Design first, then build the design
A lot of pools are sold from a binder of stock shapes and built by whichever sub is free that week. We work the other way around. The project begins in the studio, where we measure the yard, study how the house opens to it, and draw a pool that suits the architecture and the way you want to use the space. Only once the design is settled and approved does the steel and shotcrete crew, our own crew, get involved.
Keeping design and construction under one roof matters most when the design is ambitious. A flush spa that spills into the pool, a sun shelf set at the right depth for loungers, a vanishing edge framed against a view, or a deck that runs level with an interior floor are all details that fall apart when the people building them never spoke to the person who drew them. We do not hand off the hard parts.
It also keeps the budget honest. Because the team that prices the pool is the team that builds it, the estimate reflects what the job actually takes on your specific lot. There is no optimistic number from a salesperson followed by a stack of change orders once the digging starts.