Great Gatsby! If this isn’t the bee’s knees. Haven Pools swept this year’s awards season with an Oyster Bay swimming pool overlooking Long Island Sound that would have impressed F. Scott Fitzgerald himself. The medals won were:
- Gold plus Best of Competition from the Northeast Spa and Pool Association (NESPA);
- Gold from the Long Island Pool and Spa Association (LIPSA), and
- Gold from the Association of Pool and Spa Professionals (APSP): International Awards of Excellence Program.
Impressing the judges, for example, was how the salt water pool begins close to the home’s back covered patio. Here an expansive sun shelf flanks a dramatic nine-foot spa. Then just a step down from the spa, bathers enter a lap pool that shares the same water.
The lap pool, which extends 60-feet, allows swimmers to maximize their body strength. In addition, its vanishing edge — drawing the eye all the way out to Oyster Bay, Centre Island and Long Island Sound —in equal measure restores their spirits.
Main Pool
Cascading from the infinity edge, lap pool water falls over intricately laid stone walls into a stunning lower arched main pool. The drop to the surface of the lower pool’s deep end is five feet.
“We designed such a large drop so it would be safe should anyone be tempted to dive off the edge into the main pool,” says Haven’s Craig Bonawandt. “In fact, when building the pool, this drop caused our biggest challenge. We had to hold up the earth underneath the lap area while we excavated out the deep end of the main pool.”
Many have noted that the pool, patios and house appear beautifully integrated. This is because the pool and house were built at the same time. Haven Pools created the structure for the pool first, so the landscaper and pool designer, Kevin Murphy of Kean Landscaping, could build the numerous terraces around the house and pool simultaneously.
Now how’s that for the cat’s meow!