Feature: Water Works

Jake Klein

07/01/2005

The great modernist architect Philip Johnson, when asked about using water as a design element, said, “The best thing to do with water is to use a lot of it.”

Integrating water into a residential landscape speaks to our desire to lay claim to nature; by controlling its flow, we feel as though we are in control of our world. The rhythmic presence of moving water can mean the difference between an inviting backyard and a lifeless outdoor space. Enter any Japanese garden–the benchmark of harmonious landscape design–and you will undoubtedly encounter water features. And the dominion over water has long been associated with the advancement of the world’s great civilizations: One need look no further than the great Roman aqueducts.

The design of water features has evolved considerably since the days of the overwrought Renaissance-style courtyard fountains found in almost every Southern California tract home. Gone are the tacky cement cherubs and busty spouting mermaids; modern water features are bigger, more technologically advanced and more visually striking than their predecessors. Ponds stocked with fat game fish, fire-spewing jets, computer-controlled fiber-optic lighting systems and undulating lagoons are just some of the many elements that distinguish contemporary water features.

Following are conversations with four of the world’s top water-feature designers:

SKIP PHILLIPS, QUESTAR POOLS AND SPAS
Skip Phillips is widely recognized as one of the greats in the industry. Having started the world’s only school for pool and spa designers, Genesis 3, he is passionate about passing innovative water design on to a new generation. Though he is often touted as the finest infinity-edge pool designer in the world, Phillips’ other water creations are equally spectacular.

Granite tile was used for a spa and pool installation in Fallbrook, Calif. (Click image to enlarge)

What are some of your favorite projects?
A fun one that we did was a retrofit in Palm Springs where there was a granite ball on top of a column that floats and rotates on an axis and also oscillates–completely balanced on water.  Even though this ball weighs 3,000 pounds, you can put your hands on it and stop it from spinning. Imagine a stone ball balanced on a film of water . . . amazing.

What makes a water feature successful?
It shouldn’t overpower you.

Phillips says he looks for proportion and texture when choosing rock and boulders for organic-style water features. (Click image to enlarge)

What are some of the challenges in creating water features?
The challenge is the intellect of the people who put these designs together. There is often an intellectual gap between the designer and the construction team. Of course, there is a whole host of concerns regarding design and construction. For example, if you are creating an indoor feature, you must consider the problems of controlling splash, water loss and temperature changes.

What trends do you see happening in residential water-feature design?
Fiber optics, fire effects and homes that appear to float on water. Though we try to focus on the tranquillity of water, we just did a project in which the water projects 16 feet and is lit by fiber-optic light tracers. We project these plumes of water through a gel that picks up fiber-optic light. We are also just beginning construction on a vacation home in San Jose del Cabo where there will be the illusion that the home floats–it appears to be completely surrounded by water. It’s a top-down world. People with the economic wherewithal have the means to bring in the experts to create the outrageous effects that you see in commercial buildings. For example, the laminars–the devices that create the plumes of water for the Bellagio–were once $40,000 apiece, but you can get one now for under $2,000.

Questar Pools and Spas
760.751.2507
www.questarpools.comLOTHAR EHRICH, EHRICH & EHRICH
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS
New Jersey landscape architecture firm Ehrich & Ehrich was founded more than 30 years ago by brothers Herbert Ehrich Jr. and Lothar Ehrich. The two German émigrés started the the idea that they could take their old-world knowledge of craftsmanship and apply it to the discerning American luxury home market. Known for their exquisite waterscapes, often designed for New Jersey’s largest private estates, the brothers recently received an award from the Northeast Spa & Pool Association for best residential water feature in the world.

What makes Ehrich & Ehrich stand out from other companies?
I visit the old country as much as I can to collect architectural antiques and use them in our designs. Our customers like substance in their lives, and old things give them a sense of belonging. I collect things that I love and pass them along to our customers. I have had a gargoyle in my holding yard for 15 years.

Ehrich & Ehrich created a marble elliptical staircase, topped with a Pegasus, to divide a pond and a swimming pool for a home in New Jersey; the structure was inspired by a gateway in France. (Click images to enlarge)

Describe some recent projects.
We built an elliptical water staircase–on one side, water dumps into the pool, and on the other, into a pond. The piece is crowned with a hand-carved Pegasus. We also just created a piece of stonework in the exact likeness of the customer’s Siberian husky, which sits beside a water feature.

What is the key to your success?
The key thing is the people you hire. You have to cover your bases. You need a backup plan.

What are some recent trends?
People are asking for the over-the-top. We’re creating a game fish pond for one of our clients. We work with a biologist to tell us what kind of game fish to use, what size pond. Game fish ponds are typically three-quarters to one acre in size and 9 feet deep, and stocked with a spectrum of game fish, from stripers to largemouth bass.

Ehrich & Ehrich Landscape Architects
732.329.3888
www.ehrichandehrich.com

ED GIBBS, GIB-SAN POOL AND LANDSCAPE CREATIONS
Gib-San has differentiated itself from other landscape design companies by garnering an ISO 9001 rating–a system developed to maintain quality control for manufacturers. This achievement, normally bestowed on companies like Coca-Cola and IBM, is unprecedented in the water-feature design industry. The Ontario, Canada, company is known for creating pioneering water features for luxury homes around the world–pools, ponds and fountains that borrow from nature and work with the existing terrain.

What is your design credo?
We make sure that [our features] are pleasing to the eye, that the sight lines are correct and that the noise produced by the water is sufficient to drum out ambient noise or complement the space.

What have your clients been asking for recently?
The use of natural rock is a big trend. Also, customers are looking for true craftsmanship. Within the last three or four years, adding a simple water feature onto the property has been popular. I believe the reason is partly the resorts. The large resorts always have some form of water structure. Water is about life. It has a soothing mental effect. The Japanese understand this–from koi ponds to a faint trickle of water. People are more savvy because of the Internet and are asking how they can have a little bit of that natural park look in their own backyard.

What are some of your standout projects?
We recently created a feature in an urban residence that looked like a northern Ontario forest stream. We have carved an entire pond out of rock on an island in the middle of Georgian Bay. Most of our residential water features are attached to a pool. We also do lots of large features that are in the entryways to large estates.

Designer Ed Gibbs and team carved a freshwater pond out of the granite of the Canadian Shield for a home on the Georgian Bay in Ontario. They dammed each end and built a cedar walkway. (Click image to enlarge)

Gib-San Pool and Landscape Creations
416.749.4361
www.gibsanpools.comMARK HOLDEN, HOLDENWATER
Southern California landscape architect and contractor Mark Holden has become renowned in the last few years for his work on several major estates. Among the standouts is Cima del Mundo, a spectacular Montecito ranch on 50 acres. Holden was charged with the task of creating the entire outdoor environment. The pool alone cost $750,000, with an additional $2.25 million going to the construction of numerous water features that are virtually indistinguishable from the older elements on the property. Holden also lectures on his craft at Genesis 3.

An Italian limestone fountain on the north lawn. (Click image to enlarge)

What is the key to your success? 
I have merged landscape architecture and construction with water architecture and design knowledge. I teach landscape architects about building and teach builders about landscape architecture–and am trying to merge those two industries together. Successful water architecture is a combination of design and construction skills.

Cantera stone used for a courtyard fountain was artificially aged by artisans. (Click image to enlarge)

What distinguishes your work?
I have done a lot of historical restoration. I created a niche for myself by coming into homes that were built in the teens and the 1920s and recreating a landscape that is historically accurate. The project in Montecito is now for sale for $40 million. Over a three-year period and with $3 million, we did everything from bringing in fountains by helicopter and by crane to building a pool on a 75-foot concrete structure. It was like building a freeway on-ramp and putting a pool on top of that.

A quaint precast concrete model. (Click image to enlarge)

What are some of the challenges in creating water features?
Clients should consider how far they are willing go with their concept. I am more a psychologist than a designer in the preliminary phase. Water is one of the most affecting elements in the environment: We have a deep instinctual connection with water. On a practical level, you should understand geology and be willing to support something in really poor soil underground.

What have your clients been asking for as of late?
A lot more artificial rock is being requested. Vanishing-edge pools. A return to some of the master concepts; pool construction didn’t start 45 years ago, it started 4,500 years ago. I’m seeing a resurgence of classic Greco-Roman water-feature elements and re-creations of the Italian High Renaissance—style water features.

HoldenWater
714.626.0333
www.waterarchitecture.com