Building Better Living

text and photos by James Scolari
published in Builder/Architect Magazine, Spring 2007


“Some people thought I was crazy when I put a patio in the front yard.” Clint Walcott surveys his community over the rim of his coffee. The sun is just up; a neighbor waves and jogs by, and he waves back from the stone deck of his Las Vegas home. “They thought the furniture would be stolen. But community is important to me, and it doesn’t happen on its own. We design it, we build it, and we have to nurture it, be a part of it.”

Walcott and partner Ken Aeschliman know all about building communities. It’s been their stock-in-trade at Landaco for twelve years, and for twenty before that as general contractors. Asked if such lofty goals as community building are too much for some clients, Walcott agrees, and approves. “We choose our partners with care. There are four dozen trades represented on a typical job, and few of those trades are aesthetic, where vision is as important as execution.” He shrugs. “We’re designers; our scope is wider. We’re not always going to be the low bid, so we’re not a good match for those guys who just want to dump some rock, plant a tree and move on.”

“We’re interested in alliances,” adds landscape architect Kevin Yamashita (NVRLA #546), head of Landaco’s design team. “A creative alliance with the builder, from design through production, ensuring continuity of design; alliance with the homeowners, adapting design to express their sense of community. This isn’t an abstract idea -- people are going to makes homes out of these houses; this place is going to reflect their lives.”

Landaco’s ethic proves a good fit at Stone Canyon, one of Las Vegas’s most progressive new communities, and with its builder, Blue Heron. “There’s no question that the aesthetic of the community was our driving factor in budget and design,” offers Blue Heron’s Tyler Jones. “So we offered the community a sort-of ‘non-optional’ option. Our base offering was premium in landscaping and in paths and driveways.” Jones credits the upgraded approach as a major factor in the community’s success in this competitive market, and Walcott agrees.

“Builders are finding that design emphasis in landscape, which looks expensive, pays dividends in the market. We recently convinced one of our larger developers to increase their landscape budget by twenty-five percent across the board,” he laughs, “which took some doing, I might add. When the dust settled, they saw that their community sold faster and for higher prices.” He nods. “True story.”

At Stone Canyon, design pays handsome dividends, indeed. Nestled in the west valley, the community cuts an unmistakable, post-modern profile under broad desert skies. “Blue Heron’s plan includes many inspired living spaces for people – courtyards, roof decks and patios,” notes Aeschliman. “Our design team’s vision had to allow the landscape, and the hardscape, to flow around and through the lines of the homes, connecting those spaces and those people.”

“Landscape architecture – approached with vision – takes community design to another level.” Yamashita explains. “Frank Lloyd Wright, celebrated for his elegant designs, also had a keen understanding of materials -- like concrete – and excelled in their creative application.”

Landaco used Stone Canyon’s hardscapes to build on that theme. Not since TV’s Dan Tana drove his 1957 Thunderbird into his living-room garage on Vega$ has the driveway been so well integrated into the home. “People identify with their cars, spend time in them,” Walcott observes. “So the feel of the community has to resonate in both our drives and our paths.” Stone Canyon’s driveways aren’t gray concrete aprons. Like the pathways, they’re finished in rich tumbled pavers and deeply colored and textured concrete, and they’re met each night by the glow of Blue Heron’s glass garage door.

Likewise, Stone Canyon’s spacious living rooms flow on glossy concrete into a magnificent courtyard, where palms sway up to the second floor patio and its spiral stair to the roof deck. River rock intersects concrete in subtle geometrics, bracketing the shimmering pond and flanked by deeply colorful pots and indigenous succulents.

Resident Don Carrier allied with Yamashita in adapting the design from the public space through his own courtyard to his high-walled back yard. He looks on the result with satisfaction, noting, “It’s the best use of space I’ve seen.” Carrier’s backyard Jacuzzi is tucked beside an exotic Kiwi umbrella and lawn that sports a yellow fire hydrant and metal pooper-scooper dispenser. “We wanted a theme that didn’t need lots of room, and came up with the dog park.”

Asked about the use of lawn in Stone Canyon, Yamashita replies, “Any amount of turf can be controversial in this climate. So rather than offer 200 feet of unusable lawn to twenty-three homes, we put a functional lawn in the park -- where everyone can enjoy it -- and reduced the total amount of turf used by half.”

The nod to wise water stewardship is a subtle but powerful theme in Stone Canyon. Walcott explains, “Nine layers of lush green would have been easy to do, but inappropriate. Our colors complement the homes, as an expression of the beauty of our climate, and, as importantly, the realities of our watershed.”

Yamashita agrees. “These environments change with our seasons. This is a winter desert; silver green, gray, and beige. In six months the colors will be very different. The landscape changes like we do – gradually. It bears watching.”

It’s a safe bet that residents of Stone Canyon will enjoy its unfolding – even if watching, like Clint Walcott, over coffee and sunrise -- for years to come.