Great watershaping is, we believe, all about creating forms within a context. The thoughtful watershaper will survey all the key elements of a project while conjuring a mental picture that's as close to the architect's vision as possible - and then base the work that follows on a solid understanding of both the design and the setting.
It's always most exciting when we're asked to consult with the designer about a project before the lot has been graded and the ideas are still flowing onto the sketch-pad. In those cases where the designer, architect, and homeowner are all the same person and those initial discussions involve the designer's own living space, the nature of this interaction can truly be something special.
At Pure Water Pools, we've had such a privilege on two occasions, both in working with Lynn Pries, a Newport Beach, Calif.-based architect who has spent much of her career designing high-end residences across the United States and Europe. These days, she mostly works on one project at a time, carefully selecting and purchasing a property herself and then seeing to every design detail, inside and out, from start to finish.
So far, we've built two swimming pools for her homes and have been thrilled to work with a designer of her skill and spirit. Both pools were quite simple in many respects and not particularly challenging from a technical standpoint. The excitement came instead from the opportunity to be a part of the process in which integrated environments were created.
BUILDING COLLABORATION
Pries is a thoughtful designer and treats her projects as cohesive ideas in which every element must fit together and complement everything else around it. This is true of the basic architecture and the interior decor, and it extends outdoors to encompass plantings, hardscape, statuary, fountains and watershapes.
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| East Coast Influence: The pool's materials and finishes were selected to fit in seamlessly with the Cap Cod-style home. Even the bluestone came from New England, and all the lines, the lack of hardscape around the pool and the general understated quality of the watershape itself fit within the architect's vision. |
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Her work has an element of whimsy that's underscored by a rich and creative application of classic styles and motifs. She begins by sketching on paper, linking all aspects of house, yard, and water to one central theme. But when it comes to exteriors - and her watershapes in particular, she works with contractors and engineers whose expertise influences her design decisions from the outset.
Our first project with Pries was in North Laguna Beach, Calif., in an exclusive area characterized by beautifully styled homes on relatively small lots perched high above the Pacific Ocean. Although her own property did not directly overlook the beach below, it was just a short walk from the tide pools. The air is always cool and salty, and the feeling of the space is entirely influenced by its proximity to the ocean.
Keying on the surroundings, Pries designed a Cape Cod-style estate, a choice that contrasted with the modernist- and Spanish-Colonial-style homes in the neighborhood but that was perfectly suited to the ocean-front setting. For the exterior design, this translated into clean, straight lines used to define boundaries and mark contrasts and into a rectilinear pool with an understated spa tucked into a corner where it virtually disappears.
The materials she selected had a great influence on the details of the work and the final results. New England bluestone was used to create a flat, elegant coping with a rich combination of deep blues, steel grays and hints of earthy brown. (When the project was completed and the pool filled, we were delighted to see that much of the stone border transformed the medium-gray plaster inside the pool into a dark, almost metallic marine gray.)
The simplicity of the rectangle and the hues of the stone are heightened by the lack of any nearby hardscape. the grass grows right up to the verge of the coping, letting the blades soften the sharp edges of the raised stone face. Down the length of one side of the pool there are five pairs of simple pillars, all finished in a soft gray to blend with the coping and supporting a continuous grape arbor. |
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