Dec 13 2010
Valley Pool and Spa of Kelowna BC received a total of four “International Awards of Excellence” at the pool industry’s annual international conference in Las Vegas last month.
Sponsored by the Association of Pool and Spa Professionals (APSP), the association recognizes achievement in the area of pool and spa design excellence. The international competition included entries from Central America, Europe and Australia. Valley Pools received three “Gold” awards (the highest level to be awarded by the association) and one Silver award.
The original swimming pool had to be hand-excavated to make room for this black-tiled beauty.
Each of these pools was designed by world-renown pool designer Skip Phillips, and built by Valley Pool and Spa of Kelowna BC. “We had to overcome some unique challenges on each of these jobs," stated Gene Brown, the owner of Valley Pool.
"For example, the vanishing edge pool with the ‘floating chase lounge’ is actually built on the side of a mountain, a full two stories off the ground. The black-tiled vanishing-edge pool, on the other hand, had an entirely different challenge. We had to demolish and remove an existing swimming pool by hand," stated Brown. “Access to the backyard was just a few feet wide, so we had to jackhammer and wheelbarrow everything out, piece by piece."
“Meanwhile, another lakeside vanishing-edge pool had seriously unstable soil conditions. However, we were able to turn that into a benefit for the homeowner," said Brown. "Knowing how deep we would have to dig, we designed and built a large (approximately 700 ft.²) storage & mechanical room UNDERNEATH the swimming pool. So now all the mechanical equipment is completely hidden from view.”
“The ‘all-natural’ pool was yet another unique accomplishment," stated Brown. “The automatic cover is cleverly hidden under the deck in an underground bunker at one end of the pool. The tracks and the access panels are all hidden, so until you hit the remote control, no one would ever know this pool at automatic cover.
Gene is a certified Platinum-level Member of Genesis 3 Design Group, and a member of the exclusive Society Of Waterscape Designers. Gene specializes in the highly precise “cast-in-place” concrete construction process, meeting exact standards that no other building process can match.
Source: http://www.valleypoolandspa.com