WaterShapes World
Every year at about this time, I survey my backyard and make certain everything is ready for summer - patio furniture, grill, deck, shade sails, misting system and, probably most important given our usual summer lifestyle, the pool and spa. This year, however, my examination of the watershapes in particular
It is with no small pleasure (and even more relief) that I can announce completion of the digitizing of WaterShapes magazine: Every one of the articles and columns printed in the 131 issues we published between February 1999 and July 2011 are now all available online in .html format. It has indeed been a monumental task - one that started early last
This edition of WaterShapes EXTRA brings back some particularly warm memories for me - and a great sense of pride. [ ] For starters, there's the Essential item about John Lautner by his close associate, Helena Arahuete. "Organic Artistry" (click here) was thekind of feature we only dreamed about running when
I've written quite a bit - and, I think, with passion - about the need to preserve and protect our cultural heritage as it relates to watershapes (click here, for one recent example). There are plenty of grand public pools, classic fountains and even some architecturally significant residential watershapes that
When WaterShapes first appeared in February 1999, those of us behind the magazine had some definite hopes about how things would play out in our declared marketplace. [ ] First was the hope that there really was an emergent
I don't tend to be an alarmist, but I have to say that the mood about the drought here in California is scarier than anything I've witnessed in a lifetime of water awareness. We've been through these episodes before, of course. More times than I can count, the state has been rescued by late-season rains or heavier-than-estimated snowpacks. But this drought seems different, from one end of California to the other - more severe, more desperate, more polarizing and more caught up in quick reactions than in
My job is great: Every other week, I get to sit back and marvel at the array of content we flow into our WaterShapes EXTRA newsletters and onto the WaterShapes.com web site. In each newsletter, we carry two or three items over from the
For me, 2013 ended with a personal revelation. I was sitting at my computer late in the afternoon on December 19, getting ready to wrap up business for the year, close my office door and focus on spending quality time with friends and family through the dozen days leading up to New Year's Eve. As is my habit at the end of
It's been a long time coming: Just ten days ago, after nearly six months of grinding care and effort, the entirety of the WaterShapes magazine archive is now available online as it originally appeared in print. All 131 issues are digitized in .pdf format now, every one of them from our premiere in February 1999 to our analog swan song in July 2011. Many of these issues are still available in printed form if you want to complete your collection, but
If you've spent any time at all looking through the ARTICLES section of WaterShapes.com, I'm certain you'll have noticed that we've been busy: At this point, nearly 1,500 articles have been uploaded to the site, all of them configured in easily searchable .html format. This treasure trove of information has been broken down into topical groups to make the process of navigating everything
