WOODLAND RETREAT from Better Homes & Gardens
by Dan Weeks
June 01, 2002
"We transformed a forest-like backyard into an oasis" says Ron Giannamore, who designed this natural-looking free-form pool. His goal was to make the entire setting seem as if it had always been there. The existing woodland was enhanced with rocks, additional plants and a waterfall. Shimmering at the center of it all is a pool and spa that are enjoyed by the homeowners and their family.
Giannamore's design shows that a pool - potentially the most intrusive of landscaping elements can be integrated into natural terrain. This isn't design that imposes right-angle lines. Instead, the process starts with the rises and dips of the existing landscape, which suggests the shape of the pool. Lavish use is made of natural and simulated-natural materials, and special attention is paid to spots where water and landscape meet. Plants are allowed to spill over the pool's edge, further suggesting that the "pond" has been here all along. The atmosphere evokes a rich botanical garden with nooks for napping and meditating, a poolside patio for dining and entertaining and pea-gravel paths that meander through the foliage.
A pool's design and placement are critical, but ultimately it is the choice of pool and plant materials that make it a success. Here, a boulder interrupts the native granite edging, as though the pool was built around the rock. The pool itself, along with the 17-jet spa, is made of gunite - sprayed concrete - but finished with a blue-gray pebble texture that's reminiscent of a gravel stream bed. Vegetation tumbles down gentle slopes to the pool's edge, the effect, a result of Giannamore's collaboration with the project's landscape architect.
One of the project's most natural-looking elements was actually the most carefully engineered: the waterfall. As with the rest of the project, it started with a sketch. Then, a concrete armature was constructed to support layers of rocks and boulders, which were painstakingly positioned by hand. Some of the rocks were then grooved and channeled, replicating centuries of erosion, to direct the water. Remote-controlled valves regulate the flow so the cascade can be dramatically frothy or serenely soothing.
Paths wander around and behind the pool to add depth to the landscape, and to give visitors a tour of the woodland. With their pea-gravel base, meandering route, and boulder-strewn edges, the paths recall the sensation of walking down a dry creek. Combined with the distant rushing of the waterfall, the walkways bring a subtle reminder of water into the surrounding gardens.