enesis 3 burst onto the pool and spa scene in 1998. The founders, who were disillusioned pool builders, said the majority of water-scapes weren’t being built up to snuff. David Tisherman, Skip Phillips and Brian Van Bower claimed that most contractors didn’t base their practices on sound pool design or construction principles, but rather on habits they had learned as novices.
The group’s philosophy was a breath of fresh air for restless builders who shared their views. However, the founders’ confrontational style polarized many pool professionals. In fact, some believe the group does harm by negatively depicting the industry, sometimes in front of landscape professionals and the public.
“Our industry is full of smart people,” says Ron Coker, president of Master Pools by Artistic Pools Inc., an Atlanta-based Pool & Spa News Top Builder. “That’s not to say [the Genesis 3 founders] aren’t some of them, but they aren’t all of them.”
Personalities aside, the industry has seen several changes since Genesis 3 began. More builders consider themselves part of the high-end niche, and many organizations have increased their advanced design and construction courses. While most would disagree that Genesis 3 single-handedly shifted the environment, many concede it hastened the industry’s evolution.
Philosophical underpinnings
Genesis 3 began with an idea and a lot of attitude. For instance, the group believes the high-end market drives the rest of the industry by attracting the most press and inspiring consumers to buy pools. Thus, high-end builders must be more professional, knowledgeable and tuned into the upscale lifestyle than the average installer.
Tom Driscoll, who attended their very first seminar, concurs. “People were doing these so-called high-end [pools], and they were structural, hydraulic nightmares,” says the president of Cabana Aquatech Pools in Houston. “What Genesis has done is help us take it a step further, so we’re not just doing it the same old way, saying, ‘I’ve been doing it that way 30 years!’ ”
Genesis 3 also believes that education needs to be more structured and comprehensive, including shared knowledge from professionals outside the industry. The founders brought this home with their first Level I Design School. It was a four-day gathering with presentations on basics such as structural engineering, loftier topics such as art history and perspective drawing, a field trip to the Hearst Castle pools — and a few thousand dollars’ worth of fine lodging, dining and wine.
At the time, the group wasn’t trying to change the world. “We were seeking a higher level of education for ourselves and couldn’t get anyone else to do it,” says co-founder Van Bower, who’s also president of Aquatic Consultants, a pool design firm in Miami.
“We didn’t have other specific industry goals, and we didn’t think it was going to be a long affair,” he adds. “We thought we were going to do a couple of schools, and that would be the end of it.”
That mind-set quickly changed, and today two Level I courses are offered each year. The founders added a Level II school, several “special focus” courses on topics such as waterfeatures and drawing. They also make appearances at organizations inside and outside the pool realm.
Van Bower says approximately 500 professionals have gone through Genesis 3’s courses, with about 20 percent coming from the landscape field.
Recently, the group started two sub-groups: the Genesis 3 Associates and the Association of Professional Watershape Designers. These organizations are designed to help builders benefit from growing consumer interest. To increase its own visibility, Genesis 3 places advertisements in high-end magazines such as The Robb Report and most recently Overtime, a magazine for professional athletes.
An industry jump-start?
Genesis 3 struck the industry like a stone in a pond, and the ripples have reverberated throughout. Some of today’s brashest up-and-comers have attended Genesis 3 programs and become converts, redefining themselves as high-end builders. For these students, the program and its founders provided inspiration and a road map for growth.
“We’ve had lots of people say, ‘This has been the best thing I’ve ever done,’” Van Bower says. “And they give us concrete evidence of changes in income, level of satisfaction with their performance and increased self-worth.”
Genesis 3 presented one of the industry’s first cohesive, multitiered educational packages aimed at builders. Afterward, other educational programs featured more advanced topics and instructors from outside the industry. But Genesis 3 doesn’t deserve complete credit for industrywide changes, say veteran pool professionals.
The industry started making headway before Genesis 3 came on the scene. For instance, NSPI was in the process of working on its Certified Building Professionals program. “I think what Genesis did was provide an impetus and urgency,” says Tom Moneta, president of Leisure Living Pools in Frisco, Texas. “But I think NSPI was definitely going that way.”
Others say that instructors such as Lew Akins, a pool consultant who has taught countless courses, were already elevating the level of information being offered. “I think he demystified vanishing-edge pools,” says Paulette Pitrak, who heads the educational program at the Northeast Spa & Pool Association, an NSPI affiliate. “I think builders as a whole are becoming more confident [because of that].”
But many believe that Genesis 3 moved the process along. “With Genesis being a much smaller organization, they went in and said, ‘This is how we’re going to do it,’ and they did it,” Moneta says. “So they expedited the program, in my opinion,” and served as a precursor to other programs.
The group also prompted NSPI to re-evaluate its purpose, Pitrak says. Geared to the upscale market, Genesis 3 priced its programs to match: Attending these courses costs thousands of dollars. This put off many builders — and NSPI positioned itself in response.
“I think [Genesis 3] has made everybody reassess how they’re doing training and what they want to focus on,” Pitrak says. “It cleared up who their audience was going to be. NSPI wants to cut across all areas of building and construction and leave no one out.”
In their own backyards
Industry attitudes about the pool environment also have evolved since Genesis 3’s inception. Builders are now more conscious of the total backyard concept.
Some say the times influenced these changes. There were revivals in the stock market, and home refinancing and remodeling. Interest rates dropped. Before 9/11, Americans traveled and wanted to recreate vacation memories in their own backyards. After the terrorist attacks, the cocooning trend became even more popular. The Internet also helped consumers learn about every backyard living possibility.
Van Bower believes his group had a lot to do with setting the industry on its current course. “We’ve created an awareness in an industry that was primarily focused on a hole in the ground with water in it to one that’s now looking at the total environment,” he says.
No matter where you weigh in on Genesis 3’s impact on the industry, most agree the group has shown impeccable timing. “I think they saw the opportunity before others and went that direction,” says Pitrak, who is also NESPA’s deputy executive director. “I think the controversy [surrounding Genesis 3] spurred us to move a little bit quicker.”
