A Tasteful Genesis

The best backyards on the planet are a marriage of the setting to appropriate architecture, thoughtful landscaping, tailored hardscape and, of course, a refined watershape. That’s the ideal, and it is a level of artistic performance to which more and more pool designers and builders are striving these days – including those featured in this pictorial. Beyond skill and talent, what these professionals have in common is that all are graduates of the Genesis 3 Design School.

Good pool design isn’t something that happens by chance.

It’s the product of a mental discipline applied to the entire setting, from one end of the yard to the other. It’s the result of an over-arching vision that incorporates the watershape as a desirable component in a whole tapestry of textures, traditions, shapes, surfaces, highlights, spaces, contours and lines that please the eye, gratify the soul and bring a smile to the face of the observer.

Perceiving this integration is often intuitive, but you can tell when it’s been done right. You also can tell when the mark has been missed and can spend minutes or hours (or days) unraveling and considering everything from severe challenges and missed opportunities to lapses in focus or simple errors in taste and judgment. If your head’s in the right place, you’ll probably learn more from the problem pool than you will from the gem.

Putting pool-industry heads in that right place is part of the thoughtful, reflective approach to pool design offered in the Genesis 3 Design School, which has convened three times and has now touched the sensibilities of more than 75 designers and builders. While school is in session, participants are immersed in an ocean of information on design principles, technical issues, presentation techniques and, perhaps most forcefully of all, on attitude and mindset. The basic message: Every pool can be special, appropriate and expressive of the highest standards of craft and excellence.

WORKS IN PROGRESS

The development of a design “style” isn’t something that happens overnight: It emerges and evolves with time.

Capturing a stage of that evolution is the motivation behind this pictorial, which features the current work of a selection of graduates of the Genesis 3 Level I Design School. The images on these pages constitute a baseline of sorts – a look at the work of individual designers who have opened themselves to the Genesis philosophy.

Some of that work is outstanding already, either in whole or part; some of it reveals the designer’s room for growth. In all cases, however, the projects are offered by pool people who have a growing sense that their work is about more than dropping a watershape in a yard.

We’ll check in with these builders from time to time in years to come to see how their learning experiences at the Genesis school and elsewhere have shaped their sensibilities and influenced their work.

Steve Swanson
Genesis 3 Design School Level 1 • September 1998

The Pool Company • Clayton, California

Michael Nantz
Genesis 3 Design School Level 1 • March 1999

Elite Concepts • Denton, Texas

Alexis Henderson • Greg Ginstrom
Genesis 3 Design School Level 1 • March 1999

Premiere Pool Co. • Melbourne, Florida

Douglas J. Hackl
Genesis 3 Design School Level 1 • September 1998

Hackl Pool Construction • Lake Worth, Florida

Where Genesis Meets WaterShapes

When the Genesis 3 Design Group emerged early in 1998, Brian Van Bower, Skip Phillips and David Tisherman began their pursuit of a formidable pair of missions: to become the international resource for higher expectations in watershape design and to take the leadership role in the refinement of hydraulics, structures and cosmetic innovations.

WaterShapes also surfaced early in 1998 in preparation for its first issue in February 1999, and from the start we’ve felt an affinity for what Genesis is all about. In fact, we’ve deliberately cast ourselves as a printed expression of that mission. It therefore should come as no surprise that we’ve collaborated closely with and drawn freely from the group’s founders: Brian has written our “Aqua Culture” column in every issue; Skip has written on innovative edge treatments; and David has offered multiple articles that define his approach to pool design and construction.

We’ve also run an article by Michael Nantz, 1999 chairman of NSPI’s Builders Council and a graduate of the first Genesis 3 Design School in 1998, and printed articles by design-school instructors Mark Holden, Steve Gutai, Larry Parmelee and Wayne Schick, Fred Hare and Ron Lacher. They’ve offered a flood of information, with more to come.

It is our strong sense that Genesis 3 has blazed a trail in a wholly new direction. We are pleased, proud and privileged to share their vision – and to do what we can to communicate these principles to the entire watershaping community.

– Jim McCloskey, Publisher

Richard Terry • Kurt Schlicht
Genesis 3 Design School Level 1 September 1998/September 1999