#trends

Silver Linings
We've had lots of rain and snow in California in recent weeks.  So much precipitation, in fact, that nearly half the state is now officially out of the drought emergency that has bedeviled the state for the past six years.  If current weather patterns persist through the spring, chances are good that the entire region will be breathing easier for a while. This is fantastic news for watershapers of every description who
Stocking Stuffers
My Christmas stocking saw its first visit from Santa a couple weeks early this year. It arrived in the form of a press release from the National Swimming Pool Foundation with a progress report on its Step Into Swim campaign, which started in 2012 with a mission of creating a million new swimmers by 2022. The program, which should be familiar to
The Big Picture
'Anyone who runs a good business knows that day-to-day operations are so all-consuming that it's difficult to step back and scope out where you fit within your corner of the industry.' 'We can't give those daily details short shrift,' wrote Brian Van Bower in opening his Aqua Culture column in the December 2006 issue of WaterShapes.  'Still, it occurs to me that . . . our daily endeavors need to be
2016/12.1, December 7 — Glass-Tile Candor, Pond Details, Water Resuscitation and more
THE ESSENTIAL E-NEWSLETTER FOR WATERSHAPE DESIGNERS, ENGINEERS AND BUILDERS December 7, 2016 www.watershapes.com FEATURE ARTICLE…
2016/11.2, November 16 — Rustic Remake, Easement Squeeze, Ancient Inspiration and more
THE ESSENTIAL E-NEWSLETTER FOR WATERSHAPE DESIGNERS, ENGINEERS AND BUILDERS November 16, 2016 www.watershapes.com FEATURE ARTICLE…
Shotcrete Rising
In the final installment of their series on the history and development of the shotcrete method of concrete application, William Drakeley and Lily Samuels examine the industry's current state of the art -- then cast an optimistic eye toward the approach's future.
A Timely Proposition
I grinned from ear to ear a couple weeks ago while reading a press release from the National Swimming Pool Foundation.  It was about a request for proposals to create a "Learn-to-Swim Index" - a system designed to track how many people are completing formal swimming lessons in the United States - and I'm still smiling today. What NSPF is after, I believe, is
2016/7.1, July 13 — Inspired Pondcraft, Rain Curtains, Racing the Clock and more
THE ESSENTIAL E-NEWSLETTER FOR WATERSHAPE DESIGNERS, ENGINEERS AND BUILDERS July 13, 2016 www.watershapes.com FEATURE ARTICLE…
The Power of a Pool
Through the past couple years, I've followed with great and growing interest a collection of news items about international efforts to bring safe, spacious swimming facilities to urban waterways. If memory serves, the first stories I noticed were about the Flussbad ("river pool"), a proposal to transform a section of a canal into a
Resonance
Is watershaping well served by the way things are going?   My roundabout discussion of this question, its origins and implications has occupied several of my blogs through the past half year and more.  I've enjoyed this process of stepping back and taking a long view of