Poolside pavilions that promise good times

Sunset, August, 1993 by Peter O. Whiteley

When long summer days bring you out into the garden for meals, entertaining, or quiet contemplation, a pavilion can be the perfect destination. It provides shade during the day and shelter during cool evenings, yet is open to breezes, the scent of flowers, and--if near a pool or fountain--the soothing sight or sound of water. On these pages, we show two pavilions at poolside and one that hugs a koi pond. Although they range from large to small, all are garden focal points, as well as pleasant places to linger whether the sun is high above or the moon is rising. Since all are separate structures, they occupy quiet spots away from household noise and bustle.

SOUTHWEST RAMADA

Meals come hot off the grill and onto the table in Joanne and Terry Harstad's poolside pavilion in Walnut, California. The 16 1/2- by 19 1/2-foot structure has a Mexican paver floor, oversize, stucco columns, and a red tile roof. (The same materials were used in the main house, which is at the other end of the swimming pool.) Leather topped tables and chairs, colorful ceramic tiles, and decorative wall sconces add to the regional theme.

Counters and benches were built into a side and back wall. In a back corner, a beehive-shaped South western fireplace houses a gas-fired barbecue, and a fan and chimney for venting smoke.

Nine 17 1/12-inch-square columns define the pavilion's perimeter; they support heavy, largely decorative trusses that give the pavilion a look of sturdy permanence.

POOLSIDE PAVILION

The airy pavilion pictured above, designed by William Turnbull Associates for Juelle and Fred Fisher of Fisher Vineyards, rises from a peninsula that overlooks a concretesided pool in Santa Rosa, California. Even on the hottest, sunniest days, its owners can sit inside and watch raindrop strickling off the roof on the pool side--a soothing, cooling illusion.

The simulated rainwater runs from a manifold on the roof's ridge, through troughs in the corrugated fiberglass roof, and into the pool. It recirculates from the pool to the manifold; the rainfall is controlled by an on-off switch.

The pavilion is taller than it is wide. Each corner column is made from a trio of 6-by-6 posts. A decorative frieze made of a grid of 2-by-2s runs below the trusswork of the peaked roof.

GARDEN GETAWAY

To get away from it all, Anne and David Noller just take a few steps out into their garden, where a hip-roofed pavilion nestles into one corner beside a rock retaining wall and koi pond.

The pavilion is small (8 by 12 feet), but it's an inviting spot for quiet reading or intimate meals, and even has become an outdoor bedroom for the Nollers, children on balmy summer nights. To keep it open-looking, the Nollers placed only one piece of furniture inside, a mahogany bench, which stores a single mattress.

The pavilion's shake roof rests on 8-by-8 posts that rise from the retaining wall and a corner of aggregate decking. On the pavilion's two sides that butt against the retaining walls, panels of safety glass fill the spaces between posts, allowing views into the garden while blocking out wind and rain. On its other two sides, gossamer curtains of netting keep out insects yet allow breezes and scents to waft in. Heavy decorative curtains of ultraviolet-resistant acrylic frame the 8 1/2-foot-tall openings.