The Fall Guy

By Richard Ferrara

At Home contributor

The sedentary life of the interior design business didn't satisfy the artist in John Austin. So he gave it up for the exterior design business, creating waterfalls and waterscapes all around Southwest Florida.

"I didn't want to sit at a drafting table, and I didn't want to run around with a mattress on my back – that's a cliche for an interior designer," says Austin. "I just was tired of it, tired of the association with it. I wanted to get out and use my hands.”

Before moving to Naples in the early 70s, Austin worked in the interior design business in New York, which in his case primarily allowed him to use his hands at the drafting table, talking sales on the telephone and working on his accounting. Now, for 13 years, he's been building falls and cascades.

His company, Austin Enterprises, Inc., designs and brings to life just about anything his clients can envision. Whether it's a small cascade tumbling into a bed of brookstones in a backyard garden or a near cataract with dozens of falls sprawling around a hotel swimming pool, he'll take it on.

"If I can draw it, I can build it," he says. He even answers his phone with the name of his passion: “Waterfalls!"

It's his motto, and his enormous portfolio contains hundreds of renderings of his eclectic waterfalls to back it up. The colorful sketches help Austin to prefigure a waterfall's aesthetic appearance and allow him to add the small touches that give his falls their attractive quality. A bevy of plants here, maybe a small spillway with a little backlighting there -- it all goes into the drawing.

"People get things in the their head of what they would like to see, and then when I show them my portfolio it gives them a good idea of what already has been done. It all depends on the location and what the location calls for.”

Some locations Austin has worked on have called for some serious waterfall action. For the Bonita Bay Medical Center, Austin created a Greco-themed series of pools and falls complete with giant fluted columns, which he assembled himself, piece by piece. The finished product looks like something out of ancient Athens. He's created a backyard island for Naples artist Jonathan Green and his falls are the welcome to any number of developments here.

But Austin doesn't reserve his craft solely for grand, expensive projects. He's done hundreds of residential projects for homeowners as well. It could be a family looking to take its swimming pool to the next level. Sometimes it's simply someone who yearns for the sound of running water. Sometimes there's a nook or an unused corner of the property that's just screaming for a cascade.

These smaller residential projects usually cost $3,500 and up, depending on how elaborate the waterfall. Austin and his three-man crew can complete easier jobs within a few days; larger ones require a week or more.

Building waterfalls means procuring lots of native Florida cap rock, which is what Austin typically uses to build the veneers for his falls. Florida cap rock is the gold-tinted or whitish rock commonly seen on golf courses and around swimming pools. It usually has a rough, dimpled surface from water erosion in the distant past and is embedded with little shells and fossils. It's called cap rock because it comes from the upper layer of the subterranean crust beneath our feet.

Some of the other varieties he may bring in to fit the job at hand include smooth-textured, dark brookstone, from streams and riverbeds from the North; flagstone, which is a flatter, broken brookstone; Alabama flatrock, a lighter, beige-colored stone that often has dark streaks.

"We use every kind of rock imaginable," he says. Austin normally gets his stone from companies in Fort Myers.

Although he's officially retired, Austin enjoys getting into the project with his hands and doing it himself. His skills go beyond waterfalls. For instance, if a client wants a wooden bridge over the stream in his garden, Austin will do the carpentry himself onsite. Should somebody request a couple of fire pits with flame-tinting stones for nighttime garden parties, he can do those types of aesthetics, too. A grotto with a koi pond overhung with mist? Sure. Austin can install a mister system for their waterfall, lanai, or garden area that lends an added aesthetic appeal. Aside from providing an aura of mist around the plants, misters also serve to lower the surrounding area temperature as much as 20 degrees.

Because the waterfalls are self-contained units it isn't necessary to continually pump water into the system and jack up the water bill. However, to deal with evaporation Austin can add automatic refillers that measure the water level and pump more in when necessary. Austin tries to keep his works carefree; drip lines keep the right amount of moisture on plants around the falls.

He's particular about the results , says his daughter, Margie Austin, who finds herself handling a lot of calls from customers who want her father's work.

"If he's not satisfied, he'll go back and work on the project until he is," she said. "That's why his work has largely come from word of mouth. His clients are are really happy with the quality he gives them. We're really proud of the kind of person Dad is.”

It's nearly a sure thing that where you see one Austin falls, you'll see more.

"I built the waterfall for the entrance to Verona Walk when it was being developed. I've got 13 waterfalls in there now," he recalled. The privacy walls that delineate many of the backyards have turned into a great backdrop for falls.

Austin's diverse proficiencies developed over the years as he shifted between careers, acquiring new skills from each of them. He graduated from Syracuse University with a fine arts degree in 1959 and started work as an interior designer in Rochester, N.Y. He came to Naples in the '70s, and before settling on waterfalls spent years laying sod, landscaping, and working in irrigation, among other ventures. His experiences in design and landscaping comingled with his creativity into the perfect blend when he began building waterfalls.

"They were fun for a while, but then it got to be too routine," he said of his jobs before his present line of work.

Although his doctor scolds him for pushing himself, Austin admits he can't stop himself from making waterfalls.

"There's a certain element that just keeps me going," he says. "I just want to do more."

He is in the process of working on his own house and plans to put in a wave pool that will feature a small Cape Cod-style lighthouse, with the waves crashing up against the rocks beneath it.

So long as there's someone out there who wants a waterscape, John Austin will be the falls guy.