Evan Wayne Associates—

The Art Of The Pool: Balancing Design, Landscape, And Budgets

By Kaaren Valenta

The combination of increasingly upscale housing in Newtown and building sites with rugged terrain have opened a local market for Evan Wayne Associates, an award-winning company that not so long ago built pools primarily for the rich and famous in lower Fairfield County.

The company designs and constructs custom swimming pools, many for sites that are so difficult that other companies would not even consider the challenge.

“It is like a box of puzzle pieces,” explained Gary Tyrrell, the company’s president and senior designer. “Most of the time we show a concept to the homeowners and they are flabbergasted at how we have met and exceeded their expectations. And it doesn’t have to cost a lot.”

Evan Wayne (the company name comes from the middle names of Mr Tyrrell and his original partner) was founded in 1996 in Sandy Hook. Until three years ago it had offices on the top floor of at the Rocky Glen Mill, the former Fabric Firehouse building on Glen Road. When that building was sold, the company moved temporarily to an office above the bagel shop on Church Hill Road while Mr Tyrrell tried unsuccessfully to buy a suitable commercial property. Failing that, he bought a property at 92B Whisconier Road (Route 25) in Brookfield that formerly housed a flower shop and landscaping business.

The red barn and other buildings, which Mr Tyrrell has been completely renovating, houses the company’s design offices and CAD (computer-aided design) technology that helps provide unique solutions for each project.

“We aren’t like the usual pool company that wants to do 50 projects in a year,” Mr Tyrrell said. “We don’t come in with photos of swimming pools and say ‘pick one.’ We do, on average, three to five projects a year.”

“When I talk to clients I ask them why they want a pool, how do they want to use it,” he said. “It is up to us to translate this vision into a finished pool. I like to compare it to going to a tailor and having a suit made instead of buying one off the rack. The suit is tailored to the individual. It feels better and it looks better. Once the pool is done it should be integrated into the environment and feel like it has always been there.”

Each multifaceted project may include the pool and decking, grading, retaining walls, landscaping, and distinctive garden architecture such as fencing, a pergola, cabana, or poolside bed.

A pool under construction on Farm Meadow Road is a good example of the challenge that the firm faces and solves. With a steep slope in the backyard, adding a swimming pool seemed impossible.

“We had to build a road to the bottom of the slope to get the heavy equipment in,” Mr Tyrrell said. “We had to build up the slope to accommodate the pool. There is 22 feet from the level of the pool to the ground below.”

Water spills from a spa pool into the swimming pool and then over the negative (vanishing) edge to a catch basin below. Limestone decking surrounds the pool. The $250,000 project is the largest that the company is currently working on, although there have been many larger and smaller.

“We’ve done work for as little as $2,000 and as much as $940,000, and everywhere in between,” Mr Tyrrell said. “A typical well-designed gunite pool is in the $50,000 to $100,000 range.”

Evan Wayne’s job is to educate the homeowners and help them be an integral part of the planning process, he said.

“There are three aspects of a project — price, quantity, and quality. Often people go into a project letting price control it. They don’t think about what else is needed besides the pool, things like fencing, plants, and terracing,” Mr Tyrrell said. “If you don’t have tunnel vision, you can stage a project. You save money in the long run by planning. We do a complete plan so there are no surprises. We do detailed plans and have fixed-price contracts. We develop a concept in which the pool is part of the environment.”

Another project that has just been completed in Newtown features an irregularly shaped 38-by- 22-by-16-foot pool with bluestone decking, built-in steps and benches in the shallow end, and stepouts in the deep end so that no ladders are needed. A berm was created for privacy and the pool was enclosed with a four-foot-high white picket fence. This project totaled $65,000 with some cost savings because the homeowner did most of the other landscaping.

Evan Wayne Associates recently was a silver award winner in the National Spa & Pool Institute’s International Awards of Excellence competition for a swimming pool and cabana project that reclaimed a previously unused slope. It included a 50-foot lap pool, a therapy spa, twin pool cabanas, (one serving as a kitchen/bar and the other as a shower/dressing room), and surrounding gardens.

Consumers tend to be smarter today, Mr Tyrrell said. Many have done major kitchen projects or other renovations to their homes and they have a good idea of what they want. “We don’t do what is easiest for us; we do what is the best design,” he said.

Mr Tyrrell’s wife, Diane, also is an officer in the firm. Both are Connecticut natives — he grew up in Wilton, she in Ridgefield — and they lived in Danbury before moving to Sandy Hook in 1996.

“We absolutely love Newtown,” Mr Tyrrell said. “This is such an up and coming area. The town hasn’t lost its charm because it has done a good job of controlling the zoning and development.”

The couple’s daughter, Melanie, 26, was a member of the Newtown High School Class of 1997. She graduated from Northeastern University and is a pharmaceutical representative.

Mr Tyrrell said family is very important.

“I’m seeing this everywhere since 9/11,” he said. “People tell me they want to stay home and keep their family around. They want to keep their kids in their yards rather than having them going someplace else. A pool often is part of this. Swimming pools are for more than just swimming.”

More information about Evan Wayne Associates can be found at www.EvanWayne.com or by calling 775-1622.