Rick Rushing draws from his experience as a landscape architect when designing pools, which he sees as an extension of the architecture of a home. Photo furnished
For Rick Rushing, the perfect pool is about more than building a hole in the ground that holds water.
“What I try to create for my clients is a beautiful water feature that you can swim in,” said the owner of Rushing Designs.
Rushing grew up in Lexington and graduated from the University of Kentucky with a degree in Landscape Architecture. While he was drawn to oceanography as a kid, working at the South Seas Plantation on Captiva Island, Fla., during the 1970s made him rethink his career goals.
“Growing up, I was a lifeguard and worked around pools a lot. But I moved to Captiva Island, Fla., when I was 19, and I worked there on the grounds. I kind of had Bill Murray's job,” he said. “The golf course was beautiful, so I could work there and go to college in Gainesville to study oceanography. But my exposure to landscape architecture on this island resort led me to change my career plans.”
During his time at UK, Rushing worked in Lexington at Carman, a landscape architecture, urban planning, and civil engineering firm, where he learned the elements of designing using the outdoors as a canvas.
From there, Rushing moved to Laguna Beach, Cal., and worked for a firm that designed resorts. Later, he moved to Santa Fe, N.M., where he renovated adobe buildings in the historic Barrio District.
Building a pool can take between six and eight months, with conversations usually beginning in the summer and construction beginning in the fall, Rushing said. Photo furnished
In the ’90s, Rushing returned to Lexington to be closer to family. He found his niche locally, he said, designing pools.
“Once I moved back here, I wanted to keep building things, and so I looked into building swimming pools,” he said. “They are difficult things to achieve. It’s got to be perfect. With a patio, you can be off an inch or two for the drainage and it’s no big deal. But with a pool, the elevations are critical, so it’s a real challenge.”
Building the perfect pool encompasses more than just the pool, he said. It can mean pool houses, outdoor kitchens, fireplaces, lighting and sound systems, and carefully selecting the right plants. Ensuring the plants fit into the landscape near the pool and won’t leave residue or attract the wrong types of insects is as important to making the area work as is picking the right type of materials.
“What I tried to do is use my landscape architecture background to look at a backyard, not just as the pool, and do the master plan for the whole back and sometimes front yard. I try to make these pools an extension of their architecture. If it's a contemporary home, then I design a contemporary pool. If it's more traditional, then I have a more traditional pool.”
Details from the materials used, the shape of the pool, and the patterns of the pavers all fit into the overall concept of the project can affect how the pool complements the home and yard. Photo furnished
It’s not just the shape of the pool, Rushing said, but everything from the materials used to the paving patterns and seeing how they fit into the overall concept of the yard.
“I think I have an advantage as a landscape architect, to see the big picture and to design the whole project instead of just putting a pool over in the corner,” he said. “I hope my projects look like an extension of the home from materials to style and everything architectural.”
From tanning shelves, that allow pool users to sit in the water while enjoying the shade, to creating a pool deck that comes straight out of the house, to using plants to hide fencing — making sure the pool is aesthetically pleasing is important, he said.
“One thing that is important in a pool project is that you always want to have the sound of water moving and splashing,” he said. “You can’t always be in it and you can’t always be looking at it. But you can listen to it. The audible benefits of a pool are really underrated.”
And being efficient with a client’s budget is another important element of design, Rushing said.
Pool houses, outdoor kitchens and fireplaces, lighting, sound systems, and seating areas are among the elements to consider with pool design. Photo furnished
“My job is to present them with a lot of good options and to be efficient with my clients’ budgets,” he said. “A lot of my pools are up out of the ground, and the deck doesn't go all the way around it. That saves money, but it's more of a dramatic effect, too, when you're sitting in the deep end, and the grass is eight or 10 feet below you. Something like that allows you to have a dramatic pool without spending a lot of money on stuff that’s not important.”
But building a pool doesn't happen overnight. Rushing said a typical project takes between six and eight months. Clients usually start having conversations about what they want in the summer. Rushing said after he’s able to design the project, construction will start in the fall with the aim of being finished building the pool by the time winter sets in. Once spring comes, it’s time to plant, he said, so the pool is ready to open in the summer.
It takes time, but it’s worth the effort, he said.
“What I offer my clients is the whole package,” he said. “We do the pool, the decking, walls and steps and all the hardscapes. It takes quite a bit of time to do planting, lighting, fencing, meeting codes, and everything. Pool companies come in and do a pool and they may offer four feet of concrete around it. If that's what you want, you don't need me.”
Photo furnished