Meet the valley’s leading residential architects designers was written by Buck Wargo and published in the Las Vegas Review Journal on June 1, 2018.
Eight of the leading Las Vegas luxury architects, builders and residential designers talk about the recent home design trends and how the modern style is replacing Tuscan and Mediterranean styles in the valley. Most have embraced the popular modern look that has become common in new luxury home communities.
Michael Gardner, studio g Architecture
The 39-year old started his firm at the end of 2010 upon moving to Las Vegas from California. His company also works on hotels and design work inside high-rises. He has strong views on what he saw with Southern Nevada residential architecture.
“I wouldn’t call it architecture,” Gardner said. “I would have called it stucco architecture. Las Vegas has been very good about doing thematic architecture and replicating other places. I was fairly disappointed in generally what we had. Everything was made with stucco.”
Gardner, who’s done projects in MacDonald Highlands, The Ridges and other luxury communities, said some of the younger architects, like himself, have tried to “push and elevate the level of design, and it starts by creating a unique piece of architecture” in Vegas homes.
“We’re in a transition period,” Gardner said. “We went from Mediterranean period to all-out contemporary boxes to now the design is more unique and individualized.”
Gardner said he’s worked on homes using rammed earth and that it’s better to use more natural materials than the “harsh feel of stucco,” which has been a standard in Las Vegas.
“I think we’re really starting to grow up,” Gardner said. “I think one of the challenges from a design standpoint is we have the Strip, where the mentality is to shock and awe with design and throw everything at you, because you’re trying to put everybody in sensory overload. That is what Vegas has been known for in the design world, and now we’re starting to see a level of sophistication and refinement.”
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