2023 Excellence in Design Recipients

How can art and architecture, in unison, serve as a catalyst to the revitalization efforts in the Las Vegas Arts District? Looking at the entirety of the project not as a building and street development but as a sensitive public art project. The chosen site is used to inspire other artists, visitors and residents: giving the area and its people more energy could influence them to come together and feel a sense of ownership and responsibility, bringing art back to the people and bringing art back into architecture, when art becomes the expression of beauty and emotion that enables human interaction. The proposed design embodies this belief and seeks to create human-centric spaces/moments that celebrate the unique cultural identity of the Las Vegas Arts District. Overall, the intention of this work is to create a design that unites art and architecture to celebrate the beauty of human expression and create a space that truly belongs to the people.

Southend on Water is an approximately 14,600sf mixed-used development that has become an icon in the historic Water Street District of downtown Henderson. The multi-phased project consists of retail, office space, residential, and restaurant space.

400 S. Wells is a design-build-develop partnership for the adaptive reuse of a 59-year-old, mid-century building located in a neighborhood that has struggled with vacancy in recent years. The project, currently home to the architect’s studio, was vastly more involved than a simple adaptive reuse. Creating a new program beneficial to the contemporary cultural values of the changing neighborhood, celebrating its mid-century history, and working with the City of Reno to help re-write the local Zoning Code were all elements executed by the architect for this project. With careful consideration in bringing programmatic resiliency to the building, openings were cut to fit new overhead glass doors on the south façade and roughly 800 sf of second story floor was cut and removed to create a beautiful atmosphere with double height, well-lit spaces. The original floor-to-ceiling, 180-degree casement and hopper windows were restored and weather sealed. While very little of the interior could be saved except the original stairs, new interior walls were kept to a minimum, allowing passive cross ventilation through each of the spaces. All of this offers functional and cultural relevance to a beautiful mid-century design while reimagining the use of workspace in today’s society.

Located in Downtown Las Vegas, The Beverly Theater is a not-for-profit venue that further underscores The Rogers Foundation’s ongoing commitment to supporting the arts in Southern Nevada. Beverly Rogers acknowledges that being a faithful supporter of the arts means making sure the community has what it needs to flourish, and that's the true motivation for this venue. The Design Team developed a permanent home to elevate independent voices, independent film, and artistic expression helping fill a creative and cultural void in the Las Vegas Community. The two-story, 14,457 square-foot film house and performance theater feature three distinct areas including the main theater, outdoor jazz terrace, and courtyard, each thoughtfully designed and purposefully crafted to allow for unique content offerings and programming. Additionally, The Beverly Theater has an on-site box office, retail/concession space, a green room, a catering kitchen, and educational workspaces. The main theater features raked seating of nearly 150-seats resting on a retractable platform that can allow for expanded standing room capacity and convert the venue into a multi-purpose black box theater with the push of a button. Planned during the Pandemic, this under 15-million dollar venue, fulfills the vision of bringing people together when we were literally apart.

Architecture has played a major role in government’s perceived presence of authority. Bold forms of expression are deployed as reminders of past triumphs and conquests, of strength, intimidation, and status. During our initial interview, the principal expressed a fear that the new school would feel unwelcoming and overbearing. Her 100% immigrant student body often felt intimidated by the designs used by the school district. “Hard,” “massive,” “unfriendly,” and “intimidating” were the words her students used to describe their current schools, perceptions she witnessed manifest into mental health and behavioral challenges while attending school. This project explores the research on the impacts of daylighting in schools. From academic performance to mental health, research has shown the positive impact daylighting can have on a student’s sense of wellbeing. Additionally, this design will examine the research on human experience established through the “greening” of campuses. The design will seek to challenge the status quo of the school district’s prototypical design, characterized by a lack of windows and concrete plazas. We will explore the emotional, mental and physical impact of building forms as we revise the institutional approach to scale, form, and material, seeking instead to create a place of connection, welcome, and sanctuary.

Focused on family connections, the clients were seeking a harmonious balance of social engagement and blissful seclusion that could unfold simultaneously in a warm, well-appointed home where their large family, including several adult children and grandchildren, could be comfortably housed all at once with an atmosphere reminiscent of a boutique hotel. Entrusted to conceive and execute an immersive design, inclusive of architecture, interior design, and exterior environments, the assignment was clear, yet lofty. The resulting design draws from both classical and modern references; deconstructed, reimagined, and then combined to create a distinct and nuanced aesthetic vocabulary that is both representative of the family and exclusive to the residence. Monumental in scale, the program is dissected into a series of carefully framed vignettes that celebrate the daily activities that occur within them. Inspired by the client’s collection of original Hudson River School style paintings, and the decorative structures that surrounded them, a conceptual language of framing life emerged.

Nestled within the historic confines of the Huntridge Shopping Center in Las Vegas, NV, The Garrison stands as a modern embodiment of a longstanding barbering tradition in the area. Carrying the torch passed down by its predecessors—one adjacent to the Huntridge Theater and another within the same shopping center—the barbershop pays homage to the timeless charm of early 20th-century design while seamlessly blending an elegant and contemporary aesthetic. The Garrison's commitment to transcending conventional boundaries is evident in its design philosophy, where the concept of "interior" extends beyond traditional confines, pushing through to the exterior. A custom steel storefront beckons patrons into a truly distinctive grooming experience. The meticulous involvement of the design team throughout the construction process, working hand-in-hand with the construction team, ensured that every detail is impeccably executed. Hidden away from the mainstream, The Garrison has swiftly evolved into a clandestine gem within the vibrant tapestry of Las Vegas. It not only honors the rich history of barbershops in the area but also pushes the envelope of design for projects at this scale, creating a haven where tradition meets modernity, and every visit promises a unique and unparalleled grooming experience.

CAMPout is located in the shadow of an 8,000 foot extinct volcano in the Sierra Nevada. A courtyard driven, earth sheltered, insulated concrete ground form and engineered wood framework clad in weathering steel reflects a focus on material durability, passive energy, and wildfire survivability. The site sits at the base of a mountain on a north-facing slope at 6,400 feet above sea level with views to a valley below, surrounded by neighbors. Heavy winter snow adds a 200-pound-per-square-foot snow load to the roof design. The program included consideration of construction systems and materials to withstand natural disasters along with reflection of contextual attributes. The requested program included a four-bedroom main house with private outdoor space.

In the heart of downtown Reno, El Centro exemplifies an innovative solution to help address the increasing difficulties experienced by our community’s lowest income populations. This mid-century motor lodge is an adaptive reuse project that provides dignified and meaningful long-term housing for individuals transitioning out of homelessness. El Centro has gained local recognition for its very near net zero energy design, its commitment to revitalizing mid-century architecture within our community, and its innovation in repurposing a typically disregarded, though iconic, American architectural typology. The design accomplished all of this despite an extensive list of building and zoning code deficiencies, all while managing an incredibly frugal budget of Low-Income Housing Tax Credits and Housing and Urban Development funding. El Centro is a small project, but it means the world to its residents and its surrounding community where, in 2022, as many as 1700 people remained homeless, and 1 in 7 lived below the poverty line.

Overlooking the city of Reno, this new custom residence creates a modern home integrated into the natural topography of the site. The site dictated everything in the design of this home that resides on the edge between Reno and the Sierra foothills. On a 10 acre lot, there was only one sliver of a ridge to place the home. The home is surgically cut into the rocky ridge with all of the non-habitable space buried below the residence reducing the visual scale of the home. This allowed the main level of the home to parallel the ridge and capture the city views to the east and the pristine mountain views to the west. The home protects the exterior living area and pool from strong winds from the west all year long. The residence is uniquely tied to its location and site both physically and visually, creating an intimate relationship of the home to the high desert site. The intent of the design was to have the residence sit in the native eastern Sierra environment, preserving and blending with the natural site with only minimal landscaping using drought-tolerant plant material native to the region.

The Lake Tahoe Cabins is a single family residence on the shore of Crystal Bay, Nevada. It is just over 6,000 SF with a primary suite, 3 bedrooms and a bunk room; each with access to lake views, visually and/or physically. Private and public spaces are separated via individual volumes (cabins). In addition, the residence houses a rec room on the lowest level and a great room on the main level spanning the entire lake facing side. Lastly, the client desired lake access and multiple outdoor recreational spaces for entertaining.

UNLV Heart of Campus is a place for the student body to congregate, relax, meet, and enjoy the campus surroundings. It is the pulse of the student population and a place to embrace nature, the spirit of the university, and make and capture memories. This project turned an ordinary asphalt parking lot at the center of the campus and transformed it into a calm, cool place for students, faculty, administrators, and visitors to pass through, to stop and breath, to mingle with their colleagues, to pose for photographs, and to be part of a community.