by Tracy Ostroff
Associate Editor

Summary: True to its all-day, all-night milieu, AIA Nevada is initiating a statewide effort, “Blueprint for Nevada: Creating Livable Communities in 24/7 Towns,” to celebrate the AIA’s 150th birthday. With money from the AIA150 grant program and matching funds through local efforts, the state chapter and its components have planned several events throughout 2006 and 2007 focused on increasing public awareness about livable and sustainable communities. The program includes a 24-hour town hall meeting, AIA Nevada's Livable Community Awards, candidates’ forums, and a series of charrettes to determine a specific vision and plan to promote livability and sustainability in Las Vegas, Reno, and other Nevada communities.

When the component first thought about plans to celebrate the AIA150 in Nevada, the idea that Reno and Las Vegas are 24-hour towns continued to surface, says AIA Nevada Executive Director Randy Lavigne, Hon. AIA. “That puts a different accent on the requirements of the whole community. The infrastructure is more strained, people work different hours, and they need child care for those hours; all of that plays into the 24-hour scenario. We thought we should do something that focuses on those aspects that reach the public. We decided to do a 24-hour town hall meeting and invite the public to participate with us in focusing on the various areas that make up a livable community.”

Toward physical solutions
Lavigne explains that the object of the program is to come up with “concrete ideas to make Nevada—Las Vegas and Reno—more livable communities.” They have invited the mayors of the cities, city commissioners, business, public, and community leaders to participate and provide input. The 24-hour town hall meetings will be structured so that one or more architects will lead a charrette on one of 12 different focus areas. The beauty of the concurrent sessions is that the architects and participants will get a concentrated effort as they work to find solutions for livability and sustainability options. “If transportation wants to talk to or look at alternative energy sources, for example, they will have the opportunity to flow back and forth between the groups to come up with answers.”

They also are asking public officials to create a taskforce on livability issues

Once they have defined the solutions that will help make the cities more livable, they will publish at the end of the year the Blueprint for Nevada. The architects will present the book to the governor and city officials with a request that they implement the recommendations. They are also asking the public officials to create a taskforce on livability issues to build an ongoing effort to continue to make our communities more sustainable and livable.

Focus on livability
The component developed simultaneous programs in Las Vegas and Reno and connected them to build an event that would garner coverage and attention. “That is what we are hoping for on April 13th and 14th. We have NPR, Nevada Public Radio, working with us, and they will be doing broadcasts from each of those events throughout the 24 hours. That will help us reach out into the community and let the public know that the architects are looking at all of these issues that impact livability,” LaVigne says.

AIA Nevada has established the Livable Communities Award

As another part of its AIA150 rollout, AIA Nevada has established the Livable Communities Award, which the chapter plans to present each month throughout 2007. “The idea of the Livable Communities Award is that it is presented to those people or organizations outside the architecture community who are working to make our communities better and more livable, Lavigne says. “Recently, we presented the award to Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman for his efforts to bring livability to the city and especially to the downtown area.”

The chapter understands that having the public officials on board to promote livability is critical. “We don’t want to go off and do anything that can’t be implemented. We have been working to try to get our city official to see the AIA and architects as a resource for them, and little by little we’re making progress in Nevada,” Lavigne says.

Big effort
“One of the first things I did was to locate two people as our AIA150 champions, and they have been outstanding,” Lavigne says. “Ric Licata from Northern Nevada has taken on the effort for Reno, Windom Kinsey, FAIA, is the champion for Las Vegas, and the three of us are working together.” Kinsey and Licata have arranged for subcommittee chairs to handle all aspects of putting together the 24-hour town hall meeting and making that a workable effort.

Lavigne says the town hall meeting and other AIA150 programs have the opportunity to make an impact statewide. “If you can get the buy-in from those two areas—to be more sustainable and more livable—then you can thread it to the other smaller communities throughout Nevada.”