AIA Nevada Design Awards
From urban infill residences to wilderness amenities, the recent design competition shows off the state’s best architecture.
The 2008 AIA Nevada Excellence in Design Awards narrowed down 59 project submittals to five winning designs, in four categories. The winning projects were chosen by a design jury that included Thomas Bitnar, AIA, of Bitnar Architects, Bozeman, Montana; Edward M. Jones, AIA, of Jones Studio, Inc., Phoenix, Arizona; and Wendy Pautz, AIA, of LMN Architects, Seattle, Washington
Additionally, the awards program, presented during a banquet at Squaw Creek, recognized a firm and several individuals for their service to AIA. Tate Snyder Kimsey Architects of Henderson received the AIA Nevada Architecture Firm Award, Young Architects Citations went to Ken Bartlett, AIA, of Reno and Deepika Padam, AIA, of Henderson, and Patricia Hegge of Reno received the Allied Member Award.
Architecture Award
Collaborative Achievement Award
Block Party
Reno, Nevada
Hawkins and Associates
Baron Hershberger
Photograph by Asa Gilmore/Ruckus Studio
An older neighborhood in Reno got a shot in the arm with the renovation of three existing, circa 1930s-1940s bungalows and the addition of two, two-unit loft residences at the back of the property, all linked together by a common courtyard.
The project was a collaboration between two friends, Reno architects Jack Hawkins and Baron Hershberger, joined by metal artisan Paolo Cividino, who wanted to create a residential community within walking and biking distance of downtown. The existing homes were modernized with an emphasis on sustainability, while the loft buildings, which also include ground-level studios for a work/live situation, also emphasize recycled materials, sustainable strategies and plentiful daylighting.
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Architecture Award
Historic Fifth Street School Renovation
KGA Architecture
Las Vegas
Photograph by Tom Craig/Opulence Studios
In 1936, architects Orville L. Clark and George K. Thompson designed the Fifth Street School to serve as Las Vegas’ first permanent elementary school. The Spanish/Mission Revival compound featured red clay roof tiles and a design that angled the buildings around a courtyard. When the school closed in the 1960s, the site was used by both Clark County and the City of Las Vegas for offices. In 1988, the building was added to the National Historic Register.
The restoration and adaptive reuse, handled by KGA Architecture, returned the exterior to its 1936 appearance and created functional interiors for current use and codes. The project included new mechanical, electrical and plumbing. The Historic Fifth Street School, as it is officially called, now houses the offices of AIA Las Vegas and the City of Las Vegas Cultural Affairs, the Nevada School for the Arts and the University of Nevada Las Vegas Downtown Design Studios.
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Regional and Urban Design Award
Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy, Phase 3
Carpenter Sellers Associates
Las Vegas
Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy is a charter school located in an at-risk, economically challenged Las Vegas neighborhood. The school’s goal is to offer academic programs that enhance a student’s character, respect, motivation and self-discipline. For more than five years, Carpenter Sellers and Associates has been master-planning and designing buildings for the academy, with its 650 students in grades K through 12.
The final elements for the school, located on a narrow, eight-acre site, include a high school and gymnasium, connected like pieces in a puzzle to the existing middle school and multipurpose structures. Utilizing materials such as masonry walls, burnt trowel cement plaster, granite, travertine veneer, and metal for the roof and wall cladding, the two new additions are distinct in design. The gymnasium features angled lines and daylight-grabbing expanses of glass, while the high school is anchored by a distinctive rotunda entrance. The high school’s design also includes a symbolic bridge, known as the commencement bridge, that spans over the academy’s quadrangle. Students only cross the bridge when they graduate from high school.
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Collaborative Achievement Award
McCarran Ranch Shade Structure
Cathexes
Reno
When The Nature Conservancy acquired McCarran Ranch along the Truckee River east of Reno several years ago, it was with the intent of channeling the river, restoring wetlands, undoing flood damage and creating regional recreational opportunities. The successful project, a partnership of the Conservancy with local, state, federal and private entities, includes some 300 acres along five miles of the river.
One of McCarran Ranch’s newest elements is a rustic shade structure, designed by Cathexes to serve as a resting and gathering spot for visitors to the site. The circular structure takes its cue from Native American shelters, made of woven willow, that once dotted the area. The structure’s woven wood and copper becomes tighter laterally to protect from the increased west winds and overhead, to offer shade. It was constructed under the apprentice program of local chapter of The Associated General Contractors, which used it as an educational tool for reading plans and working with the project’s consultants.
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Interior Environments
Nalani
AssemblageStudio
Las Vegas
In creating an interior for Nalani, a medical clinic specializing in pain management and acupuncture, AssemblageStudio kept in mind a tight budget and a desire for a contemporary, natural look.
The 3,000-square-foot space, located within a neighborhood shopping center, includes a lobby for the medically oriented pain management end of the business, a lobby for acupuncture clients that includes an area for retail displays, five treatment rooms, an office and support spaces. Against a backdrop of black stained concrete flooring and deeply hued walls, the design team used 3form resin panels embedded with seaweed strands to make walls for the front treatment rooms, which allow sunlight to penetrate to the back of the clinic. Other treatment rooms were built of 1x2-inch slat walls, backed by Polygal panels, adding a sense of texture and the play of shadow and light to the space.
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