treehouse

A project with charitable as well as commercial ambitions, ‘The Ultimate Family Home’ was created to showcase state-of-the-art home design – both indoors and out. A key force behind the show home’s exterior design was Julie Brinkerhoff-Jacobs, whose firm, Lifescapes International, was responsible for creating outdoor spaces and watershapes with a well-considered variety of deluxe, family-friendly features.

Luxury on Parade

A tremendous amount of synergy and teamwork went into the making of "The Ultimate Family Home." Initiated by Builder magazine (the official publication of the National Association of Home Builders) and Pardee Homes (the Los Angeles-based developer of the Nevada Trails neighborhood in which the home was built), the project unfolded as a partnership between the magazine and the developer's Las Vegas office along with Bassenian-Lagoni Architects (Newport Beach, Calif.), Color Design Art (Los Angeles) and Lifescapes International (the Newport Beach-based landscape-architecture firm). "The Ultimate Family Home" opened in January 2004 in conjunction with

You won’t find too many clients who can afford to install full-scale theme parks in their residential backyards, but that’s exactly what builder Steven Knight ran into on this project. Indeed, this owner had the imagination (and the budget) to bring a host of childhood fantasies to life over his sprawling estate in Central Florida, and now the watershapes at Foxtrotter Ranch are a true monument to kids young and old.

Fun in the Sun

I like a good challenge in my work, and I like to have fun making it happen. This project embodied the best of both experiences. The project displayed on these pages was built for a wealthy client who lives on a working horse ranch in the rolling green countryside near Ocala, Fla. Our company, Certified Construction, was up to the task. We build hundreds of highly customized watershapes each year for a variety of theme parks, resorts and high-end residences. Most have highly developed "themes," so we're accustomed to providing our clients with heavy doses of imagination and creativity. The basic marching orders on this job were straightforward: The owner wanted a theme park on his property for his kids - and he didn't really care about