vanishing edge
It definitely helps to have a good reputation within the local design community. In this case, an architect I've known for years and have worked with on numerous occasions - someone with whom I've gotten so familiar with on the job site that we've become good friends - called me in to meet clients who needed help beyond the work he was doing on their house. He thought we'd be a good fit, and he was right: From our first meeting, the clients and I
Sometimes, things come together in just the right way. I'd been called in to a multimillion-dollar property with a large, three-year-old house on it, right next to the Chattahoochee River on the northwestern fringe of Atlanta. There was an existing pool, but the homeowners wanted something new - a composition that befitted the home's elegance and said more about
When outsiders think of Texas, they very often assume that it's flat as a pancake with no topographical distinctions to consider. That may be true in some parts of our big state, but where I live and work in the vicinity of Austin, there are areas that offer great views and have attracted developers who are intent on using those prospects to full advantage. The spec home featured in this article is an example of this trend: It's in Westlake Hills, a small neighborhood within Austin's city limits that affords some amazing views of
When it comes to ostentatious and even audacious aquatic displays, there's no doubt that the Middle East now boasts some of the world's most incredible watershapes. Even a quick survey reveals a tremendous range of architectural and hydrological marvels in which technology is paired with grandeur to stunning effect. Several instances of this exuberance appear on
For most residents of southeastern Canada, the winter of 2013/2014 was memorable for off-the-hook low temperatures, plenty of snow and lots of discomfort. For me and my crew, however, what we'll recall most is how hard we worked right through the teeth of the inclement weather to make a huge project deliverable by its May 2014 deadline. As was reported in the first article of this
When agitated or flowing water moves through the air, it loses carbon dioxide. That's particularly significant in systems with fountain jets, waterfalls or vanishing edges, observes Kim Skinner, with the loss affecting pH in ways that must be dealt with to avoid big problems.
Once U.S. designers and builders "discovered" vanishing edges - probably at some point in the 1980s, although the look emerged long before then with some forward-thinking architects and watershapers - we've never let this highly visual design detail go. I use these edge effects in my designs all the time, and setting them up in the best way possible has
