Depending on the architect's capabilities, it will have the greatest amount of success if the architect designs it. Have them design the pool house at this time also. Maybe only have then take the design as far as schematics, depending upon how far in the future it will be built.

I designed a pool house (on the right) for an existing house (on the left) that I did not design. I aimed for complimenting the existing architecture instead of trying to match it. The pool is inside.

Our builder connected us with a pool builder, but he was just that, a pool builder, and didn't seem to have any design ideas. We weren't impressed. Our builder then had us go to another pool builder and this one was much more creative. We sat with him for 4 hours, brainstormed and he designed it on his design program as we spoke. By the end of the meeting we had a design and exact pricing. Using a good pool designer/builder also means that he knows he can build what he is designing.

Our architect had drawn a pool into the plans, but the orientation and design wasn't the best fit once we actually started building.

When we lived in SoCal, our landscape architect designed it….

I think it depends on the architects ability to design a pool I would trust the pool company more than most architects sort of like I get a kitchen designer not an architect to design a kitchen I think before anything else is done you need to speak to a landscape architect and a pool designer to even see what is possible with a sloped yard .

We had a landscape architect design our pool.

Pool maker here. Context matters - small lot vs large lot.

Our home designer was involved and discussed location/layout etc with him. But permits etc went with pool maker.

Thank you all. It looks like the answer is, it depends. There are some natural rock formations that I'm hoping to incorporate into the design, if it's practical. I'm not sure if that points more to architect + pool designer, or maybe some combination of all three.

David Cary, it's a large lot, and there's a flat area that lends itself, a little way down the slope from the house.

We had the pool builder design it with lots and lots of imput from me.

We had a pool company design and build our pool. We installed it a couple years after our build, but our house architect knew we wanted one and designed that side of the house with the pool in mind, similar to architectrunnerguy's comment. But the actual pool design was worked by a pool designer. And like cpartist, I went in knowing the look I wanted and the pool company we chose used my ideas and made them better and work best.

Our builder recommended a pool guy he's worked with many times but I didn't like him.

wow, @cpartist, that's a beautiful pool!