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Tuesday, 11 January 2005 | Levent OZLER
Union Park Design Guidelines Team Wins American
Union Park Design Guidelines Team Wins American Society of Landscape Architects Honor Award
Project includes comprehensive design guidelines and sustainability standards as part of a master plan for a 61-Acre, six million square foot mixed-use development in Las Vegas, Nevada. RNL Design and Design Workshop team up to complete project.
The design team of RNL Design and Design Workshop will receive the honor award in the planning and urban design category from the Colorado Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects at the annual awards banquet on January 14th at the Tivoli in Denver, Colorado.
The Union Park Design Guidelines are part of an overall mixed-use downtown master plan that communicates the detailed landscape, streetscape, park, plaza, and building design intentions. The guidelines provide comprehensive instruction for developers and designers. This enables the owner"s goals of environmental sensitivity and human convenience and comfort to be consistently met throughout every design aspect of this planned high-density, high-rise, urban development.
The development program includes 3,000 residential units; 300,000 sq ft of retail and restaurant space; 1,000,000 square feet of office space; and 2,700,000 square feet of academic medical campus space for a hospital, medical clinic and the University of Nevada. Additional buildings include a performing arts center and a possible elementary school. The project site is located at the former Union Pacific Railroad property along Grand Central Parkway, adjacent to downtown Las Vegas.
The master plan and guidelines are governed by development minimums rather than maximums. This allows for a much higher development yield should the developer choose to employ creative parking strategies such as shared parking, sub-grade parking, or establishment of a parking district.
Distinctive features of the design guidelines are the references to sustainable design as well as the approach to adapting the plan to the extremely dry and hot climate of the area. Streets are oriented so that the buildings provide shade on the street during the hottest, middle hours of the day. A specific chapter in the design guidelines details a strategy for achieving Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design (LEED) certification.
"This is critical to ensure that this development is responsive to its desert climate and context, and built to be a state of the art development for the long term," says Pat Dawe, Director of Urban Design at RNL.
Dan Ford, Associate and design team member from Design Workshop concurs, "Sustainability is not just responsible in Las Vegas, it is necessary to ensure a high quality, long lasting, and comfortable project is built for all Las Vegans to enjoy."
The recommendations of the owner were key to award selection. Dick Oglesby, Project manager for the City of Las Vegas, stated in his recommendation that, "The fact that the Task Force has bought in so enthusiastically to the concept this joint team has brought to them is a testimony to the work of that team, bringing the ideas to focus that embodies the hopes and aspirations of the community, combined with the practicality that will bring in developers to make the plan a reality."
The design guidelines and master planning effort by the RNL Design/Design Workshop team resulted in significant interest from developers across the United States and around the world. The Related Companies of New York City was subsequently selected to redevelop the site. Groundbreaking is expected to start within the next year.
Design team members include Pat Dawe, AIA, AICP, Director of Urban Design at RNL; Todd Johnson, ASLA, Partner at Design Workshop; Kurt Friesen, ALSA, Associate at RNL; Chuck Ware, ASLA, Principal at Design Workshop; Dan Ford, ASLA, Associate at Design Workshop; David Morris, AIA, Principal at RNL; Jess Alexander, Landscape Architect Intern at RNL; Kartika Rachmawati, Urban Designer at Design Workshop; and Nino Pero, Graphic Designer at Design Workshop.
RNL Design is an integrated full service architectural firm with offices in Denver, Los Angeles and Phoenix, serving clients locally, nationally and internationally. Since its inception in 1956, RNL has built its practice providing innovative design solutions to clients, surpassing their expectations and bringing ideas to life. RNL offers clients a continuum of design services, including landscape architecture, urban design and planning, architecture, interior design, and engineering. For more information, please visit www.rnldesign.com.
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