Innovative Ways to Create Public Spaces in Las Vegas

HOSTED BY ASLA NEVADA AND AIA LAS VEGAS

This event, a part of ASLA’s series on Desert Oasis - Innovative Ways to Create Public Spaces in Las Vegas, explored groundbreaking approaches to designing public spaces that enhance community engagement and urban living within the context of the desert. RSM Design Principal and Director of the Los Angeles Studio, Cody Clark, was invited to speak on the Value of Placemaking, and his insights gained while working on the Las Vegas mixed-use community UnCommons. The learning objectives of the lecture was to (1) learn how community involvement influences the success and sustainability of development projects in urban environments, (2) learn the strategies of transformative design initiatives that prioritize community needs, and (3) understand how temporary art projects can balance artistic expression with considerations for the health and overall wellbeing of the surrounding community.

UNCOMMONS, LAS VEGAS, NEVADA

UnCommons is a mixed-use environment in Las Vegas, Nevada, centered around building community through work, play, and living. The RSM Design team was a part of the UnCommons development team before, during, and after the global Covid-19 pandemic. Since the beginning, UnCommons was meant to be a space for everyone, across 40 acres just west of the infamous Las Vegas Strip. The RSM team had to imagine the journey of many different potential visitors of UnCommons, and how to build the narrative for the space. Through tenant programming, architecture, art, placemaking, and wayfinding, the team began to create a space that engaged the outdoors, and the diverse set of visitors to this project. At it’s core, it’s an uncommon neighborhood for all.