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  REVITALIZATION: Crime Prevention Through Design Intervention

  Jose Ricardo Leon Serrano

  In a city populated by Luxurious Hotels, the streetscape is often neglected discouraging extended interaction of the pedestrian in the area. As a result, the topic of security in public spaces is being analyzed to bring to light the recent increase in violent offenses. Establishing additional principles of safety to the standard best practice guidelines will impact the image of our city promoting public safety. The issue arises as to the lack of urban squares and architectural features that allow for recurring criminal behavior. An increase in crime financially causes a loss in profit for the retail and hotels surrounding the area. To continue, consumer behavior is affected by avoiding the spaces in those locations not only by tourists but also locals who are concerned about their safety. As Las Vegas places 33 percent higher in crime rates than the national average a study to find possible solutions is necessary. To demonstrate the importance of addressing this issue multiple data is gathered indicating locations along the Las Vegas strip with the most crime reported and the similar qualities in each that could be generating the opportunity for recurring assault. By treating the urban massing as a constant and exploring multiple elimination strategies, building, and plant materials as independent variables, the study hopes to determine the effects of the architectural innovations with professional assessments stemming from the representation of models and renderings. In the book, streetscape design strategies will be presented as a solution to reduce the risk of becoming a crime statistic, impact consumer behavior, and revitalizing the urban setting while re-imagining the ground level interaction between pedestrian and casino.

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  Land | art | uctu | ral : Divergence Biomimicry and Biophilic Spaces

  Myriam "Mylo" Lopez

  This proposal is to create a song of color with natural and fabricated elements creating public spaces to heal and escape. Thus, I introduce the main canvas - LAND|ART|UCTU|RAL with medium biophilia influenced by Biophilic manifest by dynamic sounds to uplight and reconnect our young and community. Can we create active participation of the community in such spaces?

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  The Tourist Corridor: Transit-Oriented Housing Development

  John Vincent Mata

  Prefabrication in the architecture and construction industry is still more the exception than the norm. There are examples of prefab in hospitality and residential, but this project aims to bring them together in Las Vegas around the critical infrastructure of public transportation. The efficiencies of assembly can create more affordable housing and do it more quickly than traditional building. At the time of this writing (Spring 2021), the housing market in Las Vegas is hitting all-time highs. Average home prices are higher than they were pre-housing crash of 2008, and the available housing stock is so limited that many buyers are paying tens of thousands over asking price and they are doing it with cash. All of this is happening against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic. The hospitality industry (travel, meetings, events, restaurant, etc.) was among the hardest hit sectors of the economy, and many workers in this largest area of the Las Vegas economy are low-income employees struggling to keep their job...let alone pay for the ever-increasing costs of housing. John Mata's work positions a massive pre-fab development in close proximity to The Strip in hopes of creating more affordable housing options for employees of the nearby resorts. The mixed-use design tries to balance the needs of residents and the opportunities of developers by integrating sustainable strategies to bring people to and from the areas of commercial offerings on the site, which simultaneously seem to create a sense of community for the future residents of the site and the surrounding neighborhood.

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  Anthesis: The Blooming of the Las Vegas Strip

  David Navarrete

  The diversity of thought throughout the HD Studio always produces great synergy between projects with overlapping areas of interest. Here, we see a question about why Las Vegas' public green space lags behind other cities' lead to more questions (and answers) about how the pedestrian experience along Las Vegas Boulevard could transform from a predominantly car-centric space into a sidewalk experience that extends the excitement of resorts' interiors to the outside. Like other theses that explore everything from public promenades to places for social media posts, the work of David Navarreto calls on lessons learned from urban planning, landscape architecture, and the whimsical nature of thematic architecture often associated with Las Vegas. The themes, however, are not cliché or kitsch. The design of new green spaces are also connected to the building performance of adjacent resorts. The interventions' comprehensive connectivity across The Strip illustrates how multiple properties and the public realm can work together to orchestrate more activities and behaviors between the Strip's existing destinations. The park-like spaces begin to feel like new destinations in and of themselves...ultimately expanding the list of things that Las Vegas offers and reaching new audiences of global travelers.

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  Revolutionizing Performing Arts Venues with Hotel Experience

  David Paz Casado

  The creation of a hybrid performing arts venue through the combination of theater space and guest rooms, which will mitigate the risks associated with public gatherings and creates an engaging user experience that will continue the evolution of performing arts to ensure that Las Vegas remains the entertainment capital of the world.

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  Integrated Stadia: Gambling on the Future of the Stadium Experience

  Mike Puga

  Future stadiums need to become multi-functional built environments that maximize revenue and provide connections with the community that allow them to survive. Applying integrative and forward-thinking design negates the potential for cities to face decaying venues that become detriments to the community they serve.

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  Construction Reconstructed: a prototype for adaptable, reusable, and recoverable building assemblies

  Jaclyn Roth

  This project began with an examination of housing design, finding that our building methods and practices do not meet the current and changing needs of its inhabitants - and a call for a new approach, an adaptable, plastic approach, to space that would allow buildings to fulfill the needs of the user over their lifetime and into the future. The research completed, however, revealed a more systemic problem with the way that we build that, while easily highlighted by, goes beyond residential architecture. We construct our built environment with the intent of permanence. These structures are static and stoic, parts assembled into an unchangeable whole. In doing so, we forget to account for the fluidity of the future, for human nature. In the U.S., the average age of a building is 37 years - and this is up from a prolonged average age of 31 years due to the ebb in construction activity stemming from the 2008 recession (Survey of Lives of N. American Buildings). The average lifespan of human increasing due to advances in/better access to health care, etc.: and the trajectory continues to get steeper. upwards trajectory. The lifespan of a building, however, is on a reverse trajectory. Building science has advanced tremendously in the last two decades. Materials are more weather resistant, last long, and can result in healthier (and in some cases) and more structurally sound homes. Construction methods have also improved dramatically. We build with permanence in mind. The average home can stand structurally sound for 75-100 years - and with proper maintenance and care, even poorly constructed tract homes could be expected to last for 200 years. (National Asso. Of Homebuilders Study) In North America, however, 59% of buildings are demolished before they reach a life of 50 years - and 12% of them never see a 25-year life. While a small percentage of these demolished buildings is due to structural failure, the vast majority are sound and inhabitable at their time of demolition (Survey of Lives of N. American Buildings). Because we design our structures to meet our immediate needs and construct our built environment using static, unadaptable methods, we fail to account for the changing tastes and needs of the not-so-distant future. Our buildings, and in particular our housing, are demolished due to changing expectations of what is acceptable in space and amenities rather than lifespan of the materials making up the home's primary construction.

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  Connecting Allegiant Stadium With The Strip: Flipping Las Vegas Resorts Programming Inside-Out

  Austin Sattler

  Allegiant Stadium (a $1.9 billion project) has been recently completed just across the interstate from the south end of The Strip. Its future-oriented design and seating capacity of 60,000 brings tremendous potential for Las Vegas, and its location has brought challenges to resolve with regard to pedestrian and vehicular traffic around major events. Austin Sattler studies the characteristics of Las Vegas Boulevard that make it one of the most populous streets in the world and its multiple cross-streets that support a continuation of the tourist experience. After conducting additional case studies of popular promenades around the world and simulating various strategies in the Las Vegas context, this project shows how to efficiently and excitedly facilitate the safe movement of massive amounts of people through the arid urban landscape. Gaining insights from mentors from the Clark County Comprehensive Planning Department, Austin learned that the current plan for tourists wanting to cross the interstate on game day is a simple road closure for guests to walk across the four-lane bridge. The alternative design takes shading, seating, mobility impairments, and more into consideration. Further, the nearly half mile stretch is transformed with the kind of entertainment often found while tailgating at other events usually surrounded by hundreds of acres of parking. With the desire to density the neighborhood and instill sustainable design strategies, this project demonstrates what is possible when planning, parks and recreation, and private industry work together to deliver fun and functional infrastructure.

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  Agricultural Urbanism: Sustainable Food Security in Urban Development

  Diego Soto

  Food insecurity is an unfortunate reality for far too many people. In this noble venture, a Master of Architecture candidate takes principles of hospitality design and applies them to residential and civic design such that the communal spaces of our neighborhoods and the homes of families become more hospitable. Diego Soto entered the HD Studio with a passion for helping people and a goal to address hunger. Conversations chronicled through his book take the reader on a journey that helps the wider audience appreciate the oath architects take... to uphold the life, safety, and welfare of the general public. Diego's journey includes recognizing that building codes are in place to protect occupants. These codes lead to building systems that improve structural integrity, shelter from the rain, warmth from the cold, air quality for breathing, egress to escape fire, and so much more. Why should our buildings not also provide us with sustenance? Las Vegas imports nearly all of its food from out-of-state, yet Diego's models reveal that hydroponic systems integrated into residential design can produce enough food to sustain a family of four. The thesis could very easily have produced a one-off building that claimed to be self-sustaining, but that would have been seen as an anomaly in a sea of suburban sprawl. Instead, this work demonstrates how typical building materials (ex. concrete blocks) and building systems (ex. windows) can be redesigned to foster farming at a foundational level... In the future, it will be interesting to see if these ideas can become adopted norms in the residential design industry. Municipalities could incentivize this kind of sustainable food-source development. Future design ordinances and even international building codes might include language that leads to the merger of architecture and food production. In the meantime, these features may be among those that distinguish innovative design amongst leading home builders from that of the status quo.

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  The Future of Cemetery Design

  Landon Baker

  Traditional cemeteries defined as a place where the deceased are embalmed, placed in metal coffins and buried horizontally underground, are important places but have become outdated. Traditional cemeteries can be improved in terms of economic use of space, circulation, and visitor experience. Improving these aspects will make cemeteries more environmentally sustainable, more practical for people and cities, and overall improve the experience of the modern consumer.

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  Brandmaking and Brandscaping Place Making In The Retail Environment

  Maripet Contreras

  Shopping malls today are dying due to the demand of online shopping. Rather than going strictly to the digital world. The retail spaces are places where consumers can physically feel the product that online shopping does not have to offer.

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  Community: A Neighborhood With A Unification Concept For A More Humane Social Interaction

  Jorge Diaz

  The modern world presents a dilemma in its inequalities of domesticity for people from a low socio-economic background. Public housing can provide a solution for this issue, but the properties of such buildings differ drastically in their architectural sensibilities from the outdated uniform Queensbridge blocks in New York to elite Quayside Village In Canada. The former is an outdated, low-cost living opportunity (Barry). The latter Quayside, on the other hand, is a comfortable residence that grew into a community. (World's 3 Most Successful Housing Projects"). The experience of Quayside Village allows the residents to engage city life by having amenities within walking distance. The complex provides communal facilities, and commercial spaces as well as private areas that residents can use to organize social events and grow their food. Quayside can serve as a foundation to develop a new public housing typology and create new standards for a community in Las Vegas that aims to enrich the local experience within a public housing environment.

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  Space Age Urbanism: A Master Plan for Spaceport America

  Keiri Dueñas

  This project imagines that by the year 2050, thousands of passengers will walk through the terminal gate of Spaceport America in order to board a hyper or supersonic flight. But currently there are no existing commercial flights and accommodations within a 25 mile radius to Spaceport America. Alternatively, this project attempts to provide future developers with the tools needed for "space age" developments. Thus, this project seeks to serve as a driver for a new type of architecture called "space-age" urbanism, where the architecture aims to re-establish the American "excitement" found in the 1960's.

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  Analysis of Mixed-Use Affordable Housing In Las Vegas

  Maelle Egea

  Nevada is ranked at the very bottom of the U.S. with only 15 affordable homes available for rent statewide per 100 extremely low-income renter households. Las Vegas is even worse at 10 per 100. Las Vegas is a Hospitality-Driven city. My goal is to holistically understand mixed-use affordable housing from 4 main topics: Policy, Development, Finances, and architecture. Through an adaptive reuse approach of the travelers motel downtown Las Vegas, I have proposed a mixed-use/mixed-income development solution.

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  The Importance of Daylighting In Guest Rooms and The Fundamental Flaws of Hotel Design

  Jairo Garcia

  Analysis of the hotel buildings reveals greater than 50% of rooms have inadequate day lighting. This topic is especially important here in Las Vegas because 15 of the 20 largest hotels in the world are located in our city. With a total of about 150,000 hotel rooms. An average of about 31% of all rooms in the strip are in the shadows, and have no exposure to sunlight over the year. Studies reveal that being in rooms facing north or with poor lighting brings negative effects to its inhabitants like depression, increased stress, gives people little energy and buildings spend more electricity. Good amount of daylighting helps improve sleep, mood, body temperature, overall health, decreases depression, improves indoor and thermal and visual comfort.

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  Hybrid Hospitality

  John Gassaway

  In order to understand the proposed coupled system, there must be an understanding of each component and how optimal performance of the system depends on sustainable architectural design. The basics of each component, a brief history and applicable case studies will be explained and presented starting with ground source thermal loops and then thermal mass (concrete walls). This will be followed by a more detailed explanation of how the components couple to form a functioning energy efficient system, how research can prove energy efficiency and how architectural design concepts can merge to influence sustainable hospitality design.

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  The Impact of The Autonomous Vehicles In the Integrated Resort

  Chester Gaudiel

  The study delves into three main properties in The Strip. Bellagio, Caesar's Palace, and The City Center. These areas of study looked into the possibilities of incorporating an autonomous vehicle system in multiple scenarios. Each study was analyzed individually in hopes to develop claims based on the observations made in each property.

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  Module

  Jin Lee

  Las Vegas is the place where every famous iconic building is in the same place. The tourists don't have to go to every iconic building in the world to experience. In Las Vegas, they can experience it through iconic hotels such as Luxor, Wynn, Caesars Palace, etc. They have great interior and exterior designs. But, the problem of these buildings doesn't accommodate a place for quick changes. In other words, their design is the static form which requires a lot of time to change. The big portion of the building needs to be stopped for new renovations.

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  An Alternative Approach To Food Market Design Strategies That Nurture Human Health and Well-Being

  Kendall Marsh

  Access to food is being implemented in newer and more convenient forms now more than ever before. However, many of the methods that people utilize to purchase food may have substantial adverse health effects. Markets were once centered around a direct exchange of locally grown food and intimate social gatherings. Major developments like the industrialization of agriculture, rapid urbanization, and technological advancements introduced a shift in food market settings. Redefining the design of the market environment can transform a routine task into a valuable experience that nurtures human health and well-being.

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  Designing A Non Conventional Philosophy of Punishment: Rehabilitation and Reintegration of Young Offenders

  Paola Ortiz

  Architecture is one of the few disciplines that sends a silent message to everyone walking into any space. Design is crucial to create specific environments, but when it comes to a prison design, the concept is restricted. Design for prisons, jails, and juvenile corrections are more focused on cost and security, than humanity and hospitality related principles. Access to natural light is a luxury, windows are expensive, and the standardized colors used on their walls are far too depressing.

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  Global Change Through An Integrated Resort: Healthy Spaces That Positively Affect Our Health, Community, and The Environment

  Iwona Reducha

  Integrated Resorts (IRs) play a significant role in countries' economics, health, and environment around the world. These large mini "cities" help create thousands of jobs and can sustain themselves solely on tourism. The scale of an integrated resort also puts its effect on the environment at three to four times higher than most other building projects. Spreading beyond the boundaries of the famous Las Vegas Strip, each year more permits are being issued for their construction globally opening up a huge opportunity to reinvent its archetype to allow for a more sustainable and health conscious design.

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  [In]Hospitable

  Pedro Borquez and Taylor Wolak

  Through comparative analysis of existing development in this region, this project identifies archetypes of ranging scale and magnitude which will influence evidence-based adaptive reuse design strategies and prototypical responses. With such a vast infrastructure, many opportunities exist to subvert paradigm shifts of thinking in terms of desert living, resource management, and utility distribution.

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  Artscape

  Emylanie Carnate and Ronald Cano

  In this thesis, three design opportunities are presented. The first design iteration looks at the micro scale. Public infrastructure along the length of the strip serves as canvases for public art. By expressing art on posts, utility boxes, guardrails, and bollards, a consistent rhythm of public art along the strip links together the separated attractions and properties. To emphasize this connection, the second design iteration implements intermittent hooks. Here, the meso scale reinforces public art interventions on medium-scale sites, such as street medians. The third design iteration is in the macro scale, which involves artscape anchors at either end of the strip. The south anchor proposes a memorial for the tragic October 1 shooting, while the north anchor proposes a sculpture park as a foothold for future projects in the surrounding context. The combination of these three design iterations at their different scales will provide the strip with a sense of unity and community that engages people with the environment in meaningful ways.

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  Hospitality Design Pattern Language

  Tracy Hang

  The Strip is a destination location where visitors can experience the uniqueness that each integrated resort has to offer. This thesis argues that the design of all aspects within and around an integrated resort influences guest experience and is a major contributor to creating the uniqueness of each property. The intent for the exploration of this thesis is to prove that the compilation and documentation of the patterns specific to hospitality design is necessary in becoming a design tool to guide designers and hoteliers in the development and management of this specific typology.

  Three tasks were performed within the application of this study in order to discern and analyze how the design of integrated resorts can enhance guest experience and aid in the expression of a resort’s identity. The first task includes the analysis of design patterns that currently exist within and around all the integrated resorts on the Strip. The patterns were identified through the process of walking the Strip and on-site observations of public functions within each property.

  The second task consists of the documentation and review of the patterns found in task one. This involved distilling overarching patterns through a process of elimination by the comparison of recurring patterns found between multiple resorts as well as patterns referenced in Christopher Alexander’s A Pattern Language.

  The final task presents the articulation of the language within the context of specific properties on the Strip in order to facilitate the conversations between architects and individuals within the hospitality industry.

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  Typology of Stigma

  Silvia Flor Quiroz-Perez

  This study begins with an analysis of the proposed site and campus of what is being called the “Corridor of Hope” in Las Vegas. Followed by an analysis of “Haven for Hope” in Texas which is a built campus that is being used as a model for what the “Corridor of Hope” will become.

  This base analysis of the proposed campus will be used to compare and contrast with other typologies of shelters that exist.

  In order to better understand the homeless population in and around the Las Vegas valley, an initial demographic analysis is done, followed by a geographical and ethnographic study. This study allows for a better understanding of the diverse types of homeless situations and sets a framework for understanding what the needs are of each type of homeless in the Vegas valley.

  Shelter typologies and their sites are analyzed to understand whether they fully accommodate the diverse populations within the homeless community and whether they perpetuate social stigma. The program ratios, spatial relations, materiality, color and other urban theories of design will be used to analyze these typologies. This analysis will facilitate a comparison between typologies and of “Haven for Hope”. Once there is a better understanding of the current accommodations and of the different groups in the homeless community, the Las Vegas area can be analyzed and compared to the areas from all the shelters studied. This is an attempt to better understand the demographics of Las Vegas and why existing shelters, health clinics, and government housing are located in specific areas. This analysis will begin to answer whether these locations are the most beneficial for society and whether the stigma of shelters can be better addressed by, placing them in areas that may have been socially unacceptable, a change of site and/or architectural layout, etc.

  From the studies conducted, the typologies that were the most successful will begin to inform what type of program, sites, and size of shelters work best. But also show, what accommodations are needed to better serve the diversity in the homeless population allowing for different typologies of shelters to be formed to improve and de-stigmatize shelters.