Mountain Waterfall Mosaic

The Mountain Waterfall Mosaic is located at First Baptist Church of Asheville, and it was the last part of the Memorial Garden that we completed there. This was a collaborative effort between Hammerhead and the crew at Medallion Pools led by Mark Dorsey. While they took charge of the water work elements, Hammerhead was charged with designing and installing the stone.

Making mountain streams is Mother Nature’s domain, not mine, but this waterfall had just the right balance of creative freedom in the design, execution, and technical challenges to keep us all engaged and excited about the outcome.

The design was created by Steve Wyda and Ryan Blau of Vision Design Collaborative, the landscape architects who designed the Memorial Garden and the feature is located at the end of the stream path. We used bluestone for the stream path representing the flowing water that widens as it reaches the pool. The floor of the pool is completely done in the bluestone, as is the sky in the waterfall mosaic. The spillway is made of mountain stone, while the sun and sunset clouds are made of Tennessee sandstone.

The mosaic background – the mountains and the sunset – is a cut stone approach to veneer. It’s 4 inches thick, basically the depth of the brick, and is affixed to a block wall coated in shotcrete. I am proud to say, it doesn’t look like any lick’em-stick’em I’ve ever seen.

ADD MASONRY GALLERY IN THE SECTION BELOW.