This Bel Air home, built by the great mid-century architect and educator, A. Quincy Jones, Jr., turned 40 this year — still youthful as homes are judged, but aging in terms of the traditional plaster interior floor and walls of its exotic lounge pool. Tile artist Jimmy Reed was engaged to restore the waterscape to its classic elegance.
Using modern materials and methods, Reed created the square transitions and plumb walls required for proper installation of glass mosaic tiles. A few custom updates, including the grab ledge that runs the length of the entire pool just below the water level on either side, a four-foot-long thermal entry shelf setting and a stately set of steps gave the pool a fresh look. Over the surface of the vessel, 12-inch-by-12-inch sheets of Trend USA glass mosaic pool tiles were laid, locally supplied by Steve Slutzah and his team at Westside Tile & Stone in Beverly Hills.
With that accomplished, it was time to tackle the most visible design element of the entire property, the 14-foot vertical sheet-flow water feature. The wall’s substructure was reinforced with a thick coat of shotcrete, a solid foundation for the mosaic mirror tiles whose myriad, compound reflections play down the 37-foot length of the rejuvenated exotic lounge pool.
The new, zen-like spa was fitted with four leather-finished black granite slabs that, when pieced together, become the perfect coping for the full-radius spa. The exposed walls were dressed vertically in elegant, quarter-inch strips of basalt in random lengths, while the interior spa walls and bench were surfaced with the pool’s glass mosaic tile blend, visually binding the two vessels together.
