waterfall
Earlier in this sequence of articles and videos, I mentioned how much I enjoy the fact that pond installation is an improvisational art form: You can roll through a design in your head and sketch it until your pencils are worn to nubs, but the reality is that working with boulders is a process of placement and on-site adjustment that ultimately brings a design vision to life. That's particularly true with waterfalls, which is why this single part of the series encompasses four videos and nearly 40 minutes of running time. And as you will notice, there are probably more
The task highlighted in the video linked below - that is, the process of setting and leveling the skimmer - is right up there at the top of the list when it comes to determining the success or failure of a pond-installation project. In fact, it may be the most important of all with respect to aesthetics, because it's what sets the pond's water level and has a huge amount to do with how things will look to people who approach the water's edge. We don't do the digging for this part of the installation until
The task highlighted in the video linked below - that is, the process of setting and leveling the skimmer - is right up there at the top of the list when it comes to determining the success or failure of a pond-installation project. In fact, it may be the most important of all with respect to aesthetics, because it's what sets the pond's water level and has a huge amount to do with how things will look to people who approach the water's edge. We don't do the digging for this part of the installation until
The task highlighted in the video linked below - that is, the process of setting and leveling the skimmer - is right up there at the top of the list when it comes to determining the success or failure of a pond-installation project. In fact, it may be the most important of all with respect to aesthetics, because it's what sets the pond's water level and has a huge amount to do with how things will look to people who approach the water's edge. We don't do the digging for this part of the installation until
Through the years, one of my favorite advocacies at WaterShapes has had to do with building awareness among watershapers about the health benefits that result from what you all do for a living. We've worked with the National Swimming Pool Foundation on many occasions, for example, lining up articles that have either reported on research related to the specific benefits of swimming and/or water exercise, or told personal stories of what
Through the years, one of my favorite advocacies at WaterShapes has had to do with building awareness among watershapers about the health benefits that result from what you all do for a living. We've worked with the National Swimming Pool Foundation on many occasions, for example, lining up articles that have either reported on research related to the specific benefits of swimming and/or water exercise, or told personal stories of what
It’s not often that a watershaper tackles a job that takes more than two years of complete, full-time effort, but that’s been the case for the project pictured here. For nearly two and a half years, in fact, I devoted virtually all of my working life to this single backyard watershape environment, and as I’ve mentioned in previous articles, there were times when I wondered if I was crazy to get involved with a project of this scope. Indeed, to describe it simply as a “backyard watershape environment” is to fall miles short of conveying the complexity of the systems covered in two previous WaterShapes articles (“When Dreams Grow,” April 2008, click here; and “Layering the Experience,” July 2008, click here): It was a monster project, and there were times I thought the beast had me at a distinct disadvantage. You know all about that, of course, if you’ve followed this sequence of articles, so I won’t belabor the point. Here, we’ll wrap things up by letting the photographs tell most of the story – although I must say the images don’t quite
Several months ago, a big idea crossed my mind and wouldn’t go away. For years now, I’ve been making videos about what I do as a pond designer and installer, and several of these recordings have appeared through WaterShapes EXTRA and WaterShapes.com in the past year or so. What if (I thought to myself), instead of covering things randomly, I switched over to a systematic approach and took the whole
Of all the innovations related to pond technology, design and installation I’ve encountered in recent years, the most curious one to me has always been the “pondless waterfall.” In an industry where the highest aspiration is always toward achieving truly naturalistic results, having the water reach the bottom and percolate into a bed of stones rather than into a large, attractive pool of water leaves the designer or installer with the challenge of making the project work visually (and emotionally) in what can clearly be perceived as an artificial context. To overcome these perceptions,
It’s not every day you get the chance to work on a project that’s going to be seen around the world by millions of people for decades to come. That was exactly the opportunity that came our way in October 1999, when we were asked by the Denver Broncos to construct an elaborate waterfeature at Invesco Field at Mile High, a brand-new stadium that
