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For all the staying power of traditional concrete pools, alternative construction types have gained popularity in recent years for a variety of impactful reasons. Case in point, builder/designer Kevin Fleming recently turned to a pre-manufactured pool shell as a way to streamline the installation process and reduce the risk of construction defects

From concept to completion, this project walked a narrow path between the modernist inclinations of the homeowners and the traditional surroundings in which their property was situated, notes watershaper and landscape designer Kevin Fleming. But that stylistic balancing act was easy to manage, he says, compared to executing the project’s fine details, including walls that seem to float in space, a complex hardscape plan and a seamless all-glass-tile finish.

Over a two-year span, watershaper Kevin Fleming and the staff at Lipinski Estate Pools have experienced a nearly complete transformation of focus and purpose. Once designers and builders of ‘ordinary’ gardens and watershapes, they now aim exclusively at custom work for an unabashedly high-end clientele. The results, says Fleming, are greater creative opportunities and satisfaction in the meticulous crafting of exterior spaces and watershapes.

When a capable low- to mid-range pool builder decides to make the transition to high-end custom work, says Kevin Fleming, everything changes: The entire focus of the work shifts, and so do all aspects of the company’s daily routines. To illustrate, he discusses the transformations taking place at his company – and his sense that things will never be the same now that they’re working to build pools worthy of being called ‘art.’