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SEEING THE FUTURE IT ALL STARTED LAST APRIL WITH A simple email request from a high school student, a junior in the construction program at the East Career & Technical Academy. The student, Angely Ventura, had asked to come tour our house. (My husband and fellow architect, John Klai, and I have an architecturally significant home that was designed by Eric Strain of Assemblage Studio.) We get the occasional request for tours, but we’re usually just too busy to grant them. However, I was intrigued by Angely’s email, and I responded. We soon developed a dialogue that grew into a plan to have her entire class come tour the house in the fall. In the meantime, near the end of summer, Angely sent me another email asking if I would review her designs for her senior project and offer feedback. (Yes, she’d actually spent a good part of her break putting together designs for her senior project. “All my friends think I am crazy for spending my summer doing this,” she told me. She had even taught herself computer drafting and 3-D software programs to work on the project.) Their school mascot is a Titan, and her idea was to build the Titan’s sword and present it to the school as a gift from the class. The finished product would have a steel sub-structure with acrylic panels, LEDs and solar panels. I loved her enthusiasm and her ambitious design, and we discussed improvements and ideas over email. The class trip to our home was a learning experience for all of us. The students learned about architecture, and I learned that Angely was hardly alone in her passion for design. The students’ interest in architecture amazed me. None of them had considered architecture as a career path before. And yet, by the end of the trip, the students were talking about starting an American Institute of Architecture Students chapter, and about what it would take to attend the School of Architecture at UNLV, which was well-represented by Dominic Armendariz, president of the student chapter of the AIAS, and Eduardo Sanchez, the high school outreach director. Before the tour, most of
the students had no idea that UNLV even had a School of Architecture (something to work on!), and now they were seriously considering architecture as their college major. The students have since formed an official AIAS chapter at the East Career & Technical Academy, and several of them are attending the UNLV School of Architecture in the fall. Who would have thought the next generation of architects and designers was right here in plain sight, just waiting for a spark to ignite their imagination? It’s up to us to create that spark, early and often. I’ve also had the rewarding experience of working with elementary school students in underprivileged neighborhoods, thanks to the leadership of landscape architect Anna Peltier of Aria Landscape Architecture. Anna is a leader of the Garden Classroom Partnership. A joint program between AIA’s Committee on the Environment and Green Our Planet, the Garden Classroom Partnership educates grade-schoolers about the food supply, sustainability and the importance of planning and design.The AIA component introduces students to the design professions through design charrettes and interactive activities, and opens their eyes to the importance of planning and site assessment.The light bulb really switches on, however, when they see these lessons take shape in the form of a functioning garden at their own school. (And modern technology has given these students a head start:Their understanding of Google Maps, aerial photography, site plans, scale, legends and sun orientation is astounding.) To date, AIA COTE has worked with eight elementary schools in the Las Vegas Valley. Having seen such talent and enthusiasm in our schools, I’m encouraged more than ever about the future of architecture, and it makes this year’s focus on igniting interest, education, and passion for architecture in the next generation of architects particularly fitting. But feeding that talent and enthusiasm requires action — it requires reaching out and talking to the next generation; it requires showing and sharing. Please reach out to aialasvegas.org to learn about what you can do to help create a spark. I’ve gotten just a glimpse of the future — and that future looks very bright. Jon Sparer, AIA President, AIA Las Vegas Chapter
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ON THE COVER: Model at UNLV School of Architecture by Aaron Mayes
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Young, Restless, Hungry, Bold: These rising talents promise great things for architecture and design in the valley — and beyond. T.R. Witcher The Future is Now (and Then): From sun-powered homes to design ahead of its time, Las Vegas has always been home to innovative architecture. Design Awards: Celebrating the state's best architectural projects of 2016 as selected by Nevada Chapter of the AIA. Scott Dickensheets
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"Sinatra Living" 2017 Solar Decathlon house courtesy UNLV
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BRIGHT FUTURE This issue of Architecture Las Vegas looks ahead at the future of design in the valley — from young professionals on the rise to innovative designs.
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Industry: How to inspire the next generation of architects? Inform, inspire — and bring them along for the ride. Tony Illia Education: UNLV’s School of Architecture turns 20 this year. Its graduates and instructors have helped redefine what “Vegas design” means. T.R. Witcher Profile: With his dynamic style, Paul Revere Williams left a lasting impression on Las Vegas in his homes, churches, and small resorts. Tony Illia News + Notes: Upcoming meetings, panels, seminars and other events of interest to the architecture community. Randy Lavigne Perspective: Toward an architecture that stimulates and embraces all the senses. T.R. Witcher
ISSUE 12 / 2017
Photo of model at UNLV School of Architecture by Aaron Mayes
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ISSUE 12, 2017 Architecture Las Vegas is the official publication of the Las Vegas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects P U B L I S HE R & E X E CU T I V E D IR E CTO R
RANDY LAVIGNE, HON. AIA E DI TO R
ANDREW KIRALY A R T DI R E CTO R
S.A. LIEN S A L E S M A NAG E R
FAVIAN PEREZ A DV E R T I S I NG S A L E S
BETTINA BUSCH, SHARON CLIFTON, SUSAN HENRY, JIMMY HOADREA, MARKUS VAN'T HUL, KIM TREVINO P R I NT T R A FFI C M A NAG E R
KAREN WONG A I A L A S V E GA S E DI TO R I A L CO M M I T T E E
JON SPARER, AIA President, AIA Las Vegas BRETT K. EWING, AIA President, AIA Nevada CARON RICHARDSON AIA Las Vegas CO NT R I B U T I NG W R I T E R S
CYBELE, SCOTT DICKENSHEETS, TONY ILLIA, T.R. WITCHER CO NT R I B U T I NG P HOTO G R A P H E R S ,
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Architecture Las Vegas is published annually by the Las Vegas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects in partnership with Nevada Public Radio and Desert Companion Magazine. Copyright Architecture Las Vegas by AIA Las Vegas Chapter. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted or otherwise reproduced without publisher’s written permission.
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BRIDGING THE GAP How to inspire the next generation of architects? Inform, inspire — and bring them along for the ride BY TONY ILLIA REMEMBER THE GOOD OLD days of pre-recession Las Vegas? The architecture business was riding the wave of a real estate boom, with one downside: The industry faced a looming talent shortage amid a flurry of commissions fueled by easy credit. Then, when the economy tanked, work became scarce.
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Companies, in response, went into survival mode, contracting and cutting jobs. In boom and bust, the profession suffered. “Las Vegas was one of the hardesthit communities (by the recession),” says 2017 AIA Las Vegas chapter President Jon Sparer, AIA. “Eighty-seven percent of Nevada architects were unemployed.
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Many left the profession entirely. Students, meanwhile, were discouraged. Many never became licensed. During the recession, we were focused on finding projects to keep our offices open. There was no need to look for new talent.” The economy has since improved, slowly gaining momentum and reviving concerns about who’ll teach, lead and inspire the next wave of architectural professionals. See, many Baby Boomer architects, including senior firm leaders, opted for early retirement when work dried up. Their exit also meant the loss of experience and knowledge. Others, meanwhile, departed for different careers. It’s no surprise, then, that many potential architects are deterred by the industry’s volatile boom-bust cycles, as well as the costly and lengthy road to licensure.Those in the profession are starting to realize that future talent is a vital resource that needs to be carefully cultivated. “My fear over the next five to 10 years is that we will be in a catch-up mode within our profession again, where we don’t have enough talent to match the workload demand,” says Eric Roberts, AIA, a director with SH Architecture. “We need to address what we already know are future shortfalls in the workforce as quickly as possible even while the current shortage is affecting us.” Yet, the resulting workforce gap could be tricky to remedy. “There’s a current shortage of about 17,000 architects due to students who left the profession during the recession while others were scared away,” says Randy Lavigne, Honorary AIA, executive director of the AIA Las Vegas chapter. “This will be made worse over the next decade by an anticipated retirement of 27,000 Baby Boomer architects.” The workforce deficit could be profound. “Aftershocks from the Great Recession still taint the profession,” says Brett Ewing, AIA, a senior associate with Cuningham Group Architecture. “The cost of an accredited degree at a top-level
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school can create a debt of $100,000. And with today’s advances in technology and media, other lucrative career options are available for creative minds.” READY, SET, DESIGN In response, the AIA Las Vegas chapter is taking steps toward ensuring its future through outreach and education efforts that include sponsoring a high school design competition. The 46-year-old program challenges students’ imagination and ingenuity with real-life design problems. The 2017 contest, for example, called for creating a Las Vegas history museum on a 47-acre site formerly occupied by the Riviera and Landmark hotel-casinos. The project requirements, written by Gensler of Nevada’s Ryan Sisti, Associate AIA, require primary and secondary exhibit spaces, a gift shop, classrooms, offices and a library, plus a café, catering kitchen and conference area, among other things. It specifies program sizes, parking ratios, and zoning codes for a taste of realworld design constraints that practicing architects must grapple with. At the same time, it encourages student research and exploration in order to develop a unique design aesthetic, spatial arrangement, and site integration. Winners receive cash prizes, awards, and public recognition. The competition has yielded fruitful results. “I participated in the AIA Las Vegas high school design competition 10 years ago,” says Anthony Yue, AIA, an architect with Simpson Coulter Studio.“It helped set me on the path to becoming an architect.” The AIA Las Vegas chapter additionally promotes an art, architecture and design month every April in order to raise public awareness and enhance perceptions of the industry. It emphasizes the importance of quality design in enriching lives while celebrating work that contributes to the beauty and livability of Southern Nevada’s built and natural environment. Special events unite members of the design
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“It is our job as architects to be an invaluable resource for the next generation of design professionals.” JENNIFER TURCHIN, AIA
professions in order to showcase their contributions toward creating a sense of place in Las Vegas. “I think the profession is evolving to become more inclusive and needs to continue to do that, so in 15 to 20 years, we are pulling the best talent to the profession,” says Hope Friedman, AIA, a design associate with SH Architecture. Part of that inclusive effort involves a CANstruction event in which teams build structures using cans of food. The competition requires planning, coordination, and imagination, with the resulting creations being publicly displayed, exposing students and the public to architecture’s possibilities. Once the 2017 exhibit finished, the structures were dismantled; the cans went to the Three Square Food Bank. This year’s contest produced more than 9,000 cans of food for hungry people in Clark County. “We must educate and cultivate creativity, especially in new generations,” says Esther Garcia, Associate AIA, architectural designer with Gensler of Nevada. “We must be the driving force of change.” AIA Las Vegas’ Committee on the Environment (COTE) plays an active role in change, through school design programs that create outdoor classrooms in existing gardens. Committee volunteers recently held a meeting and charrette with fourth grade students at Sheila Tarr Elementary School. “The kids had a blast and the school was super appreciative.They were begging us to come back,” says Jennifer Turchin,
AIA, a principal with Coda Group. “By meeting’s end, more than a dozen students wanted to be architects, landscape architects, or engineers.” Another COTE project entailed building an organic garden and plaza at The Alexander Dawson School. Designed by JW Zunino Landscape Architecture with LG Architects, the new space offers students direct participation in planting, growing, harvesting, and cooking food as part of their educational curriculum. The project, completed in September 2016, created over 2,100 square feet of organic vegetable beds with 11 fruit tree varieties. There are also shaded structures, storage buildings, an educational plaza, and a contemplation area. Students benefit from personalized hands-on involvement where the resulting experience can forever change their perception of architecture and ecology. “It is our job as architects to be an invaluable resource for the next generation of design professionals,” Turchin said. “We must lead by example.” DON’T CUT CLASS And that example is more important than ever. School guidance counselors are often preoccupied with social problems, leaving little time and energy left for future career-path advice. Clark County, in fact, eliminated architecture classes during the recession as a cost savings measure. “Nevada high schools were forced to drop programs and classes focusing on architecture and design during the economic downturn,” says Ewing. “The recruitment of youth in our profession is not a new subject, but we predict an incredible shortage of architects in the next 10 to 15 years. And this gap will continue to increase unless we are proactive.” There are small shifts in how the industry attracts and retains young talent — for instance, offering student debt relief as a signing bonus, and highlighting their work in
sustainability and positive community impact — but the bulk of the change is taking place at the local AIA level. One of the local chapter’s proactive steps includes contributing to the cost of education through scholarships. The AIA Las Vegas chapter awards $10,000 annually to students attending the UNLV School of Architecture. Applicants must meet minimum grade point average and coursework requirements, plus provide a statement of financial need and write an essay outlining academic achievements and future career aspirations. The school has a long-standing relationship with the AIA Las Vegas chapter, with architect Julio Lucchesi, AIA, leading fundraising efforts back in the 1970s to secure funding for the school’s establishment. “The school of architecture was really prompted by the local profession,” said Glenn Nowak, AIA, an associate professor at the UNLV School of Architecture, which recently celebrated its 20th anniversary. “The local community needed it so that there would be a steady stream of new talent.” The school has 180 returning students in 2017, plus over 75 new undergraduate and graduate students. The landscape and architecture programs both recently won accreditation, and the new master of healthcare interior design program debuts later this year. One of the school’s most important components involves internships and mentoring. “We, as seasoned professionals, learn more by mentoring the young, incoming professionals than they probably learn from us,” said George Garlock, AIA, partner-incharge of design with KGA Architecture. “The profession is in the best hands it has ever been in for the future.” GETTING TO WORK The AIA Las Vegas and UNLV student chapters have a two-year mentoring program for third- and fourth-year students that pairs newly licensed architects with
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upper classmen. The school, meanwhile, has seen over 400 students across all year levels participate in annual internship fair during the last five years. Internships can be reciprocal learning experiences, too, with seasoned architects seeing things anew through a youthful lens. “The most important thing I have learned is that I can learn something of value from everyone,” says Wade Simpson, AIA, owner of Simpson Coulter Studio. The AIA Las Vegas chapter is additionally launching a new principalshadowing program that pairs sixth-year graduate students with an architecture firm principal or other high-level employee for an afternoon or day. Students participate in client, consultant, and design meetings, experiencing firm principal duties first-hand while witnessing a
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project metamorphosis from inception to completion. “Success in design and construction is about learning from experience and improving through iterations,” said Alexia Chen, AIA, a UNLV architecture graduate who now works as a project manager for LG Architects. The UNLV Downtown Design Center, headed by associate professor Steven Clarke, ASLA, also offers much-needed student experience through funded community projects and grants. The nonprofit center, located at the Historic Fifth Street School, directly engages and advocates for the best planned and built environments by assisting with research, design, planning, technical assistance, and creative innovation. It’s currently developing concepts from Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman’s first urban
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design symposium in February. The results will be shared later this year with the city officials on how best to cultivate a distinct pedestrian environment in Downtown that reflects its identity, history, and culture through strategic planning and design. GET ENGAGED Students are additionally showcasing their know-how by participating in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon, a bi-annual competition to design, build and operate a full-size, solarpowered house that is energy-efficient, affordable and innovative. UNLV is one of only 14 university teams worldwide picked to compete in this year’s contest, after finishing first among American universities and second overall in 2013. The team must design, construct and test its 964
square-foot home before transporting and reassembling it at the competition site. “Competitions like the Solar Decathlon combine research, education, and community engagement in unique and meaningful ways,” said UNLV President Len Jessup. “Team UNLV’s approach will influence research and home design, but also has potential to address issues of health and housing facing the southwest region’s fast-growing and aging population.” Students compete in 10 different areas, ranging from architecture and engineering to market appeal and communications, with the winners taking home $2 million in total prize money. It forces students to strategize, coordinate, and plan within a multidisciplinary competitive atmosphere. “The competition allows us to collaborate with students across disciplines
and develop skills that just wouldn’t be possible in a normal classroom environment,” says Nasko Balaktchiev, a masters of architecture student who is also the UNLV team project manager. “We’re learning more about our own field of study, becoming more knowledgeable in other areas, and designing a home to address an important societal issue.” UNLV’s 2013 entry, named DesertSol, brought together 60 students, faculty and staff from architecture, engineering, health sciences, business, communications, and social work. All of the participants are now employed, and many have returned as mentors to the 2017 team. The experience has paid off. “The Masters of Architecture program has seen over 90 percent employment rates upon graduation over the last five
years,” Nowak says. “And we suspect this year’s group will continue to make great additions to the profession. This year’s undergraduates, meanwhile, are exceptional and extremely motivated.” That is the sort of momentum that AIA Las Vegas hopes to nurture and grow in the future. In fact, it’s a chapter priority. “The AIA Las Vegas Chapter will make it our mission in 2017 to ignite the interest, education, and passion for architecture in the next generation of architects, and to facilitate, guide, and mentor them toward licensure,” says Sparer. “Our goal is to reach out to students of all ages and raise their awareness of the importance of design and quality architecture, not only as a career, but as a way to change and improve the world.There has never been a better time to become an architect.” n
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EDUCATION
Architecture student George Babakitis presents designs to his professors in 1992. Today, Babakitis works at TSK Architects.
UNLV’s School of Architecture turns 20 this year. Its graduates have gone on to build great things — and its instructors have helped redefine what “Vegas design” means BY T.R. WITCHER
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WHEN KEVIN KEMNER ARRIVED to work at TSK Architects and teach at UNLV’s School of Architecture in 1995, he found a city where “something really special was happening, in terms of the construction and growth” — but a school whose classrooms were located in a collection of beat-up modular trailers. He emailed a friend and told him, “I think I’m teaching at the worst school of architecture in the country.” Okay, so the facilities weren’t ideal. “What they did have was a pretty amazing couple years of student cohorts,” Kemner says. “Think about this. These are kids who are committing to education at an unaccredited school. There was a lot of optimism. They were really Vegas gogetters in the old sense of it.”
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And those students discovered that the school and Las Vegas had something in common: Both are scrappy rebels that defy the odds and march toward excellence — and they do it by their own rules. While the UNLV School of Architecture is officially celebrating its 20th anniversary of accreditation this year, architectural instruction at UNLV stretches back nearly two decades before. As early as 1981, local architects, led by Ray Lucchesi, saw the need for a growing community to teach itself how to build. They began to offer classes in design and drafting in 1981. A lot more students turned up than anyone expected. Other courses, taught by engineering faculty, were soon added. In 1982, an experimental, two-year architectural studies program was set up in
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the College of Science and Mathematics. By 1986, the program had moved to the College of Engineering and was offering a non-accredited, four-year bachelor of science degree. The early digs were pretty simple. Attila Lawrence, Professor of Interior Architecture and Healthcare Design, is the longesttenured member of the faculty; he arrived in Las Vegas in 1988. He recalls how students and faculty were housed then in the Tudor Revival-style Houssels family home, across the street from the current school. “Furnishings and equipment were modest and mostly vintage,” he writes in an email. Still, even then, the chance of being on the ground floor of something new was compelling. “The challenge of starting an interior architecture program with minimal resources was very appealing to me,” he writes in an email. The head of the department at the time, Dr. Hugh Burgess, “was an inspiring visionary who wanted to create an educational environment that embraced all the design disciplines ranging from product design to urban planning.” In 1989, the Board of Regents approved a Master of Architecture degree. In 1994, the school was briefly set up in its own college, along with construction management and planning. Eventually, then-President Carol Harter placed it in the College of Fine Arts (the program was too small to be a stand-alone college), where it still resides. The early facilities were pretty ragged, but students didn’t seem to mind. They were an unpolished group of go-getters who were committing to a school that was not accredited — essentially pursuing their education without a net. They had to make the most of their years. “They were amazingly resourceful,” Lawrence recalls. “They bonded together amazingly well.” And the faculty — then and now — were drawn to the school’s spirit of exploration, risk and experimentation, and they fostered that spirit as well. “People saw themselves,” says Kemner. “They were inspired by the community around them.
Anything was possible. It was pre-computer era. There was a lot of physical making and physical drawings.” There was also plenty of irreverent attitude. One day, Kemner told his students that the school looked bad. They should do something about it. So students painted their trailers. Michael Alcorn, the first director of the program, had to cover for the students by getting on the phone with the university’s facilities department to tell them it was a terrible case of vandalism. Later that school year, Kemner’s class was experimenting with clay figures. The students wanted to fire their work in a kiln, so Kemner told them what materials they needed to build one. They got right to it — except, the students, well, “borrowed” all the material they needed from construction sites around town. They fired the kiln for 48 hours. At one point the police came and asked what was going on. The students responded: Architecture. Satisfied, the police drove off. The most important figure of the early days was Alcorn, who joined the faculty in 1993 and, as director, helped guide the fledging school to accreditation. “Someone said that he can still hear Michael’s footsteps echoing even in our new building,” Lawrence notes. “Michael was an excellent administrator who knew how to harmonize and value everyone’s contribution to our school.” Alcorn is also credited with imbuing the new school with a good-spirited warmth that persists to this day. Kemner recalls one day when Alcorn showed up in a particularly bright mood, humming a tune. Kemner asked him what was going on. “It’s Margarita Friday,” Alcorn told him. “Oh, you’re going to go out drinking,” Kemner said. “No,” said Alcorn. “We have our own margarita machine.” A two-barrel machine, in fact. Alcorn used to pull it out every Friday around three, and everyone would come by for a drink. “That was the heart and soul of the school for a while,” Kemner says.
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GROWING UP — WITH ATTITUDE That all started to change in 1997. That year the school officially arrived — its architecture and interior design programs were accredited (landscape architecture followed a year later). The school’s Klai Juba Lecture series on architecture and urbanism debuted. Most importantly, perhaps, the school moved into its first real home: the 75,000-square foot Paul B. Sogg building on the southeast edge of campus. (Disclosure: I’ve taught classes in the school as an adjunct.) The building was a challenge for those students who had made the trailers their own. Jason Jorjorian, now a shareholder with blue-chip local firm LGA, was a senior when Sogg opened. “The biggest change was the studios in the trailer were a little more grass-roots,” Jorjorian says. “There was definitely a different culture. Less rules.That led to more ability to explore and do different things.” His studio was the first to paint its trailer — but no paint was allowed in the building’s studios. Vintage architectural drafting tables gave way to more generic flat tables. So students did what students always do. They rebelled. Daniel J. Chenin, AIA, principal with Daniel Joseph Chenin Ltd., a local architecture and interior design firm, entered the program the same year the building opened. “When we were in school, it was literally the Wild West. Anything was game. There were no protocols. Anyone could get on a computer system, you could go and delete all the files.” Students built forts, beds, and
hammocks. That came to an end when the fire marshal showed up and saw all this wood in a temporary structure. “These people made it home,” says Chenin. The blocky structure is not widely loved — though Kemner asserts that it’s not a bad building. “The schools that have the potential to generate a lot of energy are those that are more a barn than a jewel piece.” No one wants to mess with a jewel piece. “For us, it’s looking upon it for its opportunities and less ‘It’s not the nicestlooking building on the planet.’” FAIL NOBLY — OR SUCCEED WILDLY Talk to faculty and former students about the last 20 years of architecture education in Las Vegas, and a central theme emerges about the school. Alfredo Fernández-González, the interim director of the school, calls it an “entrepreneurial attitude,” a willingness to explore and gamble and fail — or succeed wildly. “Many places are set in their traditions, rigid,” Fernández-González explains. “What I found at UNLV was that pioneer experience. No one ever told me, ‘No you can’t.’” Fernández-González established the Natural Energies Advanced Technologies Laboratory, or NEAT, which conducts research on green roofing, passive cooling, alternative construction materials, analysis of big data with respect to energy consumption. That can-do, tradition-bucking ethos is a Vegas thing. “What I’ve noticed about what makes Las Vegas special, it’s an idea that it’s a town that allows you to try things and be who you want to be,” adds David
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Photos from the UNLV School of Architecture over the years. The school began as an upstart, but now leads community conversations about design.
Baird, who served as director of the school from 2010 to 2015. “This is a place where you can be courageous, be bold. Have big ideas and not apologize for them. It’s one of our great strengths here.” Another advantage is that UNLV is the only architecture program in the state, and one of the few in the region. There’s no other school within hours. It gives the program a certain kind of boldness. There’s no pressure to compete with a cross-town rival, so the program rewards experimentation and risk-taking. In recent years, that spirit of innovation has led to new and expanded programs that are shaping the identity of the school. When Glenn Nowak arrived to teach in the fall of 2006, he found that the spectacular architecture of the Strip was the elephant in the room. “No one wanted to talk about or engage critically,” he says. “There aren’t too many architects outside of Las Vegas that would take some of the themed architecture you see on the Strip very seriously.” But architecture programs — from Yale’s famous late-’60s visit (resulting in the seminal 1972 book Learning from Las Vegas) — have constantly sent studios here to “try to wrap their heads around Las Vegas.” So Nowak, whose work focused on the intersection of entertainment and architecture, led the creation of a hospitality design concentration in 2010, an attempt to unpack the design issues emerging in today’s local and global tourism economy. Initially, the concentration steered away from casino design — it didn’t want to be known as a casino design school. Nowak
and his students studied a wide variety of hospitality venues and subjects, including hotels, tourism districts, eco tourism, medical tourism, and transportation systems. “As much as people like buying stuff, it is the experiences people have — they become a premium for people’s lives,” Nowak says. “Designing for those experiences becomes a great opportunity to design tourist facilities, but I’m seeing more and more when places want to design for tourists, there’s an opportunity for the local community to leverage that and create something that makes their own lives that much more enjoyable.” The school has also been a significant player in community relations, especially through its Downtown Design Center, an urban design and outreach studio launched by architecture professor Robert Dorgan in 2008 at the Historic Fifth Street School (although UNLV had conducted design classes Downtown at the school as far back as the early 2000s). Under the leadership of Dorgan, then Nowak, and then Ken McCown, the Downtown Design Center has produced reports about everything from Downtown development to revitalizing a non-profit social services hub east of the Strip. Now led by Steven Clarke, the center most recently completed a mammoth planning study for revitalizing historic West Las Vegas. These projects have taken students out of their creative design bubbles and allowed them to interact with the community in addressing issues such as affordable housing, social services, and economic development. Most notable in recent years is the
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EDUCATION
school’s stunning success in the 2013 Solar Decathlon competition, in which students designed and built a net-zero home. In a worldwide competition against 19 other schools, UNLV took second. The decathlon is part of a broader effort to make the school a center for design-build education — where students gain hands-on knowledge about building structures, an increasingly rare opportunity in the digital age. Students have tackled other design build projects as well, from a theater ticket pavilion to an artist’s retreat near Zion. “Students don’t come with skills of making things,” Baird observes.“Design-build is so important. It grounds the students in real materials, in gravity, things that don’t occur when you’re working on a computer screen.” Now, as Baby Boomers reach retirement, the school is poised to be at the
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forefront of a new wave of innovation. It recently launched a graduate program in interior healthcare design (see related story on p. 39). The program aims at creating wellness-promoting environments. Attila Lawrence, professor of Interior Architecture and Healthcare Design, says that positions UNLV to engage the challenges facing Nevada and the country: the physical and cognitive conditions of an aging population, multi-generational housing, and social and environmental sustainability. “Neuroscience-informed design strategies can create environments that enhance learning, collaboration, and the management of neuropsychiatric symptoms such as depression and apathy,” he writes in an email. “The new graduate healthcare design program is a first step in that direction.”
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GO BIG OR GO ELITE? The coming years will have their challenges. The school has yet to find a permanent new director since Baird stepped down in 2015. And for years, the school was in growth mode, attracting increasing numbers of students, many of whom were the first in their families to attend school. A booming economy during much of the early 2000s kept tuition low. But the recession forced the program to reassess its focus. As budgets shrank and tuition rose — 100 percent, Kemner says, between pre-recession and post-recession — the school’s proposition as an affordable institution diminished. Enrollment dropped. (Currently, though, there are still more than 370 students enrolled in the school.) And the school, along with the university,
began to focus on repositioning itself as a more elite academic destination. While this may attract academically stronger students, it may mean the school turns up fewer hidden gems. “We used to be excellent at polishing diamonds in the rough,” Kemner says. “I’d like to raise our profile,” say Janet White, who’s taught the history of architecture in the school since 1999. “I’d like to see us have more international students. It helps the mix of the studio when you have a diversity of people. Currently, most of our graduate students are graduates of our programs, and I’d like to see that change.” Enrollment of African American students is low, though there is a growing number of Asian and Latino students in the school. The faculty appreciates the school’s lean size, but most would like to see the
school grow. “In the next 20 years, I’d like to see it grow so we have more flexibility,” says White. “We’ve just recently gotten enough faculty that we now have fulltime studio professors in almost all of our architecture studios.” “The school has been at its best when it’s been larger,” Kemner says. “It was always attractive to students who came from less-advantaged backgrounds and found their excellence by coming to the school.” Fernandez-Gonzalez contends that the school is already world-class. “The reality is we’re one of the most exciting places to be. I would challenge anyone going to Harvard or Princeton — our graduates are no worse than theirs. The activities we have here are second to none. The future is for those who dream it, and
we’re that kind of a place.” That idea has certainly inspired students who’ve gone on to help shape everything from Strip nightspots to schools, community centers and city-defining projects such as the Springs Preserve. “I increasingly encounter rising principals in firms who were my students,” says Kemner, who left the School of Architecture in 2016 and is currently Associate Principal with TSK in Reno. “It’s fantastic to see that the people who left the school of architecture have gone on to be successful and are becoming an emerging leadership class.” Which is perhaps the ultimate triumph of the UNLV School of Architecture — once a scrappy startup, it’s now an institution leading the community conversation about architecture, design, and livability. n
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PROFILE
IMAGINATION UNLEASHED With his dynamic style and versatile aesthetic, Paul Revere Williams left a lasting impression on Las Vegas in his homes, churches, and small resorts
PAUL REVERE WILLIAMS, FAIA, IS enjoying a renaissance. He is the posthumous recipient of this year’s AIA Gold Medal, the profession’s highest honor, despite passing away in 1980. Williams is the first AfricanAmerican architect to receive the award, joining such luminaries as Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Sullivan, Le Corbusier, Louis Kahn, and I.M. Pei, among others. “It’s been many decades, but Paul Williams is finally being recognized for the brilliant work he did over many years,” said Phil Freelon, FAIA, managing and design director at Perkins + Will, in his December 2016 presentation for Williams’ gold medal. Williams left an unmistakable imprint upon American architecture. He created nearly 3,000 buildings during a prolific 50year career that consisted of homes, hotels, shops, casinos, restaurants, airports, and churches. He tackled commissions large and small, public and private, skillfully transitioning between architectural styles such as Mediterranean and Googie, American Colonial and Spanish Revival, English Tudor and Art Deco. Williams was the architect of choice for celebrity homes, designing custom residences for Lucille Ball, Lon Chaney, Frank Sinatra, Tyrone Power, Cary Grant, Danny Thomas and Barron Hilton,
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Williams portrait courtesy Karen E. Hudson
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among others. His houses embodied a casual elegance, sophistication and warmth. They were impeccably detailed, airy and sun-filled, incorporating innovations like hidden retractable screens and the use of patios as an extension of the house. He also designed low-income residences that were comfortable and attractive, including the first federally funded public housing project of the post-war period, the 274unit Langston Terrace in Washington D.C. (1935-38). And he left an imprint on our city, too. Williams produced a small but potent constellation of buildings in Las Vegas, including La Concha Motel, Guardian Angel Cathedral, Royal Nevada Casino, El Morocco Motel, Carver Park, and Berkley Square. He even designed a short-lived horse-track called Las Vegas Park in Paradise Hills in 1953 that closed after only two weeks. And while only a handful of his work still survives in Southern Nevada, Williams continues to inform and shape the region’s architectural landscape. “Paul Williams was a good, diverse architect, a true professional, who responded to the needs to the times, which is a model for the industry today,” says architect and author Alan Hess. “His buildings in Las Vegas deserve to be preserved and honored. They show the diverse character of the region, from gambling to hospitality to religion to homes, which is part of the innovative spirit of the area.” FROM UPSIDE-DOWN TO THE VERY TOP
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Williams was a true trailblazer. Born in L.A. in 1894, orphaned by age 4 and the only black child in his school, he was told by counselors to forget an architecture career because white clients wouldn’t hire him and black ones couldn’t afford him. Fortunately, Williams persevered. He attended the Los Angeles branch of the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design Atelier (1913–16),
becoming a certified architect in 1915. Williams took a series of low-paying architecture jobs while studying at the University of Southern California from 1916 to 1919. Struggling to gain attention, he served on the first Los Angeles City Planning Commission in 1920. Williams received a license to practice architecture in California in 1921, and a year later, at age 28, founded his own firm, Paul R. Williams and Associates. He was the only black licensed architect west of the Mississippi. “Our profession desperately needs more architects like Paul Williams,” wrote William J. Bates, FAIA, in his support of William’s AIA Gold Medal nomination. “His pioneering career has
Guardian Angel: Christopher Smith; construction: Nevada State Museum
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HISTORY
Williams' design for the Guardian Angel Cathedral featured 12 triangular recesses that let in diffuse light. Below, the cathedral under construction before its opening in 1961.
encouraged others to cross a chasm of historic biases.” Williams, in fact, learned to draw upside down to accommodate white
clients uncomfortable with sitting next to a black man. He became the first black architect member of the AIA in 1923 and its first black fellow in 1957. Williams’ talent, determination and perseverance paid off with commissions that included designing housing for the Navy during World War II. He wrote two books about the subject, The Small Home of Tomorrow (1945), with a successor volume, New Homes for Today (1946). Williams collaborated with wellknown architects of his day like Wallace Neff, AIA, and A. Quincy Jones, FAIA. He was part of the team responsible for the space-age-like LAX Theme Building (1961) as well as for designing the original St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
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PROFILE
(1962) in Memphis, Tennessee, plus the Los Angeles County Courthouse (1958), Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills (1939), and significant parts of the Beverly Hills Hotel (1940s), including the Polo Lounge. “His obstacles were great, but nothing could extinguish his brilliance,” wrote Karen Hudson in her book, Paul R. Williams: Classic Hollywood Style (2012). “Unable to participate in the ‘old boys’ network that boosted the careers of most architects of the day, he found ways to distinguish himself and garner clients.” Indeed, Williams distinguished himself anew late in his career in Las Vegas where his work was creatively unbound, resulting in thoughtfully crafted buildings that
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perfectly captured the city’s restless energy, moxie, and penchant for reinvention. THE FORMS OF FREEDOM AND ADVENTURE
Arguably, Williams’ best known surviving Las Vegas work is the La Concha Motel lobby, which has since been moved and converted into the Neon Museum. (It’s listed in the Nevada Register of Historic Places). The 1,200-square-foot clamshell building was originally erected in 1961 at 2955 Las Vegas Blvd. S. The 28-foot-tall structure is a prime example of post-war Googie architecture. America, in the 1950s and 1960s, had a newfound appetite for freedom and
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adventure due to the creation of a national Interstate Highway System. And Googie reflected the whimsy and kitsch of car culture with glass, steel and neon construction in geometric upswept shapes for a streamlined, futuristic sense of movement. La Concha is a swooping structure constructed from a thin reinforced concrete shell with intervening floor-toceiling glass window walls.The undulating form gives the building a sense of dynamism like a wave washed ashore, while also creating deep cantilevered overhangs for private pockets of shade and protection from the desert sun. Although a small commission, La Concha still
La Concha: Las Vegas News Bureau; LAX Theme Building: LAWA
Williams' La Concha Motel lobby is a perfect example of post-war Googie architecture, which emphasized whimsy and verve.
The LAX Theme Building showcases William's futuristic design sensibility.
embodies Las Vegas’ design lineage, ambitions, and future aspirations. La Concha sat just north of another Williams creation, the El Morocco Motel. It, too, embraced an eye-catching Googie roadside design with a distinctive circular lobby building that resembled a seashell. The concrete building was encircled with scalloped floor-to-ceiling windows for 360-degree views. Unlike its betterknown neighbor, however, El Morocco fell victim to the wrecking ball in 2005. The Royal Nevada Casino suffered a similar fate. The hotel-casino opened at 3000 Las Vegas Blvd. S. in 1955, with an oversized crown sitting atop a façade plinth along a sweeping drive-up entry. A large, cascading, neon-lit water fountain was a visual anchor. The low-rise was closed three years later and was incorporated into the new Stardust Hotel in 1959 as part of its convention
center. The Stardust was eventually imploded in 2007. The Guardian Angel Cathedral is the only Williams building still standing near the Las Vegas Strip. The A-frame 1,100seat building opened at 302 Cathedral Way in 1961. The Catholic cathedral, which sits on land donated by Moe Dalitz, features a white stucco four-sided spire with a cross atop, located at the front left entrance. There is also a large, colorful entrance mosaic by Los Angeles artist Edith Piczek representing the Guardian Angel with three figures: Penance, Prayer and Peace. A second main altar mural depicts the Guardian surrounded by swooping angels with a large ceiling suspended crucifix in front. Main-floor pews are divided into four sections across the nave with a deep gallery above the main entrance. Stained-glass windows were installed in
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the 12 triangular recesses that bisect the A-frame. Indirect lighting enters through concealed troffers for a surprising sense of calm and contemplation. And lighting highlights the entryway and altar murals, lending visual drama. The Guardian Angel Cathedral was renovated in 1995 for $1.3 million, reflecting the building’s importance and its continuing status as a local architectural icon. STURDY AND SIMPLE
Las Vegas’ black population exploded after World War II, with returning veterans seeking affordable housing through the new federal G.I. Bill. In 1947, investors joined the City of Las Vegas in petitioning the Federal Housing Administration to develop a 40-acre parcel on the historic Westside for 148 single-family homes. The subdivision, Berkley Square, opened in 1955.Williams created two model choices each with different roof types, porches, carports, façade finishes and windows.
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The ranch-style homes were sturdy and simple. Residences had roofs covered in white rock with simple landscaping, large backyards and carports with added storage space. Berkley Square was an instant hit, with a waiting list for new homes. Charles West, Southern Nevada’s first black physician, purchased two residences. Berkley Square was added to the U.S. National Parks Service’s National Register of Historic Places in 2009. “Williams’ design for Berkley Square filled a desperate need for adequate housing in West Las Vegas,” says Courtney Mooney, city historic preservation officer.“Adequate housing lagged far behind.”
Town & Country: Library of Congress; Beverly Hills, Berkley Square and Williams home: Wikimedia Commons
Clockwise from top: Town & Country Center, Palm Springs; the Beverly Hills Hotel; a home in Berkley Square in Las Vegas; Williams' residence in Los Angeles
Williams changed that. He designed a subdivision for working-class blacks called Carver Park on the east side of Boulder Highway in an area that would later become Henderson. It housed workers for the Basic Magnesium Inc. plant, which produced magnesium for munitions and airplane parts during World War II. Opened in 1943, Carver Park consisted of 64 units for single workers, 104 onebedroom units, 104 two-bedroom units and 52 three-bedroom apartments, plus a school and recreation hall. It marked a significant upgrade from the canvas tents previously occupied by workers. BACK TO THE FUTURE
Williams’ unfettered imagination was unleashed in Las Vegas, fueling
futuristic ideas about everything from affordable housing to transportation. In 1966, for example, he was hired as designer and consultant for a Las Vegas monorail project being built by Guerdon Industries and Lockheed Aircraft Corp. Williams would be responsible for noiseless, four-passenger gondolas done in a post-Sputnik Modern-style, plus the station design and elevated tracks. The $17 million electric maglev project called the SkyLift Magi-Cab would begin at McCarran Airport and continue along the Strip at 25-miles-per-hour to a Downtown transit hub with 15 stops along the way. Although six Strip hotels endorsed the project, it never materialized due to funding problems. People were loath to abandon their
automobiles. Las Vegas, of course, eventually built a monorail nearly four decades later along the backside of the Strip that remains in operation today. Williams retired from practice in 1973. He died seven years later at age 85 from diabetes. Yet his legacy looms large. Eight of his works are named to the National Register of Historic Places. Williams could dazzle and demur, excite and soothe, adapting his work to whatever was needed while still creating unmistakable designs. “He wasn’t a starchitect,” says Hess. “But he should be known and honored for his creativity and mastery of styles, designing all kinds of buildings. He demonstrated that architecture can serve everyone and improve lives.” n
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FEATURE
YOUNG, RESTLESS, HUNGRY, BOLD PAGE
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Whether they’re fresh out of college or finishing high school, these rising talents promise great things for architecture and design in the valley — and beyond B Y T . R . W I TC H E R The great recession devastated the architecture community in Las Vegas, driving architects out of work and out of the profession, hurting enrollment at UNLV’s architecture school, and littering the city with the shells of buildings that would sit unfinished for years. But now that Las Vegas is building again, there’s hope on the horizon, literally and metaphorically. While our skyline starts to shift and bustle back to life, in our schools and offices a new wave of young designers — some professional, some still in school — promise great things for Las Vegas’ next act.
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ERIK SWENDSEID, AIA Bergman Walls & Associates + + + + With an eye for subtlety, Swendseid appreciates how small touches reflect serious vision ERIK SWENDSEID GREW UP IN Reno. He loved the bright lights of the casinos.When he moved to Las Vegas to finish high school, he considered becoming both an architect and an engineer.When he chose architecture — less math, more art — he was certain he’d made the right decision. But the path wasn’t easy. In his second-year studio course, he was working on a foam core model for a tower. His teacher asked why he was shaping the model in a particular way, and Swendseid said because, you know, the design looked pretty cool. The teacher was not impressed. “You have 10 seconds to give me a good reason or I am taking a bat to your model,” the teacher said. Swendseid, knowing he didn’t have an answer, could only wait. Ten seconds later, the teacher smashed the model to pieces. Then the two talked for a few hours. It was a crucial lesson for the young designer, a lesson about resisting the temptation to fall in love with a design concept, about having a sound reason for every design decision. As he was finishing his education, Swendseid also got a feel for the profession by working in the office of architect Suzana Rutar, AIA, where he did everything from conceptual design to construction management. Since 2013, he’s been a design architect for Bergman Walls & Associates, working on projects that range from tribal casinos to Siegel’s 1941, a speakeasy-style diner at El Cortez. “That was one where working with Suzana really helped me. I was only there a year or so at BWA and got thrown into
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this. It was very funny. It was a small project, budget-minded, but they gave us the chance to do a lot of cool things, make a lot of small gestures.” But small can be powerful. Most of Swendseid’s recent work has been smallscale space planning. But, he insists, “The philosophy that context should inform design still holds true no matter the scale or location.” In other words: “I don’t just stick and run with that first decent idea I have, but I vet out multiple concepts and see how the best of them all can come together.” It’s not always the quickest process, he adds, but it’s the difference between creating architecture rather than just a structure. At the same time, Swendseid is unapologetic in his admiration for Vegas’ most iconic architectural feature, the Strip. “I love the Strip,” he says.“I love going down there to sketch, even just to take the long way home. Roll down the windows and just kind of take it all in. I’ve been to Times Square at two in the morning, and Vegas beats Times Square at two in the morning.” And the Strip is getting better, he says. “We always had these arguments in school with some of our older professors.They got mad that you’re tearing down the Stardust
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or Desert Inn, all these cool nostalgic things. You look at these pictures of the Strip, you watch some of those videos on Facebook, and they’re parking lots with a 30-foot-tall building 200 feet away.” Swendseid observes that the Strip has matured to using that frontage for spectacle (the Bellagio fountains) and then for the building itself (The Cosmopolitan). Now, destinations like The Park and The Linq are transforming the spaces in between the casinos. “One place bleeds to another; you don’t know when you’re moving from one to the other.The gaps are filling, and I love it.” If he could take it a step further, he’d like to see those in-between spaces go vertical. He’s inspired by the unique rooftop pool/movie night/concert venue atop The Cosmopolitan. “My proposal to the county would be to create an interstitial space that meanders both up and across, combining well thought-out anchors, destinations, and access points with a path.” Maybe at the intersection of the Strip and Flamingo, a space that, to his mind, lacks punch. In fact, if you see someone standing on the corner, immersed in thoughtful sketching, that’s probably Swendseid, dreaming big through small details.
BRENDA TENA Atlas Architecture + + + + Raised in glittering Las Vegas, Tena understands that interiors can be just as vibrant B R E N DA T E NA D I D N ’ T discover design until she began school at UNLV. She was actually thinking about becoming a pharmacist, but soon realized that art was her passion. But she didn’t want to be a starving artist, either: Interior architecture became the way she could bridge science and art. The 24-year-old is finishing her master’s degree in interior architecture while working at Atlas Architecture. She is one of many young designers from the school who's interested in transforming Downtown Las Vegas. “As young designers, we want to revitalize Downtown. We want to continue that effort. We’re sprawling out, but we’re not really thinking of the core, the roots of our city. … There’s so much history down here, and buildings that need love that can be reused.” Interior architects don’t tend to get the same love architects do. But for Tena, those who design the inside of a building have a better chance to create experiences for people. After all, people spend far more time inside buildings than looking at them from the exterior. And the interiors have their own story to tell. “I love old Las Vegas, I love that
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time and feel,” she says. “I would have died just to go inside the original Flamingo, to see the original casinos. It’s built our city.” As a kid, Tena used to visit Circus Circus, where she’d get her face painted like a clown. Now she looks at the aging hotel-casino as a “gold mine for architectural preservation” — nearly 50 years’ worth. “Instead of ‘transforming’ an old casino in the traditional sense,” she says, “I would think about it more as an opportunity for revival. Imagine an old photo, black and white. Now, imagine we add color, vibrance, and reanimate the live performers, acrobats, and artists. We live in a version of Vegas where that’s a rarity to find.” Tena has had the chance to craft some history herself. During an internship with Gensler, she worked on the design for the Skyfall Lounge at Mandalay Bay. The most striking part of the project was a massive feature wall composed of 5,000 threeinch-square acrylic chips that were assembled to look like a giant wave. “That took a lot of effort to not only document on paper, but to also go on site and help someone put together all those different pieces, different colors, different sheens,” she says. Projects such as the wall are what make interior architecture a rewarding profession. “We get to see fairly quickly the results of your pursuits, and what you’ve been working on. You don’t get that very often in other professions. You don’t get to see your work come alive.” Wherever her career takes her — “I would love to experience different things, but at the same time Vegas is my home,” she says — “alive” definitely describes her Vegasconscious style.
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NASKO BALAKTCHIEV Atlas Architecture ++++ He’s got an eye for details — and a mind for their relevance to the bigger picture of ethical design ORIGINALLY FROM BULGARIA, Nasko Balaktchiev studied drafting and design at the Advanced Technologies Academy in Las Vegas, and quickly knew he had found his calling. “I loved designing buildings,” he says. Through high school, he participated in AIA competitions and also worked at an Autodesk training center, teaching people how to use AutoCAD and Revit. Those skills served him well at UNLV, where he worked on both the 2013 and 2017 Solar Decathlon teams. Now he’s beginning to make his mark professionally. He’s worked for the last year and a half at Atlas Architecture, and has already worked on two new office projects coming to the edge of the Arts District — one for which he drew up all the construction documents himself. Balaktchiev says both projects draw on Downtown’s mid-century era context and combine that “with a modern-design sensibility that pays careful attention to detail and human experience.” On both projects, he’s been involved from concept to construction administration. The process has been a test of his mantra. “Pay great attention to detail,” he says. “Mies Van Der Rohe’s quote that ‘God is in the details’ is one I try to stay true to, and take into account for every project.” Young architects, of course, dream of designing skyscrapers and other iconic buildings, but Balaktchiev sees the value in smaller, more fine-grained work. “We’re making an impact on the Downtown community,” he says. “And
that’s what my interest is as a young architect. I’ve always been more interested in smaller, more meaningful projects rather than the typical Las Vegas towering casinos.” Working Downtown has another benefit — the chance to preserve the city’s thin heritage of old buildings. “I get really upset to see there’s no historic preservation here. I see a lot of other cities doing that very passionately. We tend to tear down casinos and buildings and build new as much as possible. That’s something I hope I can impact as an architect here.” How does an architect do that? By working with what we have. “I think if we do a better job of preserving history, it would offer an attraction to both tourists and local Las Vegans. From a sustainability standpoint, the construction industry is a big generator of waste. Remodeling a building can generate far less waste versus full building demolition and construction of a new project.” Downtown is a long way, he says, from other up-and-coming cities like Portland and Denver; designers of all ages are still trying to find their way here. “I think Downtown is unique, it’s different from other cities. I don’t think we’ve found the solutions for it yet. It’s up to our generation to figure it out and make it better.” This sense of maturity reflects why Balaktchiev entered the architecture profession in the first place. “There’s a moral aspect to it that we don’t really think about or talk about,” he says. “We have the ability to directly impact the way people feel. I come from a country that’s an ex-Soviet country. So we have a lot of very oppressive concrete architecture, very permanent architecture. This is one of the few professions where you can really impact the way someone feels.”
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ANGELY VENTURA American Institute of Architecture Students, East Career & Technical Academy chapter + + + + Summer vacation? She spent hers designing and building a giant sword WITH A CHAPTER OF THE American Institute of Architecture Students, the East Career & Technical Academy is making a name for itself as a place for young Las Vegans to learn about architecture and the building professions. One of its brightest young architecture students is Angely Ventura, who found a home in the school’s construction tech program.“I’m very intrigued with hands-on experience. I don’t like being at a desk, staring at a computer,” she says. At East Tech,Ventura has learned the fundamentals of everything from framework to electrical, plumbing to masonry. She’s also learned AutoCAD and 3-D printing. She and her classmates have already worked on projects as varied as tool sheds and mantle clocks, and even a catapult (for a chuck-apumpkin event). This year, she’s worked with other students on a senior capstone celebration day project — in this case, a large steel and Plexiglas sword lit from within.The enormous version of East Tech’s logo — one foot wide, eight feet tall, and 14 feet long — is being built with angle iron, Plexiglas, steel tubing, OSB board and LEDs. It will be mounted to the ground and plugged in through a wall to the principal’s conference room, a permanent gift to the school. Ventura dreamed up the concept last summer, but building it has been a crash course in design and construction — and perseverance — for Ventura and her three classmates.They’d been working after school for three straight, emotionally draining months, trying to learn on the fly how to
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bring their idea to life.“We had never given so much effort or so much time for so long.” Faculty was supportive, allowing them to skip a few classes, work after school, and come in on the weekends.“We’ve gotten so much support,” she says.“I can’t even thank them.” Ventura finds interior design inspiration by studying the clean designs from Sweden and the Netherlands. And, it turns out, closer to home. She was surfing through Instagram one day, looking at luxury homes for design ideas, and saw a picture of CAVU Las Vegas, the lux, desert modern confection in the Ridges, designed by Eric Strain of Assemblage Studio and owned by prominent architects
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John Klai and Jon Sparer. She contacted the real estate agent, who put her in touch with the architects; Sparer himself gave her and her classmates an in-depth tour of the 13,255-square-foot home. Ventura plans to attend Nevada State College and then UNLV. Her focus will be interior architecture. “I like color, I like design. With interior architecture you can play around with walls and bathrooms, you can play around with all these things, rearranging things, adding color, lighting.” Between Ventura’s confidence and her knack for making connections, one suspects that swords are just the beginning.
DOMINIC ARMENDARIZ, AIA, AND RAFAEL ARMENDARIZ, AIA American Institute of Architecture Students, UNLV chapter SH Architecture + + + + Family ties and strong community bonds underscoreπ their passion for architecture and design TWIN BROTHERS DOMINIC and Rafael Armendariz grew up around the romance of architecture. Their father was a licensed residential designer and contractor in Tucson and later in Las Vegas, and both boys spent long hours watching him draw on tracing paper and build models. They saw plenty of homes being built. (What’s more, their grandmother was the director of the Nevada State Board of Architecture, Interior Design and Residential Design.) Dominic was first to realize he wanted to be an architect; Rafael had the same desire, but was hung up because he hadn’t gotten there first. “Growing up as a twin, you want to find your own identity,” Rafael says. So he considered careers in engineering and construction management. Finally, when he was 17, he decided to pursue his first passion. The brothers, both 21, also got a front row seat to the recession, which decimated the ranks of professional architects in Las Vegas. It didn’t deter them, but it led them to add business-related minors to their degree programs. They’ve also taken leadership positions in the UNLV chapter of the American Institute of Architecture Students, an independent, student-run organization with more than 200 chapters around the world. The twins joined AIAS their freshman year. This school year, Dominic is serving as president. He’s helped create a mentorship program that teams practicing professionals with third-year students. During his tenure, AIAS has also conducted professional devel-
opment workshops focused on software such as Revit or Photoshop, mock interviews and portfolio reviews.They’ve proved to be can’tmiss events for grads and undergrads alike. They attract “students from sixth year down to first year, who are all working together to advance each others’ careers as well as improve the school,” Dominic says. The organization is also rigorously reaching out to high school students. They started a high school AIAS chapter at East Career & Technical Academy, one of only 20 in the nation. “Our goal was to go into high schools, speak to students about the profession, demystify it, talk about what architects do,” Dominic explains. Rafael will take over as president next year, and wants to grow membership. The local chapter has 48 members right now. “I would like to see well over 50 percent (of the student body) benefit from AIAS membership,” he says. He wants to continue to push community outreach and professional development events. Rafael believes involvement in AIAS and AIA provide architecture students a more complete education.“Our goal is to not only
get students jobs, but to create a culture built on mentorship among the students,” he says. “In the end, I want to see my classmates get the most out of their experience at the UNLV School of Architecture.” Dominic says the groups are doing nothing less than forging the next generation of leaders. “Our organization empowers members by plugging them into an international coalition, committed to advancing the profession and enriching their communities.” Both brothers are working for SH Architecture while they aim to complete their undergraduate degrees next year. The brothers may head off for master’s degrees when they graduate, but there’s little doubt they’ll be back. “While we may not have the starchitect-design buildings other than Frank Gehry and a couple other exceptions, I think Las Vegas provides almost a blank slate as far as creativity goes,” says Rafael. “Las Vegas is coming into its own as a city, as a big city,” says Dominic. “To be a part of that as an architecture student and a future architect is something I love. I can’t get enough of it. I love being here.”
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FEATURE
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THE FUTURE IS NOW (AND THEN)
From sun-powered homes to design ahead of its time, Las Vegas has always been home to innovative architecture Being the improbable desert paradise we are, it’s only natural that Las Vegas should be a magnet for dreamers, visionaries, and big thinkers. And we’ve got no shortage of those when it comes to architecture and design. The restless fantasia of the Strip, our demographic diversity, and our entrepreneurial spirit have attracted innovators and problem-solvers over the years, bringing novel ideas and solutions that have stood the test of time — or ones that promise great things on the horizon. Here are some of our greatest hits so far in buildings, programs, and innovations.
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The Cashman Equipment Company Headquarters saves money and energy by using a groundsource heat pump, which pre-heats or pre-cools air before it enters the building's a/c system.
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WHAT LIES BENEATH
CASHMAN EQUIPMENT COMPANY HEADQUARTERS
Courtesy SH Architecture
SH Architecture, 2009
YOU PROBABLY THINK I’M GOING TO WRITE about the design of Cashman Equipment Company’s campus in Henderson — how, say, the building’s slick, self-assured muscularity and bold colors cleverly reference the earth-moving machines it sells. But what’s of real interest is literally beneath the surface — 400 feet below the surface, to be exact. Designed by SH Architecture, the Cashman building uses a ground-source heat pump to dramatically curtail its heating and cooling costs. Which sounds somewhat mundane, until you delve into the fascinating details of how it works. Four-hundred wells drilled 400 feet deep beneath the parking lot circulate a conducting fluid that uses the earth’s subsurface temperature to help heat and cool the building. “Because the earth is a pretty consistent temperature in the low 60s, it can serve as a temperature moderator for heating or cooling air,” explains Eric Roberts, AIA, a director at SH Architecture. At exchange plates in each building, the fluid transfers the heat to the air system — essentially, pre-heating it or pre-cooling it — before it’s processed by the a/c unit. “This makes the furnaces run efficiently or, as is the case with many Southern Nevada winter days, not need to run at all,” Roberts says. “So we can eliminate the need for gas heating in the buildings.” Other design elements maximize energy savings. With daylight available in every space, lights automatically turn off or on depending on natural light levels, and a pyrometer on the roof communicates the sun’s location to the building’s shade systems, which adjusts to keep light levels and heat levels in a sensible balance. Other buildings design by SH Architecture employ ground-source heat pumps, such as Northwest Career and Technical Academy (one of the school district’s most energy-efficient schools), Henderson Heritage Aquatic Center, and Corn Creek Field station at the Desert National Wildlife Refuge. Andrew Kiraly
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ROGER THOMAS PRIVATE RESIDENCE Mark Mack, architect, 1989
ROGER THOMAS HAS PUT HIS SIGNATURE TOUCH on numerous Strip resorts, from the Mirage to Wynn Las Vegas. His name has become synonymous with the style of thoughtful cosmopolitan luxury that’s come to define the modern Las Vegas tourist narrative, one that favors experiences over mere excess. So it might come as a surprise to see Thomas’s Summerlin residence, a comparatively spare, modern compound. Completed in 1989, his roughly 5,000 square-foot home is innovative in several ways, most obviously in how its clean lines, basic forms, and desertconscious design presaged a residential architectural style that is only now achieving mainstream popularity in Southern Nevada. “I knew I wanted architecture that was appropriate for the desert, not ‘replitecture,’ not ‘Mockterranean’ or fauxchateau, or English Tudor,” he says. “I wanted something with a certain quality of light, a certain quality of space, and a sense of innovation and surprise combined with a really rational simplicity.” Thomas hired Los Angeles architect Mark Mack to
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design the home, and gave Mack creative license, with a few stipulations. Among them: Thomas wanted moving water visible from several rooms; dedicated areas for public, private and shared use; and, perhaps the most challenging, the site designed in such a way that he wouldn’t see other nearby homes. Mack achieved all of those through design ingenuity both modern and historic. For instance, for the last stipulation, he borrowed from Islamic and Moorish building tradition, “turning the house inward,” Thomas says, around a central courtyard. The home’s innovations go beyond the architectural. To increase energy efficiency (and enhance the quiet), the walls are made of concrete masonry block and are at least one foot thick. The floor is an engineered concrete product that stays cool in the desert heat. But perhaps its most innovative feature is its least tangible: How the home’s decided simplicity serves as a spiritual recharger for Thomas. “As a creative individual who’s imagining things all the time, I wanted to live in a place that was more of a tabula rasa, a blank slate. In fact, the house has so much sculptural integrity, when I moved in, I didn’t hang a single piece of art for six months. I just enjoyed the surprises, how sunlight moved over the walls, how it lived, how it breathed.” A.K.
Thomas Residence: Jeff Green; City Center: Christopher Smith
STYLE AHEAD OF ITS TIME
THAT'S ARCHITAINMENT CITYCENTER Various architects, 2009 DECEMBER 2009 WASN’T exactly a festive time. With the nation plunged in the pit of the Great Recession, the idea of Las Vegas as a living shrine to luxury and pleasure suddenly seemed, well, a little gauche. It reveals volumes about us that that was also when CityCenter opened. Presumptuous and desperate? Maybe. Heedlessly optimistic? Definitely. And, we dare say, innovative in how it turned art and design into an experiential attraction not so different — and yet very different — from our thrill rides and fine dining restaurants: Marveling at the whimsical canter of Helmut Jahn’s Veer Towers or contemplating the placid gravity of a Henry Moore sculpture can now plausibly be as much a part of a memorable Vegas experience as having too much to drink and not enough sleep. In that light, you can argue that CityCenter is consequential less for what it is and more for what it did: nudge a heightened awareness of art, architecture and beauty just a few inches more into the collective consciousness of the recreational consumer market and elevate the conception of Las Vegas a few clicks. A.K.
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WELLNESS IS BUILT-IN UNLV’S HEALTHCARE INTERIOR DESIGN PROGRAM Currently in development
ANGLE, LIFT, WOW LUXOR INCLINATORS Veldon Simpson, architect, 1993 NO SURPRISE THAT LUXOR’S “inclinators” often turn up on lists of the world’s most interesting elevators — they are among the world’s most interesting elevators. But then, they had to be, right? After all, the Luxor itself is hybridized out of equal parts showmanship, engineering bravado, and hotel functionality, and nothing short of a technological marvel would meet the twin requirements of (a) efficiently hoisting guests up the inside of a giant pyramid, where straight-up vertical lifts won’t do; and (b) supplying Las Vegas’ minimum daily requirement of spectacle. And so Luxor has elevators that climb at a 39-degree angle, 40 stories up. Definitely worth putting on a list. There are plenty of YouTube vids that attest to the oddity of the experience. Sure, the inclinators aren’t strictly a Las Vegas innovation — the Eiffel Tower has them (Gustave Eiffel’s original, not our replica), and, of course, funicular have been whisking people up steep hills for what Wikipedia assures us are hundreds of years. But angled elevators still aren’t common. That was even more true in Las Vegas circa 1993, when one of the city’s first spectacle-driven megaresorts solved a very real challenge with a liberal application of wow factor. Scott Dickensheets
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A NEW UNLV PROGRAM IS helping ailing patients heal by design. UNLV’s new healthcare interior design program, starting this fall, is the first graduate degree of its kind available in North America that provides an interdisciplinary, research-driven educational experience. It has the potential to become a real game-changer. The $3 trillion U.S. healthcare market will account for roughly 18 percent of the national gross domestic product by 2018. “We spend approximately 90 percent of our lives inside buildings whose spatial qualities impact our daily physical and cognitive functioning,” says associate professor and program coordinator Attila Lawrence. “A welldesigned environment supports rather than impedes healing and well-being.” The program is tailored around current and anticipated healthcare practices where students will learn the skills for effectively communicating, designing, and delivering healthy settings. They will also learn about the U.S. healthcare system’s goals, structure, and performance, while attaining a theoretical and philosophical foundation in environmental design. The program concept came about from collaborating with neurologist Dylan Wint and staff at the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, under the direction of former College of Fine Arts Dean Jeffrey Koep. Six Ruvo Center doctors serve as associate program faculty. The
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program, as a result, will partly focus upon the role of design for aging patients with diminishing cognitive abilities. “Neuroscience-informed design strategies can operationalize the concept of ‘aging at home’,” said Lawrence. “It would provide a safe and comfortable environment for those experiencing functional changes related to aging.” The program has signed an affiliation pact with the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada for non-clinical educational experiences. Meanwhile, the program hopes to bolster its roster of already impressive experts in the future. Signs of that bright future are already glimmering. For instance, graduate student Mariela Thompson recently spoke at the International Conference on Environments for Aging, and the program recently held a cross-disciplinary charrette, “Sociology of Interior Environments for Healthy Living.” The inaugural class consists of eight students from various professional backgrounds, but one suspects program grads could be in high demand in the very near future. Tony Illia
COOL IDEA
Luxor courtesy MGM Resorts; Ruvo Center: Brent Holmes; Historic Fifth Street School courtesy City of Las Vegas
HISTORIC FIFTH STREET SCHOOL 1936, remodel by KGA Architects, 2008
IF IT’S DIFFICULT TO IMAGINE living in Las Vegas without airconditioning, imagine sitting in an unair-conditioned classroom during a late-spring scorcher. That’s the way it was in 1936, when the Las Vegas Grammar School opened on what is now Las Vegas Boulevard. It was Fifth Street back then, which is why it’s now known as the Historic Fifth Street School. It’s got a/c these days, but you can still encounter what was the cutting edge of heat-abatement technology back then: extended roofs and breezeways. Simple, really. But it actually more or less works. The deep eaves keep direct sunlight off of the walkways, and the walkways themselves were laid out as long, straight pathways, edging open courtyards, that channel airflow into sustained, cooling drafts. It sounds primitive in an era of appcontrolled smart thermostats. But if you’ve ever stood in those shaded hallways on a sweat-drenching day, caressed by wafts of slightly less scorching air, you can almost imagine it being nearly bearable. S.D.
This design is literally a breeze: Extended roofs and well-placed passages encourage cooling air to pass through the Historic Fifth Street School.
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AGING STYLISHLY UNLV 2017 SOLAR DECATHLON TEAM'S "SINATRA LIVING" HOME
IN 2013, UNLV BURST ONTO THE SCENE OF THE U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon competition, which challenges students to design and build functioning solar-powered homes. UNLV architecture and engineering students designed a small house called DesertSol; in a field of 19 teams, the home finished second in the world, defeating teams from schools such as Stanford and USC. The small house is so well-regarded that it is one of the exhibits at the Springs Preserve. Now, a new team of young designers and builders is trying to maintain the university’s winning ways. In early fall, 2015, students approached faculty and administrators about returning to the solar decathlon, which is held every two years (the university sat out the 2015 competition because of the expenses incurred in competing). Engineering professor David James, the faculty lead on the project, said it was important to identify a specific target market for the home — a generic net-zero home wouldn’t be good enough. James turned to his own life. His father had recently passed away, and his mother didn’t want to move out of the house she had raised a family in. James had also caught a lecture by physician Allan S. Teel, who wrote a book, Alone and Invisible No More, about how to improve the country’s eldercare system. The book contends that as Baby Boomers age, the country can’t build retirement homes fast enough to keep up. “How do you take care of people who are aging in their homes?” James asks. This question spurred a novel way to approach the decathlon. Instead of thinking about homes for the young and mobile, James went in the opposite direction: “Not the first home you’ll ever need. It’s the last home you’ll ever need.” In other words, a home that could adapt to residents as they age. When he broached the idea to students, they responded with their own stories of older family members struggling to age gracefully in their homes. This year’s team of students includes 20-30 regular volunteers and encompasses disciplines from architecture to engineering, construction management to hospitality, and communication to culinary. Teams are judged not only on how well the building performs, but how well it targets a viable real-world market. Mechanical engineering junior A.J. Tully responded to a flier in early 2016 looking for engineers to participate. He was attracted to pushing innovation in the field of renewable energy.
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“It’s definitely something I’m very happy I stepped into,” he says. The 2017 home is loaded with accessible features. The large bathroom is ADA compliant, and features grab bars and a shower bench. The house is wheelchair-accessible. The kitchen has an adjustable countertop. The challenge for the design team was not to make the house look like a hospital room, but to make it look like a mid-century modern home, a place people want to live in, rather than one they feel sentenced to. It features a fluid floor plan that divides the 965-square-foot home into social and private spaces, and a circular, open-floor plan that not only makes the space feel larger than it is, but also can crucially aid cognitively impaired occupants (those suffering from dementia, for instance) to more easily orient themselves. A spare room with a convertible desk/bed can serve triple duty as an office, care room or guest room. The house features an array of automation systems: landscaping, shades, heating and cooling, lighting, radiant floor heating. The house even has an automated front door, security system, and fire suppression system. “The idea is since it is an aging place, one day you may not be able to take care of your house,” says Tully. “Maybe your house will take care of you.” Outside, the sleek home features a long sloping roof, which not only provides drainage but also is designed to make connecting a photovoltaic system easy. Deep overhangs protect the home from sun and heat load, and a moving-wall partition slides to cover east glazing to further cut down early morning sun. There’s ample outdoor patio space, and a garden wall uses gray water. The house should be completed this summer and opened to the public. The students will test and tweak their home’s performance before putting it on a truck and transporting it to Denver for the competition in early October. Tully says the success of the 2013 team has meant an easier time for the 2017 team to find sponsors — as well as support from faculty, alums, and professionals who had a hand in the previous entry. One of the leaders of this year’s team, graduate student Nasko Balaktchiev, worked on the 2013 DesertSol house. He sees the competition as a chance to validate the quality of UNLV. “We’re definitely going for first place this time. I think we have an excellent shot at winning.” T.R.Witcher
UNLV School of Architecture
Currently in development
The "Sinatra Living" home is designed to encourage aging in place with accessibility features that are also tasteful and discreet. The result: a house that takes care of its owner.
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2016 DESIGN AWARDS
DESIGN AWARDS BEAUTY,
FUNCTION
AND SMART DESIGN MARK
THE BEST
BY SCOTT DICKENSHEETS
PROJECTS OF 2016
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Presented each year by the Nevada Chapter of the AIA, the AIA Excellence in Design Awards celebrate the state’s best architectural projects. The criteria include not only the quality of the design, but also the project’s sustainability and community impact. The awards aim to elevate the quality of architectural practice by establishing a standard of excellence, and to promote a greater public awareness of the architectural profession and its relevance to the lives of everyone. The jurors for the 2016 awards were: ANDREW HERDIG, FAIA: Principal, Lake/Flato Architects, San Antonio, Texas PAUL KINLEY, AIA: Principal, Opsis Architecture, Portland, Oregon RACHEL RASMUSSEN, AIA: Principal, Architekton, Tempe, Arizona ISSUE 12 / 2017
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ME R I T AWA R D BUI LT CAT EGO RY P RE S E NT E D TO J L S DES I GN FO R TA H OE VI S TA OVERLO O K
THIS SITE IS A STUDY IN THE complex interrelation between strong positives and steep challenges. Literally steep: This large house occupies a very angled site beside Lake Tahoe. But that also accounts for the magnificent, sweeping view. So JLS Design had to maximize the one while adroitly negotiating the other. Which they did. The home’s mix of podlike components gives it a light presence on the site and an intimate interior, while neatly framing views that go on forever. This had judges raving about the way its “complex geometries and structural systems are integrated and well resolved.” About the way its wood and stone elements “reinforce the views and placemaking.” About the way the design “leverages and takes advantage of a very complicated site.” And about the designer: “This is clearly an architect who knows what he/ she is doing.” PAGE
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C ITATION AWARD BUILT CATEGOR Y PRE SE N TE D TO KGA AR CHITECTUR E FOR R TC UN LV TR AN SFER CEN TER
TALK ABOUT DOING MORE WITH LESS. AS ONE judge put it, “steel tube, glass and unpainted metal deck is about all there is to the project.” But KGA Architecture turned that simple material inventory into an open-air gem, done with clarity of purpose and nicely scaled to privilege users. “The designers remembered that the structure was designed for people not vehicles,” one judge says, approvingly. In other words, this isn’t just the “unglamorous” glorified bus stop it could have been. It’s what KGA envisioned it to be: a sequence of seating plazas that encourages the harmonious interaction of pedestrians, bicycles and buses — “a catalyst for creating new generations of mass transit riders.” Mission accomplished, says one judge: “Disciplined planning, building design, landscape design and graphic design all come together in this very complete and well- balanced project.” Adds another, “Feels open, safe, and inviting.”
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ME RI T AWA RD BUI LT CAT EGO RY P R E S E NT E D TO CARP ENT ER S ELLERS DEL GAT TO AR CHITECTS FOR C L A R K C OU N T Y PARK DALE C O MMU NI T Y C ENT E R
A FLURRY OF SMALL HOLES DRILLED INTO THE custom rain screen fronting the Parkdale Community Center spells out the word community in giant letters. It’s a striking visual effect. It’s also a handy metaphor for what one judge says is the building’s “smart and strategic use of details where it counted” — and the way those details, from materials to graphics to light harvesting, down even to something as prosaic as the railings, aggregate to a larger aesthetic payoff. Which isn’t to say that the center, designed by Carpenter Sellers Del Gatto Architects, is full of itself. One judge praised its “sense of restraint,” while another recognized that the “value of the client’s functional needs is apparent throughout the design.” Banks of tall windows bring the outside in “without introducing a fishbowl effect,” and the whole 11,907-square-foot building has a spacious, welcoming aspect. Community, indeed.
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ME RI T AWA RD B U I LT CAT EGO RY P R E S E NT E D TO CARP ENT ER S ELLERS DEL GAT TO AR CHITECTS FOR C I T Y OF L A S VEGAS S T REET PARK I NG GARAGE
NOT BAD FOR A PARKING GARAGE, RIGHT? NOT bad at all, considering. “It is an enormous structure that could easily have been an eyesore in the middle of the city’s Downtown cultural center,” one judge acknowledges. “But it isn’t.” Not even close. First thing to notice: its visual relationship to the City Hall it serves, across the street. If that building’s reigning metaphor is a waterfall, the garage’s is a stream — check the playful, fluid, flowing aspect of the asymmetrical aluminum façade. “Our goal,” says the firm, Carpenter Sellers Del Gatto Architects, “was to bring art ... to the Main Street corridor.” And in such a lowbrow form, too, which didn’t go unnoticed by the judges: “The architects have done something very difficult … taking the most basic utilitarian structure and giving it a friendly, colorful and bright presence amongst its neighbors.” That is evidence of a design firm that “clearly understood and respected their tremendous responsibility here.”
C ITATION AWARD ACAD EM IC PRE SE N TE D TO LOGAN Z EIGL ER , R YAN PE RDUE , J UAN CR UZ M AL DAN AD O AN D CHR IS M ARQUE Z FOR Z ION AR TIST’ S R ETR EAT
“MATERIAL, SCALE, LIGHT, AND FOCUS on the surrounding environment are evident in the design,” one judge noted — good thing, as it happens, since those are ideal qualities for a project like this: a Zion artist’s retreat. One expects such a building to offer a balanced response to the environment rather than impose on it. That’s precisely the effect achieved by students Logan Zeigler, Ryan Perdue, Juan Cruz Maldanado and Chris Marquez with their use of weathered steel and reclaimed wood. Inside, it’s more of the same, the judges say. “Spaces are evocative.” “Use of light is interesting.” “Material palette and details reinforce sense of place.” And what a place! No surprise that the designers have a glass wall that opens onto it.
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CITATIO N AWAR D B U I LT CAT E GOR Y PR ESENTED TO GENS LER O F N EVADA FOR RTC MO B I LI T Y T RAI NI NG CEN TER
THIS PROJECT, AS ONE JUDGE NOTED, “NEEDS to be handled with a certain care in order to honor those it serves” — that is, disabled and blind people in need of training to handle various aspects of everyday life. So, to assist disabled clients of the Regional Transportation System in learning to use public transit, Gensler of Nevada recreated a streetscape, complete with two buses, inside the RTC’s Mobility Training Center. A real streetscape, too: bus shelter, bus stop, paved roads, curb cuts, ramps and sidewalk, as well as an audio system replicating street sounds. In addition, a mock two-bedroom apartment allows for training of the blind in daily living skills. All of this housed in a striking building with a color scheme keyed to Red Rock and a dramatic upper window section that acts as a nighttime beacon. One judge pointed out its welcoming, noninstitutional scale and feel. Gensler “did a terrific job designing a building that is in every way the right kind of response” to its intended function. Added another, “We need more facilities like this.”
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C I TAT I ON AWA RD U NB U I LT P R E S E NT E D TO a ss e mbl ag e S T U DI O FO R TERRA
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SOMETHING ABOUT THIS HOUSE — its groundhugging profile, the canny use of the water feature, the interplay between its materials and its transparency — makes it clear at a glance that assemblageSTUDIO designed it to be at home in the desert. One judge sees in that “evidence that the architect understands the value of the landscape in the design of buildings in this environment.” Aligning its spaces along an entry court, Terra focuses and refocuses your attention: on the distant views, on the up-close materiality, on the mid-range surroundings. Permeability is achieved through “pleasant indoor-outdoor spaces that flow nicely from interiors.” If one judge wondered about the project’s “lack of rigor” in the home’s relation to its immediate site, another is confident such issues “would be discovered and resolved in the continuation and completion of the project.”
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CI TAT I O N AWAR D U NB U I LT P RE S E NTED TO ass e mbl ag e S T U DI O FO R ALLEE
WHEN DESIGN JUDGES DELIVER such praise as “tight, regionally appropriate material palette,” “subtle use of color and material blend well with the landscape” and “strong relationship to the landscape,” it’s no surprise to find assemblageSTUDIO on the receiving end. These are concepts principal Eric Strain has advocated for years. This home design, with its restrained copper and concrete color palette and neatly articulated rectilinear forms, has plenty of curb appeal, a compelling water feature and a smart floor plan. “The house is enormous,” one judge notes, “but the carefully scaled spaces, organized around the central allee (a plant-lined walkway) give the house a unified composition.”
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C I TAT I O N AWA RD U NB U I LT P RE S E NT E D TO a ss e mbl ag e S T U DI O FOR RIFT
IF YOU SENSE A TINY MOUE OF DISMAY IN THE words of the judge who thought this assemblageSTUDIO effort exhibits a “rather heavy, tour-de-force feel,” be assured that the judge comes around in the end: “The architect has done a nice job staying true to the concept.” And what a concept — a three-level home that explicitly addresses the fundamental concepts of earth, landscape, and sky. With a below-ground bottom floor, a ground-level middle and a soaring third story, it’s hard to separate the bravura of the idea from its more traditional virtues: creative massing, sharp detailing — look at that waterfall! — and a compelling relationship with the setting. “Dramatic and interesting design that leverages the natural environment,” one judge notes. Indeed, it envisions, in admirably tour-de-force style, a different way of occupying the landscape. PAGE
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C ITATION AWARD UN BUILT PRE SE N TE D TO Ca r p enter Sellers D el Ga tto Arc hitec ts FOR HEN R IKSEN BUTL ER SHOW R OOM
WHAT WE HAVE HERE IS A planned series of “minimal yet powerful interventions to an existing building,” according to the designer — a renovation. Better yet, a reboot. For Henriksen Butler’s furniture showroom on busy Charleston Boulevard, Carpenter Sellers Del Gatto Architects would make a series of transformative exterior moves — a steel trellis, a horizontal wood screen, perforated and weathered steel panels on the exterior — that propose to add an instant street-level sophistication to what had been a rather ordinary gray façade. “Regionally appropriate material palette for exterior,” one judge noted (though a couple were lukewarm about the interior). Another was even more pointed: “This is a sweet little project that shows off the skill of the architect”; the decisions about materials and details “show a careful eye and clear understanding about how to apply discipline with resources to create an entirely new and rebranded architecture.”
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C ITATION AWARD UN BUILT (UN D ER CON STR UCTION ) PRE SE N TE D TO CAR PEN TER SEL LE RS D EL GATTO AR CHITECTUR E FOR UN LV HOTEL ACAD EM IC BUILDI N G
When is an academic building not just an academic building? When it’s part of UNLV’s William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration, one of the top hospitality programs in the nation. With its design for a new college structure, Carpenter Sellers Del Gatto Architecture decided to give it the feel of a boutique hotel: a lobbylike first floor, spaces purpose-built for collaboration and social grouping. There are bravura visual touches — a sculptural steel wall, stained-glass vestibules. There’s a different approach to functionality: In the architect’s words, “certain program components were identified and located at different levels to push users through all levels,” rather than segregating student and faculty uses away from each other. There’s even an events terrace with a view of the Strip. The judges approved of the “dynamic public spaces that flow beautifully into teaching and collaboration spaces.” “Interior and exterior spaces feel welcoming and properly scaled.” And this validation of the main design idea: “Meets the expectations of Vegas hoteling while maintaining appropriate language for academic space.”
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AIA NEWS + NOTES
CULTIVATING THE NEXT GENERATION OF ARCHITECTS BY RANDY LAVIGNE, HAIA
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45th annual High School Design Awards
each generation — not just in architecture, but across the spectrum of all career fields. Our challenge as the previous generation is to help set them on the way to achieving their dreams and goals, to support them, answer their questions, and provide learning opportunities so their generation can make the right choices for themselves. Our job is to clear the path and point the way. This year as we look to the next generation of architects, the AIA Las Vegas Chapter has focused our efforts and methods on programs that leverage the strengths of our AIA members. We’ve started programs that reach out to those young designers and dreamers to offer
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support, mentorship and encouragement on their journey toward the profession of architecture. The AIA Las Vegas Committee on the Environment (COTE) members work with Clark County elementary schools that have instituted garden programs. Our members help 1st through 6th graders design and create outdoor classrooms so they can hold classes in their gardens and learn more about planning and design, as well as the benefits of growing and eating healthy vegetables. These young students experience for the first time the joy of collaborating with their classmates to create a special place, and they learn about what it is to be an architect.
High School Design Awards photos by 501 Studios
“EMERGING PROFESSIONALS” IS the term used by the American Institute of Architects to describe those who have taken the first steps along a career path in architecture and design, as well as those traveling that path toward professional licensure or those who have just received their license.This group is made up of students who are currently in architecture school, those engaged in the National Council of Architectural Registration Board’s Architectural Experience Program, those who are working in architecture firms but are not yet licensed, and even those who have just received their state license and stamp, and can now practice as brand-new architects. But the definition can be expanded to include a wider range of people, including those who are just beginning to think about their future and what they might like to do with it. Almost every architect I’ve ever met has told me that they knew from a young age what they wanted to do. When asked why they chose architecture, many will reply, “I just always knew I wanted to be an architect” or, “I knew when I was five years old that I wanted to be an architect.” The idea of creating and contributing to help people and make the world better is an idea that develops early in life. The “emerging” does not begin when you pick a major in college. It starts much earlier, when a child begins to observe the world and think about their place in it. It begins when they start imagining what their future will be, when they start imagining what they can be and what they want to do. Emerging professionals are our future. They are our children, the children of
Our School Outreach Committee sends architects into middle- and highschool classes to talk with students about architecture and design, and its importance in our communities and in our world. The architects share their experiences, present and discuss the work of noted architects, and answer questions about what tools and talents are needed to become an architect. This is an important connection for young, eager designers. Now in its 45th year, our High School Design Awards program recognizes and rewards talented young high school students by challenging them with a project in which they resolve the design problems and create an answer to the challenge. Their work is then reviewed and juried by young professionals, who recognize winners with certificates of achievement and cash awards. Many of the students who’ve participated in this program over the years have gone on to attend architecture school, receive AIA scholarships, complete their AXP requirements, pass the Architectural Registration Exam, and become licensed professional architects with practices here in Las Vegas. AIA Las Vegas works with the AIA student organization at UNLV, American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS), to provide the AIA/AIAS Mentoring Program. The idea is to match young architecture students at UNLV with young AIA members who’ve just completed the AXP requirements or ARE Exams, and are closer in age and experience to the students.This provides a fresh perspective on the licensing process and allows the students to share their questions and concerns with someone who has just gone through the experience. Here are some of AIA Las Vegas’ other programs helping to foster the next generation of design professionals. Principal Shadowing Program. For 5th and 6th year architecture students at UNLV, we offer a unique program designed to provide “real practice
WESTERN MOUNTAIN REGION CONFERENCE
“LEARNING MORE FROM LAS VEGAS” NEW REFLECTIONS ON LESSONS LEARNED AIA Las Vegas is honored to host this year’s Western Mountain Region Conference, welcoming attendees from our six-state region – Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming and Nevada. Join us for three days of exciting, educational and entertaining programs.
Register at www.aialasvegas.org The WMR is an opportunity to discuss emerging issues, solutions and innovative products and to come together to share interests, ideas, experiences and services vital to the design profession.
401 South 4th Street | Suite 175 Las Vegas, Nevada 89101 702.895.0936 AIALASVEGAS.ORG
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experience.” Firm principals of some of the most respected architecture firms in Las Vegas partner with graduate students from the UNLV School of Architecture, and allow them to shadow them on their daily business. In this way, the student learns firsthand about the operations of a successful firm and is exposed to all aspects of practice including marketing, client relations, human resources, the impact of legislative rulings, codes, collaboration, and much more. Memoir Mondays. The experiences of our senior architects are an invaluable resource for all our members, especially those who are just beginning their journey. Once or twice a month, on Monday evenings, we invite one of our senior architects to share the story of their architectural journey with our younger emerging professionals. The knowledge, understanding, experiences and the challenges met and surmounted by each of these architects provide a great learning opportunity for those just starting out in the profession. Through our AIA Las Vegas Scholarship Endowment Program, the chapter provides scholarships for UNLV architecture students. Since 1996, this program has provided scholarship assistance to over 120 architecture students at the UNLV School of Architecture. These students have gone on to graduate, complete their internships, pass the ARE examination and become licensed professionals. There has never been a better time to become an architect. The whole world needs problem-solvers, and that is exactly what architects are trained to do — solve problems through design. Young people are seeing a world that challenges them to make a difference and to contribute their ideas and creativity. This generation has grown up with rapidly changing advances in technology and is eager to meet that challenge, and architecture offers the way. By providing these programs and others, our members continue to engage the next generation, to encourage and inspire
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Klai Juba Wald's CANstruction entry, "Home Grown"
Three Square Food Bank. The panel of jurors for the event included John Courtney, Culinary Director for the Simon Hospitality Group; Joyen Vakil, AIA, Executive Director of Architecture at MGM Resorts International and Ron Frye, Vice President of Design and Construction for Boyd Gaming Corporation. The jury selected the following structures for these special awards. Best Use of Labels: TJK Consulting Engineers, “Welcome” Best Meal: Korte Company, “Don’t Roll the Dice with Hunger” Best Original Design: Klai Juba Wald Architects, “Home Grown” Best Structural Ingenuity: TSK Architects, “Viva Las Vegas” Most Cans: Korte Company (2,869 cans), “Don’t Roll the Dice with Hunger” UPCOMING EVENTS
them. They share their knowledge and experience, they mentor and guide these young people and help them to emerge as professionals who are prepared to meet the challenge of creating a better world through design. CANSTRUCTION
CANstruction is one of the community outreach programs provided by the AIA Las Vegas Chapter. It is a global nonprofit organization that hosts competitions where awe-inspiring structures are created entirely out of canned food. CANstruction’s mission is to highlight the creativity and compassion of the competing teams, and to collect millions of pounds of food each year for local food banks around the world, while providing beautiful works of art for the public. This year’s program was managed by the Emerging Professionals Committee of AIA Las Vegas, Travis Allen, Assoc. AIA Chair. The exhibit was on display April 3-10 at the Meadows Mall in Las Vegas. There were six participating teams whose structures provided a combined 9,800 cans, or over 6,000 pounds of food, for
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2017 AIA WESTERN MOUNTAIN REGION CONFERENCE
AIA Las Vegas is honored to host the 2017 AIA Western Mountain Region Conference Oct. 11-14, and to welcome attendees from all over the six-state region — Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, and Nevada. The theme of the conference is “Learning MORE From Las Vegas: New Reflections on Lessons Learned, Inspiration, Practice and Ideas.” Forty-five years ago, Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown published their astounding research on Las Vegas design. This year, we take the time to reflect on the messages and wisdom of that groundbreaking book to refresh our spirits by learning more from Las Vegas. Las Vegas is a city that has continuously reinvented itself through leisure and hospitality. Architecture has played a major role in defining this city, creating the backdrop and atmosphere for experience and entertainment. This conference will look at the evolution and value proposition of hospitality in architecture in a modern culture.
Featured speakers will include David Zach, futurist; Dr. Robert Lang, Ph.D., Executive Director of The Lincy Institute, Alan Hess, architectural critic and author; John Restrepo, principal, RCG Economics; Tom Kaplan, Senior Managing Partner, Wolfgang Puck Worldwide, Inc.; Roger Thomas, internationally renowned designer; Stefan Al, associate professor of urban design at the University of Pennsylvania; and Aaron Betsky, Dean of the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture. A pre-conference workshop, “Learning More About Residential Design,” is scheduled for the afternoon of Oct. 11, with two sessions, “Sustainable Design in the Desert” and “Aging in Place.” Both offer valuable information on these very important design areas. The conference is Oct. 11-14 at the Historic Fifth Street School, 401 S. 4th St., in Downtown Las Vegas. Sessions and lectures are scheduled for Oct. 12 and 13, with tours and social activities scheduled for Oct. 14, including the WMR Design & Honor Awards on Saturday evening. For more information and to register for the conference, visit aialasvegas.org. “LEARN ABOUT / TURN ABOUT” PRODUCT SHOW This special one-day event features 40 exhibitors showcasing the latest advances in products and services for the architecture and design community, as well as for homeowners looking for the latest design elements for their home. The day begins at 8 a.m. with continuing education classes provided by the exhibitors hourly until 3 p.m. The show opens at 3 p.m. and closes at 7 p.m., during which time complimentary food and beverages are provided, and an abundance of door prizes and $3,000 in cash awards are given away. You must be present to win, so plan to bring plenty of business cards (you’ll need them to win the prizes), and stay for the entire show. Open to the public and to all members of the design,
construction, landscaping, interiors, and all affiliated organizations. Sept. 20, Historic Fifth Street School auditorium. AIA NEVADA EXCELLENCE IN DESIGN & DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARDS
Excellence In Design. This annual program celebrates the best in contemporary American architecture through Excellence in Design. It recognizes achievements for a broad range of architectural activity to elevate the general quality of architecture practice, establish a standard of excellence against which all architects can measure performance, and inform the public of the breadth and value of architectural practice. AIA Nevada advocates that quality architecture is sustainable architecture. Call for entries Aug. 1; submissions deadline Nov. 1 Distinguished Service Awards. The Nevada Chapter of the American Institute of Architects honors the achievements of exceptional AIA members and firms through this annual awards program. It is designed to recognize the significant contributions made to the profession of architecture, and to the larger community through the various levels of AIA membership. Call for entries Aug. 1; submissions deadline Oct. 25 Award recipients are honored at the AIA Las Vegas Holiday Celebration and Awards Gala 6 p.m. Dec. 13, at a location to be announced. For full information on the awards programs and to purchase tickets to the gala, visit aialasvegas.org beginning Sept. 1.
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BUILDING LAS VEGAS
AIA Las Vegas in partnership with the UNLV Lied Library and Special Collections Department will be presenting a series of panel discussions titled “Building Las Vegas.” The events are planned for 5:30 p.m. July 6, Aug. 3 and Sept. 7 in the auditorium of the Historic Fifth Street School. For more information on speakers and to RSVP, visit aialasvegas.org.
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Spruce Tree House, Mesa Verde National Park ARCHITECTURE LAS VEGAS
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GOOD FELLOWS FOR ARCHITECTS WHO ARE members of The American Institute of Architects, there is no higher honor than being elevated to Fellowship. The prestige of FAIA after your name is unparalleled, and the judging is rigorous. Fellowship signifies a model architect who has made significant contributions to the profession and to society. AIA members who exemplify architectural excellence can become members of the AIA College of Fellows. This year, two Nevada architects have received this distinguished honor. Charles Kubat, FAIA and Greg Erny, FAIA are model architects and serve as an inspiration to all who know them. CHARLES KUBAT, FAIA unites expertise in architecture, urban planning and development to transform urban and suburban sites into valued communities. His trend-setting, people-focused master plans create enduring places and facilitate future success for other design professionals. Kubat’s professional career merges the disciplines of architectural design, city planning, and development to improve and expand our collective sense of community. His successful design thinking and leadership have created hallmark urban designs, established frameworks for the great design of others, and expanded awareness of design’s value in shaping great places. His role as urban planner and developer’s designer is to create the framework for other designers to excel. His recent work as a developer’s design advocate brings elevated design thinking into the real-world processes of financing and development decision-making. He has led the rejuvenation of Downtown LasVegas through the planned transformation of abandoned rail yards into Symphony Park. At projects such as Jersey City’s Newport City and Reston Town Center, development of his master plans continues with numerous designers implementing his thought leadership and ideas to this day.
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Charles Kubat, FAIA
tutions. At the University of Minnesota early in his career, Charles initiated the School of Architecture’s involvement with the Model Cities Program for low-income communities. He went on to co-found and direct the Community Design Center in Denver, which expanded the University of Colorado teaching program and created dramatic new experiences for students and local professionals. He founded AIA urban design committees in Baltimore and Las Vegas, leading initiatives to enhance awareness and visibility of the AIA and the impact of development on context and place. He has served as an urban design resource for new city plans in Baltimore, Denver, and LasVegas, work that has resulted in a stronger sense of history and community for these cities. Charles Kubat’s career unites architecture, city planning, and development to demonstrate the value that design thinking brings to diverse disciplines, and to the creation of great and enduring places. GREGORY L. ERNY, FAIA advances the pro-
Gregory L. Erny, FAIA
As a project leader and advisor, Charles has established master plans that have reimagined and revitalized urban cores for cities across the country. His recent work has major influence on the direction of the new Downtown Master Plan for Las Vegas, which brings vitality and purpose to urban life at the city’s core for 2 million. Other projects in Raleigh, North Carolina, and San Jose, California, have provided city models that integrate public/private input and place transit, walkability, cultural resources, economic development, and infrastructure at the core of project success. Charles has shared his experience with architecture students at multiple academic insti-
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fession through leadership in the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards and allied organizations, and engagement in creating next-generation examinations, advocacy for alternative licensure paths, and heightened practice standards at the local, regional and national levels. Greg’s commitment to professional regulation for architects began in 1996, when he was appointed to the Nevada State Board of Architecture, Interior Design, and Residential Design (NSBAIDRD). With a core philosophy of giving back to the profession, Greg has risen to leadership roles in NCARB and the AIA. At NCARB, he advanced new paradigms in testing that integrate the innovative technologies and methodologies of practice. He was also a key advocate for the establishment of a new, alternative path to licensure. Greg’s NCARB involvement extends to other service roles and commitments,
including the Board of Directors. His research contributed to the selection of the first 13 pilot academic programs to offer the new alternative path to licensure. He has also served on the Professional Development Committee, Professional Conduct Committee, and the Procedures and Documents Committee, and served two terms as Director of Region 6 representing the 12 Western states and territories of the Western Council of Architectural Registration Boards (WCARB) on the Board of Directors of NCARB. Of those 12 jurisdictions, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah are also members of AIA Western Mountain Region (WCARB). He has served three terms as Chairman of WCARB, in addition to six years as a member of its Executive Committee. Over 19 years of service on the NSBAIDRD, Greg has ensured both the protection of the health, safety and welfare of Nevada’s citizens and the integrity of the practices of architecture, registered interior design and residential design. Originally appointed to the NSBAIDRD by Governor Robert Miller, Erny’s decades of service evolved the organization’s mission to provide community outreach that expands the value and awareness of quality design. Greg has served as the President of AIA Nevada and AIA Northern Nevada. He continues his 18-year involvement in AIA through service in government affairs and serves on the AIA Northern Nevada Scholarship Committee. Greg Erny’s active professional leadership is only part of his core belief in giving back. He also serves on the City of Reno Historical Resources Commission, has a long history of involvement with the youth of his community, including Board of Directors participation for the Bailey Charter School, and an extensive commitment with the Boy Scouts of America. He is Assistant Scoutmaster for Troop 107 and has served as a member of the Properties Committee and as Vice President of Finance on the Nevada Area Counsel. He was an early advocate for the now-successful fight to lift the ban on gay adults in Scout leadership.
Designed by Landscape Forms
Nevada Sales Agency Kathy Wilson | 702.371.5045 | kwilson@nevadasalesagency.com Edward Forlani | 702.468.9655 | eforlani@nevadasalesagency.com Jazmin Miller | 702.343.7434 | jmiller@nevadasalesagency.com
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D E S I G N . C U LT U R E . C R A F T.
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PORTFOLIO
AIA Las Vegas presents PORTFOLIO, a collection of sponsored design projects, as well as resources for architects and homeowners. Discover new products, explore current projects and meet the professionals and architecture and design firms changing the face of Las Vegas. For more information about AIA Las Vegas, visit AIALASVEGAS.ORG
Advanced Solutions Design Software Advanced Solutions Design Software is an award winning Platinum Autodesk reseller offering Architecture, Engineering, Construction, and Manufacturing industries innovative software solutions and services since 1987. Advanced Solutions also partners with 3DR, the complete drone solution, and AVAIL, an enterprise content and workflow management solution.
Richardson Wetzel Architects Richardson Wetzel Architects is a locally-based architectural design firm providing full architectural and interior design services from conceptual design through construction, including entitlement services. The principals have practiced in Nevada for nearly 40 years, focusing on commercial, industrial, retail, vocational, medical and hospitality projects, RWA is licensed in multiple states.
877-438-2741 advancedsolutions.com
702-736-8822 RWA-Design.com
Coda Group Coda Group is a certified DBE sustainabilityconsulting firm with a focus on elevating our projects with responsible and practical sustainable solutions for every client. Coda consults on new and existing buildings pursuing sustainable certifications such as ENERGY STAR, Green Globes and LEED certification. 702-795-2285 codagroupinc.com
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ISSUE 11 / 2016
SH ARCHITECTURE SHARCHITECTURE would like to recognize the elevation of our newest partner, Eric M Roberts, AIA. Continuing our tradition of designing communities that are Built to Last. 702-363-2222 sh-architecture.com
Klai Juba Wald Architects Proud of our loyal employees and recently elevated partners – Brian Fink, Principal, and Steve Peck, Associate Principal – our work, reputation, the company we keep and our namesake Klai Juba Wald Lecture Series. 702-221-2254 klaijuba.com
Mario Basner’s World Heritage Collection Mario Basner Photography offers stunning limited edition art pieces. The multi award winning collection inspires by providing captivating works, conveying a profound sense of values and beauty. Renowned for their unparalleled level of depth and realism, Mario Basner’s works are centerpieces for residential and commercial applications. 702-478-7621 mariobasner.com
JW Zunino Landscape Architecture This award winning landscape architecture firm has been enhancing the beauty of the desert southwest with sustainable, drought resistant design since 1989. Specializing in hospitality, recreation, commercial, transportation, and institutional design, we work with you throughout the entire process to create an outdoor space commensurate with your needs. 702-253-9390 jwzunino.com
The Benjamin 6th & Bonneville Breaking ground June 2017. Mixed use project. 12 residential lofts, café, and Executive Office space. Tenant ready Spring 2018. El Benjamin, LLC 702-274-2796
Nevada General Construction Nevada General Construction (NGC) is a premier full B unlimited licensed contractor headquartered in Las Vegas with focus on commercial, gaming, medical, office, educational and industrial projects. Since 1981 we’ve been planning, managing and constructing every project we commit to with the same enthusiasm as if it were our first. From intimate Tenant Improvement projects to complete Class A, Tilt Up Construction, we welcome the opportunity to provide our unmatched core of experience and personal owner involvement. 702-254-0262 nevgen.com
2016
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PORTFOLIO
LEO A DALY Leo A Daly is celebrating 100 years in the design of the built environment with over 800 planning, architecture, engineering, and interior design professionals located in 30 offices. We have been serving the Las Vegas Community since 1977 and proud to be the Architect for the Golden Knights Practice Facility – “Bringing Hockey to the Desert.” Other notable projects in LV include the Cromwell with Drai’s NightClub and Giada’s Restaurant and the Vdara Hotel & Spa. 702.369.3247 leoadaly.com
GILLETT CONSTRUCTION, LLC As general contractor, Gillett Construction, LLC is proud to be a part of the construction team that is helping to bring the first professional sports franchise to Las Vegas, Nevada. In building the NHL Practice Facility for the Vegas Golden Knights, we are also creating a world class community ice center that will be available for all the people in the Las Vegas Valley to enjoy. Gillett Construction, LLC, "Building Integrity." 702-795-3398 gillettconstruction.com
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ISSUE 10 / 2016
VISIONARY:
John A Martin & Associates of Nevada Yesco FEA Consulting Engineers Klai Juba Wald Lecture Series Lochsa Engineering P L AT I N U M :
Aria Landscape Architecture Polar Shades Sun Control Forte Specialty Contractors jba an NV5 company Nevada Sales Agency
Recognizing 2017
501 Studios
AIA LAS VEGAS SPONSORS
GOLD:
American Insurance & Investment Corp Attanasio Landscape Architecture Assurance Ltd. SH Architecture Southwick Landscape Architects TJK Consulting Engineers, Inc. S I LV E R :
DC Building Group LAGE Design CORE Construction AIA LAS VEGAS 401 SOUTH 4TH STREET | SUITE 175 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA 89101 702.895.0936 AIALASVEGAS.ORG
PERSPECTIVE
MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE Toward an architecture that engages all the senses THE PURPOSE OF ARCHITECTURE IS TO ALLOW us to “experience ourselves as complete embodied and spiritual beings,” writes Finnish architect and theorist Juhani Pallasmaa in his 1996 book, The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses. Sounds good. The only problem, for Pallasmaa, is that contemporary architectural culture is largely incapable of achieving this, because it’s overly fixated on appealing to our eyes. Sight is privileged in Western culture, “the noblest of senses,” according to Aristotle, because it “approximates the intellect most closely by virtue of the relative immateriality of its knowing.” Reason, knowledge, and truth require correct vision:Think Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, where the journey out of the cave and into the light is “the upward journey of the soul to the intelligible realm.” The eye looks far and wide for things to investigate, to study, to conquer. The eye is aloof, exalted, it stands apart and alone, surveying the world without participating in it. But when we allow the eye to dominate, without the complexity of the other senses working in tandem, we are left with, Pallasmaa writes, “a sense of detachment and alienation.” This has made for impoverished cities and souls. Designers — in recent decades, buoyed by computer screens — have turned design into a “retinal journey” that looks great in magazines but leaves the other senses, the body itself, displaced and rootless. The rest of us mainline an endless stream of images, turning the world into “a hedonistic but meaningless visual journey.” Pallasmaa’s phenomenological critique calls for architecture that addresses and restores the other senses, a tactile architecture that we can touch, hear, smell — above all, feel — architecture that connects us back to our environments and reminds us we are embodied beings in space and time. Such architecture would value sound, which incorporates people into their environment (sight isolates them); touch, which creates “nearness, intimacy and affection”; and smell, which powerfully evokes memory. It’s a call for a kind of texture that we can’t get from sight alone. When we close our eyes, we see and touch the world with other senses. It’s like the architectural theory equivalent of the wise old blind man, who “sees” the world with greater depth without using his eyes. It’s irresistible to consider
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ARCHITECTURE LAS VEGAS
ISSUE 12 / 2017
Pallasmaa’s lauded work in the context of Las Vegas, an eye-candy town that willfully disregards abstract theorizing (a point made in Learning from Las Vegas, which argued for the value of Vegas’s sign-and-road based vernacular). While the visual exuberance of the Strip works well for a “resort corridor” catering to visitors, turning to the eye-centric Strip for design inspiration elsewhere in the city is unwise. Fortunately, local examples of multi-sensory architecture aren’t hard to find, and one in particular ranks as a personal favorite. UNLV’s Lied Library, designed by LEO A DALY, appeals to more than just our vision. From the outside, it seems like nothing special, just a collection of rectangular forms. Its one gesture toward monumentality, a massive, curving half-vault roof (and accompanying portico that curves in the other direction) is underwhelming. But step inside.Yes, the soaring, five-story atrium is visually impressive. But the visuals are not the main story here. Lied possesses a permanent blue hour of energy around the atrium. It’s the hum of the place that counts. Inside Lied, people modulate between different energy states, quiet among the book stacks, more lively toward the edges of the atrium. Studiers are perched here and there around the large space; you wonder what they’re working on between breaks from your own work. The building’s surfaces, the cherry wood accents, the buffed concrete of the stairwell, which juts out into the atrium, all welcome your consideration, your touch, not just your sight. The building reassures us that though learning is a deeply private experience, it is a communal one, too. And in engaging so many of our senses — in inviting us to slow down and consider them — Lied offers not just an experience of space, but one of time. We need more architecture like this — architecture that invites all our senses by inviting us to take our time. Architecture that helps us slow down, breathe and gather ourselves. The human body, yearning always for connection, will do the rest. — T.R. WITCHER
accompliSH CASHMAN EQUIPMENT HEADQUARTERS 2017 USGBC NEVADA AND GREEN ALLIANCE GREEN BUILDING LEGACY AWARD WINNER
aia nevada 2016 architecture firm of the year w w w. s h - a r c h i t e c t u r e . c o m | 7 0 2 . 3 6 3 . 2 2 2 2 las vegas | salt lake city