Monthly Archives: July 2009

Urban and Modern Waterfalls – Ira’s Fountain, Portland, Oregon

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(click any image to enlarge)

As a devoted fan of water in gardens and cities, I find very few things to match its otherwise totally absorbing effect on the mind and soul, set as they are in such urban concentrations. There are few more jarring effects on one while patrolling city streets to match running across a small park devoted solely to some water feature – as if someone insisted on reminding us of natural laws.

Here is a meek little look at the top of one such construction from downtown Portland, Oregon. (It would figure that Lawrence Halprin would have been integral in its making – I have seen few landscape architects since the days of Frederick Olmstead (link in this blog) who have done more electrifying work in changing the ambiance of busy downtown areas into something more compelling and interesting for plain old people just like us.) Anyway, here are my best friends, Steve and Jody Bare, enjoying the sounds and sensations from the top of this fascinating place.

I love the insertion of those Japanese Black Pines in their solo positions smack in the midst of all this water activity. They add yet more Nature, but with their own severe and gorgeous style. Here is another perspective of this small city park, set in the middle of town. The utter placidity mixes with the severity of concrete to provide a sort of soulful splendor no one would ever have imagined could be constructed from such simple and seemingly incongruous products like cement and water. For my money, this is true art.

It’s difficult to get a true perspective on the sheer scope and size of this great water feature. One camera won’t do it justice. But here is an interesting perspective on the sheer power of it all as an extremely handsome – if aging – hillbilly checks it out and I snap his picture from above:

From the top, up some stairs and over on the top side, the noise lessens some and a different and still-interesting perspective emrges as we get to know it better. It literally cries to be explored. So – hey – we sure did!

Climbing:

Climbing:

At the top:  (The top courtyard is continually bisected by feeder streams originating back up the way and fed in the geometric planes and rectangluar streams onto the falls themselves. Severe cuts into the courtyard, studded with these gorgeous individual Pines, make it simply breath-taking to be around. Now and then you get to a place you think is perfect. This is one of those.)

This is your people-friendly park. Note those kids and even my grown-up friends taking advantage of the water like mana from Heaven on this hot Summer morning.

Here’s a few random shots from this falls:

That’s about it.

Here’s a bonus I picked up from Youtube and the Portland people:

From the Portland City Parks Desk:
“Even before remodeling of the Civic Auditorium began in the early 1960s, plans to create an open space across the street were being proposed. The proposal submitted by Lawrence Halprin, the well-known San Franciscan architect who had designed the Lovejoy Fountain a few years earlier, was unanimously approved in 1968. Designed by Angela Danadjieva, the Forecourt Fountain was completed in 1970. 13,000 gallons of water per minute cascade through its terraces and platforms, suggesting the Northwest’s abundant waterfalls. The concrete fountain became an instant city landmark and an internationally acclaimed open space.

In 1978, the fountain was renamed after Ira C. Keller (1899-1978), civic leader and first chairman of the Portland Development Commission (1958-72). Keller pushed through the renewal plan for the South Auditorium area of downtown which included the construction of the Forecourt Fountain. It has been said that “it was Keller’s enormous energy that made urban renewal work in Portland.”

Yes, it IS that loud down below. 😉

Designing Water In The Landscape

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Just because we are heading towards a general water shortage – local exceptional climates notwithstanding – throughout so much of the world, the possible impact of a water garden does not need to be ignored. In fact, once a water feature is up and running, the recirculating nature of them all means that the same water is used over and over again. Yes, depending on the location and the size and nature of the water feature, water can be lost to evaporation and need topping off. But I have lived in some beastly temperatures where I installed many of these and I can readily say the loss from evaporation is not substantial whatsoever.

Believe it or not, I often term these as alternatives to lawns.

Here is a look at a larger water feature we installed in the woods. Most of the pictures taken here were taken the day we finally finished the project. There was no hole to begin with – in fact, we felled large trees to make room for this pond and trucked off the roots. It was the same sort of forest it is now surrounded by when we began – we just claimed the territory for ourselves and the client’s pond. Note the creek of running water spilling inside from the small hill behind. This recirculated water and cleaned and oxygenated it by running over a long series of pebbles and stones in the creek.

(click all images to enlarge)

Here are a couple of different looks at the creek in the above picture. The intense shade of this project made many things possible – a larger body of water which would evaporate far less than one in the Sun allowed us to forget about the potentially nasty effects of algae as well. After all, the Sun is the primary grower of algae. It did imply some extra maintenance dealing with leaves and droppings from the local trees, but that was actually fairly easy. The main thing was how the water cleaned itself in our creek, receiving oxygen in quantities which disallowed too much algae. Honestly, in spire of the size – which was huge – this was a very straightforward project.

A bit closer up, about midway down the 50 foot creek:

Here is the look from back on the deck, looking out from the house towards our creek. The slate-like surface is actually what is called “Bluestone”, a gorgeous and richly-textured stone of more like a granite appearance. The wooden deck is visible from this perspective, and it leads out into the water at the end of this portion of the deck.

This view is from across the pond. Note the deck – it is suspended an inch above the almost always-placid water surface, made to look as close as it actually is. Later, lighting was added below the deck for an unreal but rich lighting experience at night for party-goers and just the enjoyment of the clients. It was hugely effective.

Yes, that is an island in the middle of our lake. That was easily the toughest part of the entire construction and on which caused me a sleepless night or two. Don’t do this at home! 😉

The bridge is the link between the home and the woods across the pond. The water on this side of the bridge was very shallow and represented an effort at creating a sort of swampland/wetlands area. We planted a few wetlands plants – sedges, a bamboo – inside later which grew at a fairly astronomical rate. Little did we know we had created the perfect wetlands. We had to return and thins it by about 80%!

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Below may be my favorite perspective of all at this project. It takes advantage of the water’s placidity to offer some really fine reflections. I absolutely adored the mirror-like quality of the water.

Once again, we got very lucky in the finishing touches. The woods around us were rife with all sort of great things to put at the water’s edge, making this place look as if it had been there forever.

Real Construction – A Cement Waterfall

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So how did we get here?            Yes, that is East Reno/Sparks in the distance.

(Click images to enlarge)

From here?

Well, I am glad you asked! 😉

It wasn’t easy, for one thing. Asked to construct this Infinity Edge Waterfall by the owners, Bo and Sandy, it joined a pretty large laundry list of items they were after. This was their “dream home” and they had saved and invested to get here and they most definitely had a “gamer’s take” on all the bells and whistles they wanted. They both had their own sets of wishes, Sandy’s more towards the planting end, actually, which made she and I friends. Bo, however, really wanted some hot stuff! We made him a Grotto – seen elsewhere in this blog – and he wanted a huge back patio with this Infinity Edge thing cut inside it. The pavers were of a really very cool – tumbled – variety and they already had them more or less picked out. Here they are at the front entry:

When he mentioned the Infinity Edge water feature, he had me. I had wanted to do one of these for long years. Negotiations went smoothly. Ach!  I will feature the entire yard soon – this was your basic mini-Estate. Lots of stuff going on here.

The other deal was that this was one “bony” yard. Truth to tell, there were approximately 800 yards of boulders and rocks parked there from excavations all around the neighborhood and which he had asked for earlier. Needless to say, in subdivisions like this, a builder is more than delighted to get rid of his overburden after excavations and, believe me, one shovel into this particular ground and you encountered rock. They were approximately as common as air. So we got a bazillion lungfuls of rocks.

Nevertheless, onward and upward we strove. First, we dug a hole. Ta da! Halfway there!

Then we began constructing the form. We would consult on the placement of the water edge by referring back to the dining room table and living room windows. From the living room window, one could – ideally – peer over the edge and see the lake down below.

The effect was water-into-water, sort of. So this determined our height, along with the patio which began at his circular patio nearer the house, but just stepped down a bit. The edge of this would determine how far down that step – or steps – would be. So we began.

The trick would be not only in getting the heights right but would also involve insuring that the form itself would stay there while the pouring cement was pounding it. We used a high classification (4500 psi) cement for this, to insure a better product in general. There would be no minimizing the cost – no short cuts. This was to last a while. And a crack would drive anybody crazy! The pile to the right in the above picture is the excavated dirt, by the way. The pile of rocks on the left are just a few of the jewels we had to play with, building extensive walls and that grotto.

Here is a look from the angle in the very top picture, more or less:

I personally drew out the form’s shape and we had painted it along the ground at various junctures during the set-up. We constantly checked and rechecked our levels, needless to say. Here is the form work up closer, getting to the point where we could refine the shape:

The rear “rim” – the swerving piece sticking up 4″ is built on plywood, by the way. This was a cantilever – a protruding cement pad extending out into the pond about 3 feet. Here’s another look where it shows just a bit better:

Please forgive the photographer because these were all taken after a day of work. Anyway, I think we are getting the point. We basically intensified some of the rebar, tying it all together and basically more or less doubling it up from this picture. We also added a light fixture under the cantilever – I mean a big one, too – a virtual headlamp which we had to supply a waterproof seal for. We poured the cement successfully in a very nervous day of work, finishing it as fast as we could owing to the temperature complicating matters – being around 100 degrees. Finally, it was finished!

We ground for a few days with electric grinders, finishing things inside and out of the cement edifice, smoothing it and insuring room above for the pavers which would sit on top of the completed concrete including the edges. It was quite the deal. All the hard work paid off handsomely.

There was also the origin and placement of the recirculating pump to consider, down on the bottom. Needless to say, along with the head lamp I mentioned, a pipe for the water – in this case a big old 4″ pipe – required its own leak proofed inserting into the form to supply the cascade. It looked something like this:

In the end, speaking with Bo, the notion of a clear electric blue color took on more and more resonance for us both and we decided to use that color with our marine enamel application. Here is a look back:

And here is a look from the side: (Note the trough at the front edge. Very subtle, this collects all the water spilling over the Infinity Edge and focuses its flow into a more naturalistic waterfall which cascades down to what results as a very secluded patio. The dark stains in the dirt are from Bo running his irrigation for too long. The buried drip irrigation is the culprit. After his first month’s water bill came in, he ratcheted it down some. He was producing swamp-like conditions in a desert! 😉

We also applied mulch as time went on, removing the rather unsightly appearance and the reminder of such rocky soil. The rocks alongside the stairway were also reset deeper and a bit more ‘organically’ – they were freshly-supplied at the time of this picture.

From the bottom, looking up:

And here, from the top, looking down, we now see the lake next door, water-to-water, as it were.:

Needless to say, the blue color was an excellent choice. The sky looks terrific reflected in it and – at night – the cool electric blue which is as bright as it can be with a strong lamp using an additional blue filter – looks positively electric and fascinating in general.

Bo was pleased as were we.

Random Things – Walls, Pavers, Walkways and Patios

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I just got my scanner fixed and find myself with a new source of showing literally hundreds of pictures from old projects. It’s pretty exciting to me. I’m just going to post some pictures of some of these sites and let them sort of stand in their own. Most were my own designs and all – I guarantee – are my own installs, just some for other businesses.

(click any image to enlarge)

Tumbled Paver Patio, Rock Walls

This was a wall system or two we built using the local rocks from excavations on site. It was freshly taken, pretty much upon completion, so the plants are as yet undeveloped in this picture. However, I sort of prefer this look for purposes of the walls themselves. Yes, they will be pretty much hidden as time goes on, with cascading plants we put near their tops. This was the bottom section of a hidden area we built for a huge project. There is a cascading waterfall 90 degrees to the right, with a pond, which takes the water from this:

The patio and walls are directly below this, on virtually the same line. The Infinity Edge pool send water over that cement edge into a collector which puts it into a waterfall, then recirculates it back up. Again, the look of the foreground are tumbeled (antiqued) pavers.

Two Vastly Different Pathways

Here’s a look catching this project at its very best, in the early Fall. The walk is paved in with Stamped and Colored Concrete. It courses all the way across this back yard which also has a waterfall and creek. Notice also the limited amount of lawn. It is there really for the color contrast, more than anything else. This project was done near Lake Tahoe. This is rather formal compared to the next one:

Now, compared to this one, the difference is obvious. We were able to put together a walk from small pieces of basalt because the purposes of each are different. The cement walkway can support such things as high heels and bare feet because it is sort of ensconced in the middle of “party central”. The one below, meanwhile, is most private and intimate and I think its informality is beguiling for that. It is also very, very simple. Notice a nice place to sit, right on a basalt column:

And around the side to the food and flower garden for this retired couple with walls constructed from pressure-treated 6 x 6’s:

A Vineyard and Firepit

Yee Hawwww! We were able to find an old antique buckboard wagon to give a real Western look to this place. It is the same place with the cement walkway above and this is at its basic terminus. Note the origins of a vineyard. We planted about 5o grape plants there and they have absolutely thrived:

And this is the same place, only closer to where the walk terminates in the other direction. The enlarged area is perfect for tables and chairs and is a great place to warm oneself in the cool evenings hard by Lake Tahoe:

Hey, Hand Me That Tree, Mark!

Here is a one ton tree. This is the business end of about a 16′ foot high Sequoia. It is typical, in many ways, of a scale we love operating at. Having big trees immediatel-planted is a basic dream. It gives any project an already-lived-in look. I show this end just because it deserves a look. It’s fun. And don’t plant this at home…………….not without a big machine!  😉

That’s it for today!