Pool Design

One of the site's highlights is a pool landscape with custom-cut and hand-tooled Chinese quartzite coping and pool decking, meticulously installed by Sonka's colleague, Tom Bever. The previous owner's lava rock sea walls and planter walls were disassembled and rebuilt in a rhythmic, serpentine form with travertine coping. Lava boulders echo the forms of the nearby mountains. An intimate pavilion, built by Busker Masonry from indigenous wood, serves as a sheltered overlook for enjoying the property's surf and sunset views.

Sonka and Bever finalized the pool landscape with a blend of salt and wind-tolerant plants. Waves of tradescantia, crinum, beach vitex, and tricolor hau delight the eye with a variety of tropical foliage and flower. Other plants were chosen for more practical reasons, to serve as wind barriers, or to provide privacy and security

For the entryway, quartzite flagstone transitions into cobble pavers bordered by quartzite tiles. Segmental concrete pavers were shipped from Borgert Products in Minnesota, to complement the Arkansas stone of the house.

Where the driveway meets the corridors leading toward the ocean and pool landscape, David Sonka scribed large hibiscus flower patterns that were carefully cut by Tom Bever into travertine forms and laid into the stone mosaic. This topical flower accent mimics the flowers in the surrounding landscape.