved from a venue of much greater prominence to its current spot adjacent to what was then a new wing that had been added to the museum complex. The positioning isn't terrible, but I don't like the reflecting pool/fountain that now shoots jets of water up into the space: The big sculpture works better on its own!
As defects go, however, that's an easy one to ignore. So when you visit the Art Institute and its great museum shop, take a few extra steps and visit a wonderful fountain that tells a nice little story about the region and its heritage.
The fact that frog ponds are so shallow offers the pond installer some special challenges with respect to making them look completely natural. As you'll see in the video linked below, there's an obvious temptation to take the easy way out by lining the edge with rocks of similarly large sizes and settling for the dreaded "string of pearls" look, where stones hang out like some sort of lumpy
These days, it seems like just about every homeowner wants to get something special with their pools and spas. More often than not, that means some form of water in transit, whether it's a cool spillway, a vanishing edge, a bubbler on a thermal shelf - or, as in the case highlighted here, some sort of jet that will
