By Jean Sealey
Northeast Florida Builders
Association
Sweetwater Design Group maintains that great design - something that looks authentic to the site and not contrived, combined with low-cost functionality - is the hallmark of well-built water features.
Sweetwater Design Group offers creative design, construction planning, specification details, bid evaluation and project management resources to a diverse group of clients.
Sweetwater Design Group’s principal David Duensing has the distinction of having trained across the related industries combined with more than 25 years of water feature construction and trouble-shooting experience.
As the recent past president of the National Association of Pond Professionals, Duensing spearheaded the educational and certification effort and wrote the educational curriculum to begin to raise the standard of construction for this specialty. A member of the Northeast Florida Builders Association, Duensing believes in the importance of elevating skills through certification programs for the industry specifically, installation methods and construction details.
“Good design isn’t expensive, but bad design is,” Duensing said. “We apply our knowledge and expertise as early as possible to help our clients avoid unnecessary expenses during or after a project is completed.”
Typically, with water feature construction the design plans are left to be interpreted by a general contractor and often lack the detailed language to deploy the construction of exactly what the architect or designer intended. Without a thorough grounding of the creative and scientific requirements within this specialty, the final product composition is left to the interpretation of the installer.
“Fifty percent of our business is troubleshooting after a project is underway or worse, completed,” Duensing said. “Many of our clients — whether professionals or owners — have spent a considerable sum of money to design a water feature only to have the finished product not perform properly or look nothing like what had been originally designed. To their regret it is more costly to fix it than it would have been to do it right the first time.”
Doing it right the first time from concept to completion is what Sweetwater Design Group offers clients. The company maintains a strong communicative relationship and takes pride in executing projects beyond a client’s expectations
As the demand for product distinction becomes more competitive for residential and commercial developers — coupled with a growing environmental appreciation, many new water feature design opportunities will develop
Water features spark the interest of everyone regardless of age, culture, geography or access. Water features built outdoors or indoors have generated appreciation through centuries of time for their beauty and soothing attributes. The real challenge is to design water features well and construct them correctly.