My father used to say, “Remember your Five P’s. Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance.” It would seem that, when it comes to building a pool, the “Five Ps” could easily be transformed to the Six Ps: Prior Planning of your Pool Prevents Poor Performance. When your outdoor living space is created with forethought and an eye toward your lifestyle, and the future you will be happier in the long run. According to Michael Rockwell, Master of the Southwest landscape architect and co-owner of Azul-Verde Design Group in Cave Creek, one of the greatest and most common mistakes that a homeowner can make is to build a pool and then leave the surrounding landscape as an afterthought. He explains, “Too often, pools are built with no thought of the overall orientation or integration with the existing home and space – no thought to the future. Someone has to come in after a pool is built and then make the area around it look pretty. The result is a loss of continuity, quality, and overall integration.” Rockwell takes a holistic approach to pool and landscape design. When he meets his clients he not only looks at the space he is working with, but also considers who they are and what they are striving to accomplish. He works with the visual as well as the physical aspects of a given space. Trends, by their very nature, come and go. Rockwell warns against jumping on the bandwagon and slapping something into your design because you saw it at someone else’s home last Saturday night. He says, “Way too often these features are overused, copy cat, flavor-of-the-day, and ultimately underutilized.” In fact, there are some dangerous trends that homeowners should avoid when planning for a pool. These include the
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