Creating Unique Water Environments

Business Profile —

To some people, a swimming pool is little more than a hole in the ground lined with concrete and filled with water. For Allen Cooper, however, a swimming pool is a work of art—or should be. Cooper is the owner of Pintado Pools, and for the last six years he has been building pools that combine form and function in a very dramatic way.
Take his current project, for example. “It’s a full circle, and about a third of it is sitting in mid-air,” he said. When completed, the pool will be cantilevered such that eight feet or so extend out into space.

Allen Cooper recently completed the above “double infinity” pool for a client in Santa Barbara; the pool reflects the Santa Ynez Mountain range in background at a certain time of day.

“I’m very excited about what I do,” Cooper said. “Pools are my art form.” But he doesn’t mean just the swimming pool itself, although that can be quite complex. When Cooper designs a pool, he creates an environment—a whole concept—that might include lush, green foliage, ornate tile work, sculpted retaining walls and custom decks.
When Cooper sets to work on a new swimming pool, he first meets with the client to talk about what kind of environment they want to create. “Everyone is different, and I ask a lot of questions,” he said.
Then he goes back to his office and prepares preliminary sketches. His wife, Virginia, a professional artist, frequently does the drawings and renderings. Then, with preliminary sketches in hand, Cooper and his client take a field trip to visit some of the projects he has completed.
“That’s where I get the best sense of what the client is looking for,” he says. “I observe their reactions to different design approaches.”
Since setting up shop in the Valley in 2004, Cooper has built more than 75 pools. One of the keys to his success, he believes, is that he does all the design work himself and oversees every aspect of construction. A one-man operation, he hires subcontractors to do the heavy lifting, and then assumes the role of project supervisor. Nothing happens without his approval.
“Many contractors will hire three or four people to work for them, but none are really expert at what they’re doing,” Cooper said. To educate his subcontractors about the contribution that each one makes to the project, Cooper had a novel idea. About three years ago he and one of his suppliers hosted a seminar that brought all the subcontractors together.
“And what came out of the seminar was really unique,” he noted. “When it was over, they all knew each other, and they were able to talk to each other about who was ahead of whom and how one could be able to help the next in line.”
Cooper got into the pool business as a teenager working summers in the San Fernando Valley. He opened his own business in 1971 and continued building pools for a dozen years, after which he took a break from the water world and went to work for Verizon. When he retired to the Valley in 2003, he decided to return to his first love.
The first pool he built when he came out of retirement was part

of a remodel of a house in Hope Ranch. “I was called out to be a consultant to the general contractor,” Cooper recalled. “He was trying to get a third-party opinion. The owner wanted to cut the existing pool in half and convert it into an exercise pool.”
Cooper made it clear that altering the structure of a 35-year old pool was simply not an option. “I told them they had to remove the existing pool, fill in the hole, and start completely from scratch.” So they did. And when all was said and done, the homeowner had a new pool, larger than the original, with a double-infinity wall and three different types of Italian tile. “When you look at the pool, it looks like it’s moving.
“I build 15 to 20 pools a year,” he said, “and almost all of them are referral.”
That’s always a good indicator of a person who is not only a master at what he does but is someone whose clients are as excited as he is. When is a swimming pool more than just a swimming pool? When it is a unique water environment created by Allen Cooper of Pintado Pool.

For more information: Allen Cooper of Pintado Pools can be reached at 805.705.9200 or 805.693.1819.

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