pool design
I started making videos and putting them up on YouTube a couple years back to help my prospective clients (and, for that matter, anyone else who might be interested) become better informed about all of the decisions that go into purchasing backyard swimming pools. The one I’m sharing here, for example, is about a detail the average consumer rarely (if ever) considers
Once you’re as well informed as you can be about the business practices of the companies that might end up designing and installing your swimming pool, the hard work of the decision-making process begins. It’s time, in other words, to bring a few of your candidate companies in, ask them to look things over and, ultimately, request bids for the work to be done. A quick heads up: The prices are going to be all over the map, and that’s because, if you’ve done things the way most homeowners will do, you’ve set up a situation in which
One of the things I like most about working with water is that it makes statements that don’t require much verbal explanation. In fact, I like to think that the projects I build speak volumes about my clients’ desire for something creative and interesting. They also speak to the point that most of my clients grant me the freedom to give my very best effort, both aesthetically and technically, without
‘I want the house to look as though it is floating on water.” That was what architect Victor Canas told me when I was called out to visit this site on the northwestern coast of Costa Rica. It was a brilliant idea, certainly one that befitted the spectacular mountaintop setting and its breathtaking 360-degree views of rugged coastline, forest greenery and assorted perspectives to horizons in all directions. I had the advantage in this case of already having built a
If you can’t see potential in every backyard you walk into, then you’re in the wrong business. Yes, some projects are more inspiring than others, and some spaces seem to offer you more to work with than others. Without exception, however, our clients’ yards present us with opportunities to develop programs that take advantage of what’s there in ways that bring balance and harmony and interest to any setting. Speaking for myself, I’m no more energized in a project than when I get the opportunity to right a wrong and replace a past mistake with a fresh, interesting design – and that was certainly the case in the project discussed in this article and in my past several “Details” columns in this magazine. The setting was special, the clients were great and
It’s a grand watershape built at a time and place when “grand” was in fashion in so many ways. Ever since 1940, when the Raleigh Hotel and its beautiful swimming pool opened to the public for the first time, the establishment has made a statement about the sun-drenched glory of a prime South Florida location as well as the glamour of an era gone by. Designed and built by renowned architect L. Murray Dixon, the hotel and pool are located in South Beach, Miami’s famed Art Deco district. The pool’s curvaceous shape and modern styling reflected the hotel’s architecture and the aspirations
Among all of the details included in residential swimming pools and spas, some of the most apparent and most easily explained have to do with safety. But that doesn’t mean that homeowners will get the idea on their own – especially when they confront a detail as subtly useful as
