Finalists & Winner
Five designers. One stage. A customized trophy, cash prizes, and a coveted seat on next year's judges panel — decided live at the International Pool | Spa | Patio Expo.
In 2026, the Top 5 finalists take home cash & more.
The winner is influenced by attendee vote. After each finalist's video presentation during Mike & Reid's design class at the Expo, the class casts a ballot for Top Designer — a combination of the class vote and the judges vote determines the overall winner.
Presented by Fire By Design, our Lead Sponsor
Customized Trophy
Awarded to the 1st Place winner on stage at the Expo.
Judges' Panel Invitation
1st Place is invited to sit on the following year's judges panel.
On top of prize money, every finalist receives:
Airfare Credit
Up to $350 credit toward airfare to New Orleans.
Travel Stipend
Up to $150 reimbursement for travel incidentals and meals.
Conference Super Pass
Free Super Pass to the 2026 International Pool | Spa | Patio Expo in New Orleans, LA.
Hotel Stay
Two-night hotel stay covering the core class dates (November 17–19, 2026).
Industry Exposure
Coverage in leading industry print and digital publications.
Website Feature
Company and design featured on themilliondollarpoolchallenge.com.
To be announced
The 2026 Top 5 finalists will be revealed ahead of the International Pool | Spa | Patio Expo in New Orleans. Winners will be announced live during the Million Dollar Pool Challenge conference session and featured here after the show.
2025 Finalists & Winner
The 2025 Million Dollar Pool Design Challenge took the PSP/Deck Expo stage in Las Vegas with a full house and one of the strongest finalist fields yet. Set on a Napa Valley hillside, the brief asked designers to unite two contrasting aesthetics—Rocky Mountain rustic and Palm Springs Mid-Century Modern—into a wellness-driven retreat for fictional homeowners Lyle and Katherine Jackson.
“Everything has to have a motif. You must have an overarching theme, and then it runs through your entire program like writing a piece of music.”— Kirk Bianchi
Winner: Kirk Bianchi, Bianchi Design
Veteran designer Kirk Bianchi earned top honors by treating the scenario like a composition. Working from the outside in, he placed architecture, trees, and view corridors before drawing a single pool edge. His design wove native basalt, terraced landforms, and restrained fire features into a modernist “glass box” inspired by Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House—creating a space that felt inevitable to the land.
2025 Final Standings
- Kirk Bianchi, Bianchi Design1st Place
- Carly McCoy, Backyard Oasis2nd Place
- Brent Dutton, Poolhaus Design Collective3rd Place
- Anibal Lopez, Worthey Aquatics4th Place
- Greg Farley, Edgerock Landscape Design5th Place
Bianchi’s standout moves included a reflective flooded deck framing a circular spa, fire treated “as salt” to support—not distract from—human interaction, and private micro-gardens for guest structures that delivered psychological separation without bulky fencing.
Read the full story on Pool Magazine2024 Winner: Moses Campos
The 2024 Million Dollar Pool Design Challenge asked finalists to reimagine a dramatic hillside property with significant elevation change and protected view corridors. Moses Campos of Claffey Pools took top honors with a multi-tiered design that treated the topography as an asset rather than an obstacle.
“The property had breathtaking views, and I made those the focal point. The upper level became a peaceful retreat, while the lower level offered more dynamic, activity-focused spaces.”— Moses Campos
Winner: Moses Campos, Claffey Pools
A design consultant with a background in graphic design and video editing, Campos brought a storyteller's eye to the brief. His winning entry split the program across two levels: a spa-inspired upper pool with clean lines, infinity edges, and a calming water feature; and an activity-focused lower pool with a rock climbing wall, rope swing, sunken fire-side seating, a large tanning ledge, and in-pool lounging.
Standout details included two thoughtfully placed acrylic panels—one at a lower-level fire pit, another framing an intimate upper-level seating nook—plus a zipline that leveraged the site's natural grade and a parking-area water feature that paired natural boulders with sleek modern scuppers. Campos returned to the Challenge the following year as a judge.
2024 Final Standings
- Moses Campos, Claffey Pools1st Place
- Kylee Polaski & Hali Mauldin, AquaTerra Outdoors2nd Place
- Jason Caldeira, Haven Design Scapes3rd Place
- Jill Davenport, Jill Dev Designs4th Place
- Ned Druart, Austin Pool Designs5th Place
- Aaron Trout, Pure DesignYoung Professional
2023 Winner: Brad Holley
The 2023 Million Dollar Pool Design Challenge set finalists loose on a waterfront Miami property with a million-dollar budget and a yachting-inclined family in mind. Brad Holley answered with a Miami Vice–inspired outdoor environment that fused pale blue, pale pink and white into one of the most cinematic entries in the competition's history.
“I usually can see a space and figure out just a general direction to go in with my design. But I was completely stumped and just lost for quite a while.”— Brad Holley
Winner: Brad Holley
Mentored for eight and a half years by the legendary Randy Angell, Holley leaned on a self-taught SketchUp background to build a fully theatrical concept. His entry opened at the driveway with an address monument bench numbered “42-10,” geometric polygon paving lit from beneath acrylic panels, and a shallow entry fountain that appeared to pour into an infinite loop beside a hanging day bed and a fire-backlit Latin steel portrait.
The backyard unfolded through laser-cut steel walls into a splash pad guarded by a 3D two-headed Aztec serpent, a 360° acrylic circular spa, and a perimeter-overflow pool with ledge loungers, hanging cocoon chairs, a cantilevered fire feature and a swim-up bar with an acrylic view wall. Upstairs, a putting green and elevated lounge looked out over palm canopies, while a closed-loop lazy river wrapped a sunken fire pit island, crossed by dual bridges studded with Latin-inspired diode mortise skulls in pink, white and blue. The win earned Holley the $10,000 prize from River Flow by Current Systems and a seat on the 2024 judges' panel.
Read the full story on Pool Magazine2022 Winner: Rance Schindler
The 2022 Million Dollar Pool Design Challenge, held at the PSP Deck Expo in Las Vegas, asked finalists to reimagine a Chicago rooftop and lower-terrace estate for a husband-and-wife pair of lawyers focused on health, wellness and self-care. Up-and-coming designer Rance Schindler of Complete Exterior Solutions blew the judges away and took home the $10,000 grand prize courtesy of Riverflow Pumps by Current Systems.
“A complete setting — not just a swimming pool.”— 2022 client brief
Winner: Rance Schindler
Schindler's concept answered the client's shade requirement with a sculptural specimen tree at the heart of the outdoor living space, anchoring a year-round retreat tuned to the Chicago climate. The plan layered a rooftop dining and conversation zone with a full outdoor kitchen above a lower terrace built for restoration — pool, spa, cold plunge and a yoga-ready lawn.
A cantilevered glass deck overhangs the entire courtyard, casting light down onto a smartly appointed pool, fire pit and lounging area below. Riverflow current jets, Ledge Lounger furniture and integrated fire and lighting features round out a design that reads as a complete wellness environment rather than a standalone swimming pool. The 2022 finalist field also included Brent Dutton (PoolHaus), Whitney Morris and Stephanie Carnahan (Old State Landscape), Brad Holley (Randy Angell Designs), and Minsung Kim, Karishma Karki, Paola Hidalgo and Sameepa Modi (AquaTerra Outdoors).
Read the full story on Pool MagazineReady to design your way onto the stage?
Entries close September 13, 2026 · 7pm CST.