Swimming with the Stars: 12 Celebrities' Cool Pools From Bob Vila Maybe it is Cher's infinity edge that you would like to mimic in your own outdoor living space complete with custom inground swimming pool. Perhaps the rustic look of...
CELEBRITIES' FAVORITE POOLS, PART I Gerard Butler, Katy Perry, Chelsea Handler, Miley Cyrus, Julianne Moore, Steven Tyler, Heidi Klum, and other A-listers reveal their dream pools It's easy to watch the Oscars or the Golden Globe awards and see if...
Top 10 Hotel Swimming Pool Views From a rooftop pool in Los Angeles to a floating pontoon in Lake Como, the best swimming pool views from around the world. From Travel & Leisure The age old addage pertaining to real...
20 AWESOME PERSONAL SWIMMING POOLS THAT YOU CAN'T SWIM IN from gadget review We have dug deeper than any others before us to find the most incredible, luxurious swimming pools from around the world. From a swimming pool with a...
Trends: Top 10 Most Popular Pool Features from the APSP From stunning waterfalls to fiber optic lighting, the features currently available to consumers purchasing a swimming pool or enhancing their current pool are both impressive and vast. Most of us...
The pool pictured here, the Ubud Hanging Gardens pools in Bali, is one of the amazing pools in this article. The most striking feature of this hotel is its multi-levelled hanging infinity pools, with curves that mimic the shape of...
by Matt Giovanisci, Swim University July 10th, 2012 We've been hit with a heatwave in the US and it's getting harder and harder to keep cool. Especially when you're swimming pool is now 90 degrees from all that heat! What...
Opening A Shell
By James Atlas
Final Installment
Boundless Intricacy
As you might also recall from the February 2008 feature, figuring out how to separate the indoor and outdoor pools proved to be a surprising challenge.
The swim channel under the clamshell was intended to allow easy access between the two pools, but the client (who knows as well as anyone how raw the winters can get in the Chicago area) wanted to be able to close the channel off when the weather turned cold.
That seemingly direct thought resulted in a three-year odyssey that led us to multiple engineers and system fabricators in quest of a workable solution. The irony is, what now appears to all the world to be a simple, retractable acrylic panel – perhaps the least visually arresting element in the entire project – was by far the most difficult effect to achieve.
Shell Games
by James Atlas
Part V
Flood of Details
Indeed, it wasn't long before we were very happy we'd provided room for expansion: After we'd set up and buried the outdoor chase under tons of gravel and concrete, the project evolved to include 16 substantial change orders that called on us to use just about every available line we'd set up. What had been just a swimming pool now became a complex including an outdoor hot/cold therapy spa, a play pool, a waterfall and elaborate fire and lighting effects.
The therapy spa is accessed by a set of steps adjacent to the channel leading into the sauna, the thought being to create an indoor/outdoor therapy zone. The spa's elliptical shape echoes the design of the indoor pool, and it features multiple jets as well as tile inlays from Craig Bragdy Design and a pedestal for a piece of sculpture (yet to be selected).
Shooting the outdoor pool was a major exercise in logistics, with multiple crews working in various areas around the site until they all came together to take care of the main pool's huge floor. Once the shell was ready, another stunning tile composition was set in place to mark a swim lane running the full length of the 60-foot pool.
Work on the outdoor pool began while the pool house was still taking shape. Key to success in all subsequent stages was making certain we set things up for plumbing, electrical and assorted other runs – with plenty of...