{"id":9588,"date":"2014-03-28T13:52:47","date_gmt":"2014-03-28T17:52:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=9588"},"modified":"2014-03-28T13:52:47","modified_gmt":"2014-03-28T17:52:47","slug":"edgeless-in-vacationland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/edgeless-in-vacationland\/","title":{"rendered":"Edgeless In Vacationland"},"content":{"rendered":"

April 2014 | view this story as a .pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

We cling to our illusions up here at the end of the world.<\/h3>\n

by Colin W. Sargent<\/p>\n

\"Edgless-in-Vacationland\"<\/a>You\u2019ve got to dig Jackie Tapley, Maine\u2019s grand dame of swimming pool excavation. She started Aquatic Development by Tapley 52 years ago. Now, she\u2019s on the leading edge of edgelessness.<\/p>\n

\u201cInfinity edge, negative edge, vanishing edge\u2013they\u2019re called by many names,\u201d she says of the design. \u201cAfter we first brought the beautiful vanishing-edge pools to our clients, word got around. Now, more and more clients are asking for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the dark days before there was such a pool in Maine, \u201cWe showed our first customer, a gentleman from Castine, pictures from France\u201d to get the idea across.<\/p>\n

When his creation leapt like a blue gem into the Atlantic, the buzz started and landscape designers started driving slowly by. \u201cSuddenly my son, Lani Tapley,\u201d was tapped to design negative-edge pools for celebrity builders from \u201cthe Knickerbocker Group in Boothbay and Wright-Ryan Construction in Portland.\u201d<\/p>\n

Behind the Illusion<\/strong><\/p>\n

The trick is, \u201cthe water travels over the dam wall and into the catch pool. The overflowing water can be slow (over the invisible edge) or very fast (sheer sheeting over the dam wall).\u201d<\/p>\n

It works best when clients get to see \u201cthe areas of the lawn where it doesn\u2019t<\/em> vanish\u201d in order to better appreciate where it does.\u201d When the magic hits you like a stun gun, \u201cthe water looks as if the ocean or lake is touching the pool.\u201d<\/p>\n

The cost of sheer elegance starts at \u201c$129,000, the least expensive project we\u2019ve done,\u201d and rises to \u201cover $500,000. These numbers are for just the pools, streams, spas, and equipment connected to them.\u201d If a project includes further illusion-reinforcing underpinnings \u201csuch as landscaping, rock walls, and underground caves for filters, it could go over a million.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Route 88, one of her negative-edge pools surprises with \u201cthree waterfalls on one side\u201d as the shimmer renews itself, fountain-like, from the catch pool.<\/p>\n

If the occasion presented itself, what sort of edgeless book might Tapley recommend to her clients to read beside their edgeless pools?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe kind that keeps you reading all night until you finish it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Irresistible Impulse<\/strong><\/p>\n

Psychologist Frank Luongo of Portland is intrigued by what\u2019s behind this flirting with being and nothingness:<\/p>\n

\u201cArt of all kinds expresses the spirit of the times in which it is created and symbolizes\u00a0 human yearnings and desires.<\/p>\n

\u201cThink of the imposing and stately buildings of the Federal period with their massive and impressive facades\u2026\u201d America was a new country, a bit unsure of itself; what you need to project, you design.<\/p>\n

\u201cThink of the ornate buildings and architecture of the Victorian era which communicate a sense of wealth and fanciful artistry.<\/p>\n

\u201cModern designs in architecture reflect\u00a0 yearnings of the human spirit for a unification with the universal, with the infinite, with that which does not restrict or limit us, with that in which there are no boundaries.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuch yearnings are expressed in different ways throughout history. Religious feelings\u2013of unification with the divine, cosmic consciousness, the loss of individual identity in the more feverish states of religious experiences including trances and the like\u2013are ways of erasing the painfully limited boundaries of being an individual in the vast universe in which we, with more and more awareness, are briefly alive\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cInfinity pools serve multiple purposes as architectural and experiential art. They are beautiful in their simplicity and a status symbol for the owner. They are, it seems by looking at them, capable of immersing one in an environment where the boundaries are, by design, eliminated and yes, they create an element of danger because they present us with the experiential possibility of going too far, going over the edge. Who doesn\u2019t want to flirt with the infinite? Who doesn\u2019t want to experience endlessness?\u201d<\/p>\n

Lost Horizon<\/strong><\/p>\n

Infamously, Lance Armstrong recently snapped at New York Times<\/em> reporter Juliet Macur, who interviewed him overlooking his pool at his Austin, Texas, estate just before it was sold: It\u2019s a \u201cnegative edge<\/em> pool, not <\/em>an infinity pool. Get it right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hey, you do what you have to do when you\u2019re staring into the abyss.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

April 2014
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