reviews
The numbers are eye-popping: Just about one percent of all the water on Planet Earth exists as freshwater suitable for human consumption. And depending on where you live in the United States, anywhere from a quarter to almost half of that precious resource is used for irrigation. This is why it’s so important for those of us who design watershapes and exterior environments to consider options that minimize our use of potable water to maintain the landscape – and why I’m glad I picked up a copy of Rain Gardens by Nigel Gunnett and Andy Clayden (Timber Press, 2007): This 190-page text defines specific steps we can all take to replace municipal or well water with rainwater, capturing a gift from the skies and using it to sustain our landscapes. As the authors point out, we live in a time when drought is
In looking back on my career, I see that the past 20 years have been marked by a number of points at which I altered what I was doing. Sometimes I changed companies; other times I found a way of shifting my approach to my work or how I conducted my life. In looking back, I’m proud of the fact that every time I chose to go in a new direction, the changes I made resulted in dramatic improvements in my career and in my enjoyment of my work and, indeed, of my life in general. In other words, I’ve learned that, when approached the right way, change offers us an opportunity to advance our own causes in business and in life. Yes, it can be scary in that it typically involves
It’s hard to pin down exactly when it happened, but at some point in the past dozen years the concept of the outdoor kitchen took off – so much so that these features have moved from “relatively unusual” to “must-have” status on very nearly every upscale residential project. That’s certainly been the case in my practice, and I hear the same thing from most other watershapers and landscape professionals I’ve talked with in recent times. I’ve already covered some books intended to help us design these spaces and select among the variety of available components and options (“Book Notes,” June 2007). This time, I’ll take a different tack by
Whether we think of them this way or not, watershape and landscape designs have the ability to create emotional responses among our clients. In that sense, we’re actually in the business of provoking those feelings. When we do things right, the conjurings are positive and are at their best when we successfully forge links to our clients’ treasured experiences. If we miss the mark by not properly considering our work’s emotional impact, however, the results are discordant and somehow unsettling. I think I’ve always known all of this on an intuitive level, but I’d never
Earlier this year, I attended the Texas Pool & Spa Expo in Fort Worth – and, upon arrival, was treated to an unexpected earful. As soon as I reached the show floor, I walked over to greet my friends at the Genesis 3 booth. Before I could even get in a good round of “hellos,” David Tisherman asked me if I’d ever been to the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth – just down the block from the Convention Center and practically in my own backyard. For those of you who know David, whether as an instructor or as a prolific writer for WaterShapes, I’m sure you can guess how he reacted when I confessed
As 2008 draws to a close, it's apparent that we are contending with a far more challenging marketplace than we enjoyed just a couple years ago. Current economic woes have cut deeply into bottom lines, forced some watershapers out of business and prompted many others to seek out ways to maximize the business and referrals that come their way. With this challenging business landscape in mind, I recently picked up a copy of Seth Godin's Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable (Penguin Group, 2002). Godin, the best-selling author of 10 books, is well-known for challenging the conventional thinking that constrains many businesses. Although this particular book was written before the recent downturn in the world and U.S. economies, his message in this easily read 150-page discussion is quite applicable to today's situation - particularly among watershapers who want to enhance their approach to the business. Godin's discussion starts out with an account of a trip to the French countryside, during which he was
As 2008 draws to a close, it's apparent that we are contending with a far more challenging marketplace than we enjoyed just a couple years ago. Current economic woes have cut deeply into bottom lines, forced some watershapers out of business and prompted many others to seek out ways to maximize the business and referrals that come their way. With this challenging business landscape in mind, I recently picked up a copy of Seth Godin's Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable (Penguin Group, 2002). Godin, the best-selling author of 10 books, is well-known for challenging the conventional thinking that constrains many businesses. Although this particular book was written before the recent downturn in the world and U.S. economies, his message in this easily read 150-page discussion is quite applicable to today's situation - particularly among watershapers who want to enhance their approach to the business. Godin's discussion starts out with an account of a trip to the French countryside, during which he was
Given the fact that swimming pools and most other watershapes are placed in the ground, I've long been of the opinion that it's incumbent upon all of us who design and build them to have a basic understanding of soils science and geology. As has been stated in this magazine and elsewhere more times than I can count, the nature of the ground we build in (or on) has everything to do with the structures we design. Indeed, the composition and structure of the soils we encounter may well be the most fundamental of all the technical issue we ever face. Simply put, a watershape that's properly engineered in light of prevailing soil conditions will endure, while one that isn't runs a significant and often inevitable risk of structural failure. Relatively few of us who read WaterShapes are civil engineers, soils scientists or geologists, but all of us
