pool design
Compiled and written by Lenny Giteck Air France Sexy Pool SceneSymbolizes La Vie en Rose The backstory: He is in seat 8A on an Air France flight winging its way across the Atlantic; she's in 8B. They are both good-looking and fit - definitely in their prime. Even though they never met before boarding the aircraft, once in the air their eyes lock
Compiled and written by Lenny Giteck Swimming Pools a FocusAt Coppola Winery Renowned movie director, producer and screenwriter Francis Ford Coppola is blazing new trails in the winery business by including two swimming pools and other family entertainment features in his
When these clients decided that they wanted to have a swimming pool, they knew above all else that they did not want another box of blue water. By contrast, as avid patrons of Disney World, the Princeton, N.J., homeowners had decided that their pool should be what they called “Disney natural” – not as completely naturalistic as a real pond, but natural enough so that they and their children could suspend disbelief and pretend that they were swimming in a pond. Before we came on the scene, the clients had
It’s unlikely that anyone back in 1992 would have imagined that the daughter of fashion designer Calvin Klein would change the way we think of swimming pools. That might be a slight exaggeration, but to me there’s no question that Pools by Kelly Klein, first published by Rizzoli 15 years ago and rereleased late in 2007, was unique at that time in treating pool design as
Among the most gratifying of all projects are those in which designers are able to forge links between different areas of a property, creating an unfolding, choreographed experience that generates notes of anticipation along with reassuring sensations of comfort and familiarity. In our work at Root Design Company (Austin, Texas), we’ve found that water is a powerful tool in defining those sorts of connections within a property, whether it is used in bold ways, as with fountains or swimming pools, or as subtler secondary or tertiary elements, including runnels or small waterspouts. In the project depicted here, we used multiple watershapes within architectural spaces that organize those settings and bring motion and continuity to the overall space. It all ties together visually, with each path leading to intriguing destinations that serve as rewarding visual experiences for anyone who visits. As we see it, the key ingredient in this project was our client, who understood
Readers Throw Cold Water on WSJ Pool Article As if the tanked economy wasn't bad enough for watershapers, The Wall Street Journal recently published an article ("Taking a Bath on Your Pool") that, essentially, calls into question the sanity of any homeowner who
Fire effects have grown tremendously in popularity in recent years, especially among swimming pool designers and builders who use them in developing various fire-on-water features. On one level, it seems that these professionals (and their clients) have noticed that systems that contain and control fire serve as wonderful complements to systems that contain and control water. On a grander scale, however, it’s apparent that, as watershape designers and builders have become more and more creative, fire features have risen in the estimation of those who want to give their clients something special – something few others have. At my company, Grand Effects of Irvine, Calif., we’ve focused on making it easy for watershapers, general contractors and landscape designers and architects to bring fire into the picture across a range of applications. To that end, we’ve developed an array of completely off-the-shelf systems, ready to install, and have done all of the engineering and testing required to build confidence into every product. In doing so, we’ve studied possible effects and developed
If there’s one thing that almost all parties in homes have in common, it’s that people tend to congregate around food and drink in the kitchen. Almost invariably, that’s where the action is. As more and more homeowners are taking their indoor lifestyles outdoors into their backyards and landscapes, the “action” is moving outside as well, with al fresco kitchens becoming the new hub at social gatherings. This is why outdoor kitchens have grown so much in popularity in recent years, moving past being simple counters adjacent to charcoal barbecues to become, according to the American Institute of Architects, the number-one growth category in home improvement. In plying my trade in a sunny, particularly warm part of southern California, I’ve had a front-row seat in watching this trend develop – and I’ve now been designing and building these amenities for more than a quarter century. It’s reached a point where my company, The Green Scene (Northridge, Calif.), builds at least 25 outdoor kitchens every year across a range of styles and levels of complexity. Experience has taught us that the
Although many people steadfastly defend their efforts at becoming a project's low bidder by saying, "There's just no other way to bring in the business," the sad fact is that this practice is a cancer — one that degrades the product, leaves the clients unhappy and diminishes
