AIA Las Vegas hosted a celebration of the unique architecture of Nevada and honored the design excellence of the projects and the architects who created them. The distinguished jurors for this year’s awards, presented last November at the AIA Nevada “Excellence in Design Awards” presentation ceremony, were Lawrence Scarpa, AIA, Pugh + Scarpa, Santa Monica, Calif.; David Paul Brems, FAIA, GSBS Architecture, Salt Lake City; and David Daniel, AIA, David Owen Tryba Architects, Denver.

Academic Category

Honor Award
PANEL: Accessorize as Needed, by Daniel Chenin, Assoc. AIA, (University of Nevada at Las Vegas student)
A major underlying goal for this project is to develop a system of components (building blocks/modules) that can be assembled and configured with diversity to create a dwelling that is tailored to household types and changeable so that the occupants and house can evolve together over time. “This is a graphically exceptional and superlative presentation,” the jurors enthused. “This student has explored a modular approach to redesigning the American home. A good project is one that asks more questions than it answers, and this project asks many questions. This student demonstrates redesign of homes and life in the U.S. and presents in a dynamic way how a family can adapt a house and site to suit money and needs.”

Unbuilt Category

Honor Award
University of Nevada at Las Vegas Athletic Academic Administration Building, by Welles Pugsley Architects LLP
This two-story building with a center courtyard allows daylight into offices and study spaces. Three main entries serve three specific user groups: student athletes, general public, and staff. The materials and forms in the design are chosen to respond and contrast with the surrounding campus concrete-masonry-unit buildings. The jury praised the project as a “solid piece of architecture. It is what an athletic and academic center should be . . . rather than another typography that might be found on a university. The concepts and ideas are compelling, particularly in the presence of the public spaces.”

Merit Award
J2, Las Vegas, by assemblageSTUDIO, for John Klai, AIA, and Jon Sparer, AIA
As in traditional desert habitations, this residence is organized around a series of exterior courts: entry, pool, dining, gym, and entertaining. From public to private, the residence respects the desert environment but is not intimidated. It embraces the unique conditions of the desert by externalizing much of the living, blurring the distinction between indoors and out. The residence is as much about living in the outdoor environment as it is about the architecture. “Of all the projects we reviewed, this one is the most regional and really looks as if it belongs here,” the jury noted. “The house is exquisitely sited and planned. We loved the series of indoor and outdoor spaces and the section showing how the house would dig into the ground and cool the lower spaces in the hot desert environment.”

Citation Award
Main Street, Las Vegas, by BlokHaus Collaborative/ assemblageSTUDIO
This design is an alternative to the high-end residential towers being proposed throughout the Las Vegas Valley and addresses attainable housing for the service workers of the city. The resulting design achieves the cost point of development while creating a Modern look. The units are organized around open-circulation catwalks to create opportunities for community interaction. Open designs allow cross circulation in all units as well as solar shading. The jury likened the project to a “clarity of thought that is reminiscent of Mies van der Rohe. This is an interesting project presented as a very Modern box with a simplicity that expands to richness. The units are quite beautiful as classic Modernist forms.”

Built Category

Honor Award
Regional Animal Campus, Las Vegas, by Tate Snyder Kimsey Architects, for the Animal Foundation
This project transformed an existing animal shelter with a six-acre urban infill site into a consolidated animal-care campus to meet the sheltering and adoption needs of the entire Las Vegas Valley. The dog adoption ark consists of 22 repeated modular units, each distinguished through the graphics and sponsorship of its community donor. Six future wind turbines will augment the on-site production of renewable energy. Skylights provide a balanced light level through the bungalows while using a minimum of electric energy. The project was developed in accordance with LEED-Platinum™ standards. “This is a fabulous project,” the jury raved. “We loved it right out of the box. It’s beautiful in the juxtaposition of the towers allowing low horizontals and the verticals. It’s a simple and repetitive building; you’d think you’d be bored with that repetition, but on the contrary it is quite beautiful and interesting. So often animal shelters are treated as warehouses. This, on the other hand, is quite extraordinary. There is a module here that is both humane and operational. It is poetic . . . simple . . . and sustainable . . . and it embodies everything that a good building should be.”

Merit Awards
McCarran International Airport Ramp Control Tower, Las Vegas, by Tate Snyder Kimsey Architects, for the Clark County Department of Aviation
The ramp control tower provides an observation point from which airport operators direct aircraft traffic on the ground before or after planes leave an active taxiway. The architects determined the height of the tower using projected shadow studies to optimize the viewing of aircraft gates given the existing terminal building configuration. The ramp control tower’s twin support structures accommodate the challenge of placing an underground automated train system station for a future terminal. The jurors took note of the project even before they reviewed it as a submission. “As I flew into Las Vegas, I admired the new airport tower, so I was pleased to find it as a project in the design awards,” one noted. The jurors also said, “We really loved this project and how it stands on the landscape. It is a nicely detailed project and it provides a great counterpoint to the images of the Strip. We think the architect has some fun with the analogy of the iron giant robot and how the form comes about. It has an interesting formality and a subtle metaphor that you don’t get on the surface.”

Merit Awards
Arbor View High School, Las Vegas, by Tate Snyder Kimsey Architects, for the Clark County School District
The 2,700-student school is organized around a two-story interior mall, which admits daylight to the internal classrooms and provides for secured student circulation. The design of the new prototype breaks down the perceived scale of the large comprehensive high school by creating four separate learning communities as “schools within a school.” The jury admired the plan’s simplicity, use of daylight in public spaces, and sustainable features. “This is the evolution of high-school design … it just gets better and better. The fine detail in simple materials and their use in interiors and the way they stretch to the outside space take a building type that verges on being a mall to make it an elegant piece of architecture.”

Citation Awards
Old Las Vegas Mormon Fort Visitor's Center, Las Vegas, by assemblageSTUDIO, for SPWB/State Parks
This project celebrates the fort’s 150-year anniversary. The client wanted to create a visitor’s center with historical references, one that would not overshadow or hide the Mormon Fort, but would rather complement its historical significance. The design recesses the center to maintain views from its courtyard to the valley below. “One of the reasons we liked this project is that it gives such a successful narrative of how you arrive at the forms and the construction of the space,” the jurors noted, praising also the landscaping, scale, and materials. “The stack-block or mud-brick walls and timber frame were originally done in this region. And we liked how they were able to put these into a contemporary or Modern setting, but also allow for little surprises, like window-box corner elements, to exist simultaneously and collaboratively.”

Citation Awards
Eastern Sierra Residence, Gardnerville, Nev., by Akin Tilt Architects, for Suzanne Johnson
Situated on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains overlooking the Carson River Valley, this house is strategically split into separate buildings to create a protected central terrace that offers refuge from both summer sun and winter winds. The main house is bermed into the hill, with its south-facing roof peeling up at the corner for passive solar gain and for a dramatic view of snow-capped Job’s Peak. Part buffer from the elements, part view-finder, the project creates a sustainable mode of living on this challenging site; celebrating its ecology, cultural history, and raw beauty. The jury lauded the home’s sustainable architecture. “This project includes every sustainable idea there is. The interior detailing of the stair and circulation spaces matched with the materials and the craftsmanship—and then coupled with the environmental issues—shows the real prowess of this architect.”
Photo © Edward Caldwell Photography.

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