Dwain Northey (Gen X)

It should surprise absolutely no one that a cut-rate hotel owner would decide to paint a reflecting pool bright blue and somehow believe it would improve the reflection. This is the same level of thinking that gives us gold-plated toilets, giant names on buildings, and the belief that every problem can be solved by making it louder.

A reflecting pool exists for one purpose: reflection. The clue is literally in the name.

The entire concept is based on creating a calm, mirror-like surface that captures the sky, surrounding architecture, trees, or whatever happens to be around it. That’s why reflecting pools traditionally have dark or neutral bottoms. They are designed to disappear visually so your eye focuses on the reflected image rather than what’s underneath the water.

Paint the bottom bright blue, however, and congratulations—you’ve created a swimming pool.

That’s it. You haven’t enhanced the reflection. You’ve made the water announce its presence. Instead of seeing the sky mirrored on the surface, your eye now notices the giant blue object sitting underneath it. It’s the aquatic equivalent of hanging a neon sign in front of a window and wondering why you can’t see outside.

Light isn’t complicated. Water reflects light at the surface. The color beneath the water affects what your eyes perceive. A darker, neutral bottom tends to disappear. A bright blue bottom screams, “LOOK AT ME!” and competes with the reflection.

Nobody looks at a hotel pool and says, “Wow, what a magnificent reflecting pool.” They look at it and think about sunscreen, screaming children, and whether the swim-up bar is open.

The irony is that some of the most beautiful reflections in the world come from places that almost vanish into the background. Quiet lakes. Calm ponds. Infinity pools with neutral gray or dark bottoms that blend into the horizon. The whole point is to remove distractions.

But that requires understanding that not everything has to be painted a brighter color to work better.

Then again, we’re talking about the design philosophy that brought us casinos that look like wedding cakes, penthouses decorated like Roman emperors won the lottery, and buildings where subtlety was declared an enemy of the state.

So no, nobody should be surprised.

A reflecting pool painted blue is exactly the kind of idea that sounds brilliant if your entire understanding of architecture comes from staring out the window of a budget hotel and thinking, “You know what this needs? More blue.”

The pool reflects the world above it. The color underneath should be almost invisible. That’s how reflection works.

Of course, understanding reflection requires someone to grasp the concept that the world doesn’t revolve around whatever color paint happened to be on sale this week.