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We were
contacted by a family named Pesek who lived near Memorial Drive
on the West side of Houston. They lived in a stately home built
in the late 1950’s. Many years back, they had contracted a
local pool company to install an old lagoon-style pool, which
they had since grown tired of. When they initially called us,
they wanted to know if we could build them an outdoor room at
the far end of the swimming pool. We scheduled a free
consultation at a time convenient to them, and we drove out to
their residence to take a look at the property.
Before
Construction
 After
a quick survey of the back yard, rear of the home, and the
swimming pool, we determined that building an outdoor room as an
addition to their existing
landscaping design would not bring them the results they
expected. The pool was visibly dated with an early “70’s” look,
which not only clashed with the late 50’s style of home
architecture, but guaranteed an even greater clash with any
modern-style outdoor room we constructed. Luckily for the
Peseks, we offered an even better
landscaping plan than the one they had hoped for.
We proposed
the construction of a new outdoor room and an entirely
new swimming pool. Both of these new structures would be
built around the classical geometry of proportional right
angles. This would allow a very modern design to compliment an
older home, because basic geometric patterns are universal in
many architectural designs used throughout history. In this
case, both the swimming pool and the outdoor rooms were designed
as interrelated quadrilateral forms with proportional right
angles that created the illusion of lengthened distance and a
sense of Classical elegance. This proved a perfect complement
to a house that had originally been built as a symbolic emblem
of a simpler, more rugged and absolute era.
Though
reminiscent of classical design and complimentary to the
conservative design of the home, the interior of the outdoor
room was ultra-modern in its array of comfort and convenience.
The Peseks felt this would be a great place to hold birthday
parties for their child. With this new outdoor room, the Peseks
could take the party outside at any time of day or night, and at
any time of year. We also built the structure to be fully
functional as an outdoor kitchen as well as an outdoor
entertainment area. There was a smoker, a refrigerator, an ice
maker, and a water heater—all intended to eliminate any need to
return to the house once the party began. Seating and
entertainment systems were also added to provide state of the
art fun for adults and children alike. We installed a
flat-screen plasma TV, and we wired it for cable.
The swimming
pool was built between the outdoor room and the rear entrance to
the house. We got rid of the old
lagoon-pool design which geometrically clashed with the
right angles of the house and outdoor room. We then had a
completely new pool built, in the shape of a rectangle, with a
rather innovative coping design.
We showcased
the pool with a coping that rose perpendicular to the ground out
of the stone patio surface. This reinforced our blend of
contemporary look with classical right angles. We saved the
client an enormous amount of money on travertine by setting the
coping so that it does not overhang with the tile. Because the
ground between the house and the outdoor room gradually dropped
in grade, we used the natural slope of the ground to create
another perpendicular right angle at the end of the pool. Here,
we installed a waterfall which spilled over into a heated spa.
Although the spa was fed from within itself, it was built to
look as though water was coming from within the pool.
The ultimate
result of all of this is a new sense of visual “ebb and flow,”
so to speak. When Mr. Pesek sits in his couch facing his house,
the earth appears to rise up first into an illuminated pool
which leads the way up the steps to his home. When he sits in
his spa facing the other direction, the earth rises up like a
doorway to his outdoor room, where he can comfortably relax in
the water while he watches TV.
For more the 20 years
Exterior Worlds has specialized in servicing many of Houston's
fine neighborhoods.
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