WaterShapes Archives - Page 139 of 421

Pool and spa designs are getting better and better by the day -- deftly contoured, crisply detailed and increasingly elaborate. It's an approach to watershaping that requires Jimmy Reed and his crews to reach beyond excellence, he says, to all-new levels of craft and skill.

Applied Arts

One of the things I like most about working in the watershaping business these days is how clever and creative designers and builders have become at what they do. It's not just the big details such as vanishing edges, play-pool configurations, sun shelves or swim-up bars. And it's about more than beach entries, grottos, laminar jets and cool spillways. Those are all great, every one of them, but what I'm talking about here is the attention to the small things - the subtle ways more and more watershapers are finding to make

Meeting Special Needs

Ponds are often valued for being uniquely calming and comforting. But for a child with autism, these watershapes can also be therapeutic in a number of ways. That's wonderful news for these kids, Mike Gannon observes -- and great for their families as well.

Long neglected, the man-made pond and stream located just a few miles from downtown Philadelphia needed help, big time. As Scott Christie reports, doing so meant carefully digging into the site's history -- and aligning every detail with the client's childhood memories.

Urban Renewal

What we have here is essentially three stories rolled into one. Partly, it's about what happens when a well-established company steps beyond its comfort zone with a major renovation project that involves an unusually large set of unknowns. It's also about what can happen to a property when an old, large, man-made pond system breaks down, time passes and the space reverts to a wild, natural state. And it's about what's involved in pulling a failed

2017/5.1, May 3 — Artful Restoration, Stylish Tiling, Helping Autistic Kids and more

THE ESSENTIAL E-NEWSLETTER FOR WATERSHAPE DESIGNERS, ENGINEERS AND BUILDERS May 3, 2017 www.watershapes.com FEATURE ARTICLE…

Paper Trails

‘I know many of you absolutely dread the permitting process and are even more bothered by inspectors and the inspection process,’ observed David Tisherman near the top of his May 2007 Details column. ‘While this anxiety may be common, it’s nonetheless misguided. ‘Yes,’ he continued, ‘the nitpicking requirements applied in some areas seem unnecessary and, yes, some inspectors can be