Although space is a key requirement for waterscapes, intrepid urban dwellers have found ways to compromise.
As a child, Jeffrey Mayer, a Chicago author, was fascinated with turtles. But digging a pond in the terrace floor of his Gold Coast apartment was impractical, not to mention against condominium bylaws.
”It didn`t seem feasible,” Mayer said.
So he and his wife, Mitzi, an interior designer, bought an antique clawfoot bathtub that they stocked with aquatic plants and a turtle. The turtle since has tripled in size and been moved to an indoor aquarium.
(”Turtles don`t respond well to blizzards,” he said.) But the miniature cast-iron waterscape survives on the terrace.
”We`ve had a lot of fun with it,” he said. ”We`ve taken this terrace and turned it into a Garden of Eden in the city. It`s like having a back yard in the concrete jungle.”
