Right on the show floor during November’s International Pool | Spa | Patio Expo, the fifth annual Million Dollar Pool Design Challenge crowned its winner after a sizable crowd cast their live votes for their favorite design from the five finalists. The presentation to come out on top? Moses Campos of Claffey Pools.
Each year, Reid Schindler and Mike Farley organize the Million Dollar Pool Design Challenge to give pool and landscape designers the chance to deliver innovative design solutions without the restraints of a budget. A simulated real-world scenario offers all the familiar challenges that designers might face.
In short, the scenario of this year’s challenge involved a family looking to purchase a second home to share with their three adult children and four young grandchildren. Paired with this knowledge, challenge participants had to create a mockup of a full renovation of the outdoor spaces at the clients’ new home. This meant making room for entertaining, but being sure not to leave the clients overwhelmed with the amount of space nor required maintenance.
The list of specific elements that the clients wanted was extensive (including a hot tub, pool, 12-person dining space, a fire pit suitable for 15, and more!), but all five finalists answered the call and created their own backyard oasis that sent them to Dallas for the voting ceremony on November 13.
As the rules of the challenge state, each finalist gets a complimentary two-night hotel stay, a free super pass badge for the expo, and the guarantee of some prize money, ranging from $500 for fifth place to the grand prize of $10,000 for first place.
Campos’s design (pictured above) wowed the judges and audience through his attention to detail, cohesive and inventive layout as well as his ability to deliver everything on the client’s list.Design photos courtesy Moses Campos
Alongside Campos, the four finalists (in descending order of their final ranking) that were chosen to present their designs at the expo stage were: Kylee Polaski and Hali Mauldin of AquaTerra, Jason Caldeira of Haven Design Spaces, Jill Davenport of Jill Dev Designs and Ned Druart of Austin Pool Designs. Afterwards, the crowd cast their live votes via an online survey to determine the winner.
In the heat of the action, both Farley and Schindler remarked that it was a tight race. But by the margin of a few votes, Moses Campos was awarded the first place prize — and the considerable check that goes along with it. After all the excitement, AQUA spoke to Campos about his victory.
“To get into the top five was an accomplishment in itself, but it was really cool to follow that up with the possibility of actually winning first place,” Campos shares. “It’s validating.”
Having been a fan of the challenge since the very beginning, Campos has entered before but never made it to the top five. “It’s been a really good feeling to accomplish a goal like this,” he says. “The property felt like a good fit for me this year, so I thought, ‘I’m gonna go for it.’”
The crowd gathered to listen to each finalist’s presentation and cast their live votes for their favorite pool design.
One of the biggest potential setbacks, Campos says, is pushing through to finish your design. “There’s a lot that goes into submitting for this contest, and you have to be able to work past your own self-doubt,” he says. Once you do that — you can enjoy the rest of the process, knowing you’ve done all you can to ensure your chances to win.
For Campos, this win is further fuel to continue designing, and to keep his head in the game for future design opportunities like the one this challenge offered him. For now, he gets to join the ranks of the previous first-place winners and soak up his victory as the newest inductee. Until next year — when the Million Dollar Pool Design Challenge returns.
