The more intense lighting of the building creates a brilliant effect by uplighting Date Palms that get progressively taller as you get closer to the main entrance. The lighting washes the building while illuminating the inside of the palm fronds. Las Vegas, Nevada most often conjures up images of bright lights and casinos. Lately, new hotels and resorts-- including the new Mandalay Bay and the Bellagio (See February 1999 LASN, "A World Apart")-- have been sprouting rapidly within the city. At the same time, businesses surrounding the area are also renovating their buildings in order to keep up with all the changes on the strip. So when Clark County Health District in Las Vegas-- a building used primarily for issuing work permits, screenings and vaccinations-- needed to convert their 1.5 acre landscape from a typical turf lawn into a low maintenance, cost and water efficient landscape, the Las Vegas, NV-based landscape architectural team, JW Zunino & Associates (JWZ) was hired to renovate the new site. The JWZ philosophy is "to provide the highest quality professional services for the conceptualization, development, and implementation of landscape architectural and land planning projects." And this was most definitely achieved in this two-phased project. Majority of the retrofit was conducted in Phase 1, where all of the turf (infested with weeds and common bermuda invasives) was removed; pine trees were preserved and irrigated; and lighting fixtures were installed. As for Phase 2, work was primarily performed in the areas directly adjacent to the building (between the front walk and building). Spot lights and flood lights were also installed to highlight the palm trees and olive trees. The design team master-planned a "people space" with precast concrete seating; medium broom-finished concrete walkways; mounding made of dirt berms utilized for aesthetics and to deter pedestrian circulation through the landscape areas; and a new corner monument signage. Decomposed granite in a Palamino Coral-shade complement all the planting beds-- consisting of Desert Spoon, Red Yucca, Yellow Yucca, Weeping Yucca, and Cat's Claw Vine. A variety of trees (such as Swan Hill Fruitless Olive, Deglet Noor Date Palm, and Willow Pittosporum) decorate the building facade as well. Three and four-foot diameter landscape boulders pepper the site. The landscape was made water-efficient by eliminating turf and instead using low water plant materials with water drip versus sprinkler heads. Approximately $80,000 was spent on the landscape development of the project. The lighting design was integral in accenting the new facade of the building. It was developed for three specific areas. For example, the corner monument signage of a carved ledge rock was lighted from below with a broad beam light in order to highlight the sign in a consistent wash of light. As a result, interesting shadow effects were created but at the same time there was enough light to make the sign readable. The pathway lighting was accomplished with low level bollard lighting that cast the lighting onto the walkways for a soft illuminating effect that provides aesthetics as well as pedestrian safety. The bollards chosen are a louvered-style so direct light doesn't "blind" pedestrians. The more intense lighting at the building creates a brilliant effect by uplighting Date Palms that get progressively taller as you get closer to the main entrance. The lighting washes the building while lighting the inside of the palm fronds. Zunino explains that the most challenging aspect of the lighting design was "going out at night time with portable lights to find out which light casts the best light and where." The only environmental concerns to address was light pollution. Due to the adjacent hospital, light pollution was a concern because they have patients there at night and didn't want the lighting to interfere with sleeping patients that didn't close or couldn't close their curtains, therefore the Landscape Architects utilized low bollards to accent the pedestrian walkway system. Zunino advises Landscape Architects doing lighting design to "do more night time analysis, understand the architecture and its intent, and to know the products." Due to the firm's dedication to produce completed projects that function successfully and simultaneously celebrate the quality of the physical environment, the design team provides an innovative design to the "City of Lights" in a cost and water-effective manner. lasn The corner monument signage of a carved ledge rock was lighted from below with a broad beam light to highlight the sign, in a consistent wash of light, provide interesting shadows effect, and provide enough light to make the sign readable. Deglet Noor Date Palms and Swan Hill Fruitless Olives are uplit with intense low-voltage fixtures, a technique which successfully washes the building while illuminating the insides of the palm fronds and tree branches.