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The Berry
family of Houston, Texas hired us to do
swimming pool renovation in their backyard. The pool was
badly in need of repair. Its surface, plaster, tile, and coping
all needed reworking. The Berry’s had finally decided it was
time to do something about this, so they contacted us to inquire
about swimming pool restoration. We told them that we could
certainly repair the damaged elements. After we took a closer
look at the pool, however, we realized that more was required
here than a cosmetic solution to wear and tear.
Because of some serious design flaws, the aesthetic of the pool
worked against surrounding
landscape design. The rear portion of the pool was framed by
architectural wall, and the water was surrounded by a brick and
bluestone patio. The problem lay in the fact that the wall was
too tall.
Preconstruction:
It created a
sense of separation from the remainder of the yard, and it
obscured the view of a beautiful arbor that had been built
beneath the trees behind the pool. It also hosted a
contemporary-style, sheer-descent
waterfall fountain that looked too modern for a traditional
lawn and
garden design. Restoring this wall to its proper
relationship with the landscape would turn out to be one of the
key elements to our swimming pool renovations work.
We began by lowering the wall the wall so you could see the
arbor and trees in the backyard more clearly. We also did away
with the sheer-descent waterfall that clashed with surrounding
backyard landscape design. We decided that a more traditional
fountain would be more appropriate to the setting, and more
aesthetically apropos if it complimented the brick and bluestone
patio.
To create this façade, we had to reconstruct the wall with
bluestone columns rising up through the brick. These columns
matched the bluestone in the patio, and added a stately form to
the otherwise plain brick wall. Each column rose slightly higher
than the top of the wall and was capped at the top.
Thermal-finish weirs crafted in a flame detail jutted from under
the capstones and poured water into the pool below.
To draw greater emphasis to the pool itself as a body of water,
we continued our swimming pool renovation with an expansion of
the brick coping. This drew greater emphasis to the body of
water within its form, and helps focus awareness on the
tranquility created by the fountain. We also removed the
outdated diving board and replaced it with a diving rock. This
was safer and more attractive than the board.
We also extended the entire pool and patio another 15 feet
toward the right. This made the entire area a more relaxed and
sweeping expanse of hardscape. While doing so, we expanded the
brick coping around the pool from 8 inches to 12 inches. Because
the spa had a rather unique shape, we decided to replace the
coping here with custom brink interlace style that would fit its
irregular design.
Now that the swimming pool renovation itself was complete, we
sought to extend the new sense of expansiveness into the rest of
the yard. To accomplish this, we built a walkway out of
bluestone stepping pads that ran across the surface of the water
to the arbor on the other side of the
fountain wall.
This unique pathway created invitation to the world of the trees
beyond the water’s edge, and counterbalanced the focal point of
the pool area with the arbor as a secondary point of interest.
We built a terrace and a dining area here so people could remain
here in comfort for as long as they liked without having to run
back to the patio or dash inside the kitchen for food and
drinks.
Thanks to our swimming pool renovation, everything at the Berry
residence is now more in scale with the home and surrounding
landscape, and the new seating areas around the pool and the
arbor provide better vantage points to enjoy the yard from a
multitude of viewpoints.
Since 1987,
Exterior Worlds has specialized in servicing many of Houston's
fine neighborhoods.
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