professional Archives - Water Shapes

Pausing to Reflect

Beautiful gardens make us happy. When we walk through or by them on the way to our daily activities; when we happen upon them while driving from one place to another; when we deliberately make them our destination - whatever the circumstances, beautiful gardens bring smiles to our faces and a sense of balance and serenity to

Growth Formulas

For all the beauty and creativity that characterize the finished watershapes we cover in our magazine, I often find just as much inspiration in the stories behind these polished works of art. Quite often, in fact, I perceive that these

Fear Not the Future

Not long ago, a gentleman who had attended one of the Genesis 3 schools was discussing an encounter he'd had with some other pool builders. Much to his surprise, one of the people he was talking to told him he'd been crazy for taking the time and spending the money to attend the school. To me, this is indicative of the sort of mentality that holds our industry back. What the Critic was saying was that his colleague was foolish to have attended the equivalent of a college-level course in aquatic design - a course designed to help him advance in his own line of work. It boggles the mind, like that whole "dead architect" question and the difficulty some people have in valuing what we can learn from designers who have gone before us. When I'm asked what we, as exalted pool builders at the turn of the millennium, have to learn from