The man who invented the pool coping block as we know it today.
Garrett Eckbo - Landscape Architect. Resident of LA.
POOL COPING
Eckbo also pretty much invented the organic free form swimming pool to go with his free form garden designs. Thankyou Garrett.
Bless his soul!!!
Maybe then coping should be called Eckbo blocks. Next project Michael, specify Eckbo blocks and I’ll go into business producing them at a grand a piece.
Oh, hang on - ABD (builder / architect joke)
So thats where footballers get their haircuts from.
Footballers get their haricuts chosen by their girlfrens - (as distinct from their wives) unless they happen to be Peter Everitt - he definitely chooses his own - if that could be called choice.
I have the bussiness card for the company that did the pool coping for Bondi here somewhere. It was custom shaped to protrude less and handle the punishment of skateboarding. It has some sort of fibre in it (not steel) so that small cracks do not turn into falling chunks like standard coping blocks.
Somehow I don’t think Eckbo was thinking of skateboarding when he came up with either coping or organic shaped curvilinear pools - however it is amazing that in doing so he invented the terrain which goes on to be simulated today in skateparks and gave to skateboarders in essence the opportunity to grind. I propose that at the MOSS Jamb a special award called the Eckbo be given to the coping anihilator on the day.
Great idea Michael. The Eckbo ! Yeah. Count me in. I definetly want one. Just have to move on from the ‘Wimbledon’ grinds I’ve been accused of doing lately. An Eckbo will go beautifully with my King of the Bowl ‘trophy’ from the SOS jam last year (lol ! - thanks Greg, Boris & Co - I’m sure you’ll be stoked to know I wore it again recently at my daughters birthday party, & it won’t be the last time either).
Hey Michael, there’s a luxury hotel in London called “The Hempel”, one of those jobs with a centuries old facade, with ultra modern interiors. One of it’s many rooms has inverted half pipe trannys for a ceiling. This I know because my bro’ (architect, former skater) designed all the rooms and interiors. Obviously for skaters to lie back in bed & dream!
Errol my mum would be pleased to know that her theatrical needle work has not been done in vein to just one performance.
Errol , your enthusiastic response to a bit of chance historical research has made me take responsibility for this.
I’ll try and make an Eckbo Prize Trophy and provide it to the judging panel for the MOSS jam.
Your brother’s work seems like the only appropriate way to respond to a historic building - the architectural equivilant of grinding it no less. Where can I get a look at it - books - websites?
That’s the link to the actual hotel Michael. I’m not sure how to access plans. the link has a few virtual (rotating) images of the lobby, gardens, and one of the (50 odd I think) rooms. Unfortunately it’s not the room with the upside down 1/2 pipe ceiling. BTW Anouska Hempel (designer) comes up with the thematic ideas - my brother Russell turns them into an architectural reality for her, throwing in a few ideas of his own along the way. Much to Russell’s annoyance, she often gets all the kudos. He works for her part time these days whilst developing his own thing. If you check out the lobby, I’m sure it’ll come as no surprise to you that Russ worked for the recently departed H. Seidler in Sydney before setting of o.s.
I promise to grow a Eckbo 'doo before the MOSS Jam and hope to garner the look-a-like coping block trophy.
F*cken hair is the same colour. GREY POWER!
ah, the stories I could tell about Russell Jones and his mad palace of minimalist whiteness …
Ahh yes Errol. Many is the Australian who has propped up the pom or the continental star. I hope your brother gets his due recognition or cuts his own path though those old world fakes. Good that he did his time with harry S., his recent and last building in Bris/Vegas is an absolute gas, kind of has whiskas sticking out a bit like harry’s own sideburns. I’m sad to see harry go, but glad that the lingering stopped - 10 months was a long time to hang around in the twilight zone and it was a fabulous innings.
Now Skate Exec its not the haircut thats the issue. Its the veracity of the grinds that count. The point is that Eckbo earnestly believed there was a better way to resolve the detail of the water and paving edge continium in the swimming pool and came up with the coping block profile. And since I’m led to believe from the eliptical comments you leave on this web site that you have something to do with the building industry - I’m sure you can appreciate how hard that is to get transfered into concrete reality - so to speak. Its just the most amazing fluke that that profile went on to find such perfect pairing with the skateboard truck some 20/30 years or so after its invention. We must honour the man for being as it were part of the history of the origin of the grind.
I think its appropriate that we should point out to the yanks - so obssessed as they are with argueing who did the first F/S air etc, that they are incapable themselves of assembling the entire history and origin of the grind. Do you fit the shorts? Yes. Only we do.
DR. STOOPID The rest is yours to assemble into a convincing and compelling parisian left bank argument.