precision
Every once in a while, the stars align and we're given the opportunity to pursue and attain perfection in applying glass tile to a beautifully designed and built swimming pool and spa. The project illustrated here is one such case: Everything about it just snapped into place. First, we were asked to join the design team at an early stage, so we had a good level of input on how the pool was to be laid out and its interior surfaces formed; second, the watershapes fit
In the course of my career, I've worked with blue-chip clients from rock stars and professional athletes to Hollywood celebrities and business tycoons. It may be my sparkling personality, but, realistically, I think it has more to do with the way I have with glass tile and custom mosaics associated with beautiful swimming pools. My company, Rock Solid Tile of Calabasas, Calif., has worked all over Los Angeles through the years, taking its
Several years back, the luxury car maker Lexus described its corporate mission as the relentless pursuit of perfection, and I'm willing to step up and say that working with glass tile on the shapely, detailed interior surfaces of swimming pools and spas is just that sort of pursuit. That's not saying we hit the mark with placement of every single piece of tile across surfaces that frequently cover thousands of square feet, but we have
In my career, I've applied lots of fine finishes to swimming pools, spas, fountains and other types of waterfeatures. Most often we work with glass tile, but we also keep our hands in a variety of ceramic or porcelain tiles, various mosaics and, generally, what most would call classy, top-flight materials. No two projects are ever quite the same, but the procedures we follow are: In every case, we at Rock Solid Tile (Calabasas, Calif.) end up having to work through imperfections in the concrete shells left for us by builders and their concrete crews - and that's true even if they're experienced and have
When I listen to people as they stare at a fountain, I often hear them say, "How wonderful!" In witnessing that praise, however, I know for a fact that what they find appealing is the gracefulness of a sculpture or the beauty of the stone or tile finishes or the way the water flows - what I refer to as the fountain's "façade." In many cases, what's behind that façade can be pretty mundane: maybe a small pump, some simple plumbing, a cascade head or sconce and little more. In other cases, however, what's going on behind the surface is
When my family started in the pool and spa service business some 25 years ago, it didn’t take us long to recognize that there was very little available to us by way of education about water chemistry – or, for that matter, about most of the other skills involved in maintaining pools, spas and other waterfeatures. That didn’t make much sense to us, even then. After all, how could an industry devoted to the health, safety and comfort of millions of people function without addressing the need for standardized approaches to water maintenance or
For professionals who tirelessly commit themselves to excellence in all aspects of their work, challenging projects are the butter on the bread. At Drakeley Swimming Pool Co. of Bethlehem, Conn., we truly enjoy jobs with higher-than-usual degrees of difficulty because they generally involve us with clients who have strong ideas about what they want, force us to develop solutions to unique and interesting problems and see us perform on a level that invariably makes us proud. As we see it, these jobs are the reward we get for years of focusing on doing our absolute best. True, these projects can be tough, but we’ve found that by sticking to our “quality without compromise” philosophy, we’ve managed to thrive through tough times and have always earned our share of interesting commissions. It’s proof of the old adage that good things follow hard work, even in a soft economy. That was certainly
Certainly one of the world’s most unusual watershaping achievements, ‘Le Reve’ is a Las Vegas-style aquatic production that carries audiences into an amazing dream world of water, light, music and incredible acrobatic skill. To achieve the water effects, former Cirque du Soleil producer Franco Dragone turned to Aviram Müller and Canada’s Kaarajal Design Aquatique – and the result is a marriage of watershaping art and technology unlike any other. Franco Dragone’s design team first contacted me late in 2003. His company, which organizes groups of design firms to create some of the world’s most elaborate stage productions, was working on a new Las Vegas extravaganza for hotelier Steve Wynn. Wynn’s properties are famous for their water effects, including the wonderful fountains in front of Bellagio on the Las Vegas Strip. I was told that his then-current project, the Wynn Resort, was to feature similarly spectacular water elements – one of which was to be
It’s true for any watershaper: No matter how varied the work you do, it never hurts to be known for the ability to do something special – and for doing it exceptionally well. Through the years, for example, my firm has polished its ability to provide our clients with watershapes reflecting a wide variety of tastes, styles and features, but to an extent that sometimes surprises even me, we’re known among prospective clients for
There are some things that are better seen than described. In the case of pool and spa equipment, for example, there are situations in which manufacturer instructions or two-dimensional plan drawings simply do not give the installer all the information needed to get things right the first time. As a result - and as everyone who installs equipment sets knows - the plumbing and layout of the equipment usually requires some level of on-site improvisation. In our work of designing hydraulic systems for complex watershapes - everything from commercial pool facilities to interactive waterfeatures and fountains - we've seen the need to find a way to specify precisely how we want our equipment sets to be installed. No two-dimensional plumbing schematic or manufacturer-supplied manual does that part of the job. That is, they do not completely delineate the way
