Situated on 11.69 acres, Elysian at Flamingo is located at the foothills of the world-class, master-planned community of Summerlin in the Las Vegas Valley. The location is only minutes away from downtown Summerlin's exquisite selection of dining, shopping and entertainment, and only 15 minutes from the fabulous Las Vegas Strip. Elysian at Flamingo has an extensive selection of 360 newly built luxury residences that have been defined by their spacious floor plans, resort style amenities and a very convenient location. The landscape architecture firm, James Chaddick & Associates conduct many of these apartment projects with their design partner and landscape contractor, Silver Lands, Inc. as a design-build project.

The client for this project, The Calida Group, values high-end design for their developments; especially the outdoor amenity spaces and landscapes. They have become a premier luxury, multi-family project developer in the Las Vegas area with their focus on exceptional design and high-end amenities that rival many of the resorts along the Strip.

Creature Comforts
At the core of this apartment complex is the vibrant pool courtyard, which includes a circular pool with a central island and tubular steel shade canopy, a spa, a wet deck, a hammock garden, an outdoor kitchen with barbecue grills, bar seating, recreation decks, outdoor game spaces and seating areas for fire pits and outdoor-rated TVs, all surrounded by verdant, resort-style, climate-adapted plantings.

Eric Cohen, The Calida Group's co-owner with Doug Eisner, worked closely with the project designer, Eric Kelly, on several rounds of concepts before coming upon the final design for this avant-garde pool complex. The Landscape Architect made sure this concept met all the anthropometric, ergonomic and local code requirements.
Opening out to the pool courtyard space is a 14,000-square-foot clubhouse featuring a wine tasting lounge and party area, hospitality bar with Wi-Fi, game rooms, poker lounge, yoga and spin rooms, full cardio and strength training facility, massage room, tanning room and coffee bar. The clubhouse and pool courtyard amenities were designed to completely complement each other, so residents can enjoy both spaces simultaneously. Potential leasing residents often marvel at the view from the clubhouse to this courtyard when they are touring the property. Additionally, the apartments have exceptional vistas of both the Spring Mountains National Recreation Area to the west and the Las Vegas Strip to the east.

As is typical for these types of projects, the Landscape Architect designed all hardscape and associated features such as the fencing, pedestrian and vehicular gates. This particular endeavor included tubular steel archways, the main tubular steel tensile fabric structure, landscape retaining walls, media walls, branding signage and monument signage plinths. They worked closely with the other associated consultants such as the project's interior design firm, Faulkner Design Group, while creating the space planning. The interior designer then selected the site furnishings and central chandelier to match the themes and designs of the interior for the clubhouse.

 

The exterior and off-site landscapes are lush and inviting, yet very irrigation thrifty and include two pet-friendly areas on the east side of the apartment complex, one open and other gated. Bay Laurel (Laurus nobilis), Cork Oak (Quercus suber), Willow Acacia (Acacia salicina) and African Sumac (Rhus lancea) were used as the main tree plantings with vast swaths of Mexican Feather Grass (Nassella tenuissima) are found throughout the overall site.

Challenges
As for project wrinkles, there were significant grade changes from the front of the site to the back. Yet, with coordination of the other consultants, this was easily overcome and designed around.

At the early planning stage of the project, it was initially formulated to create a vault under the pool courtyard amenity space to house the pool equipment, however, after consideration, it proved not cost effective to meet the site engineering and code requirements. So, the pool equipment room and pool shower were tucked into the corner of the courtyard, only hindering the courtyard view of one ground floor apartment, and that placement did not affect the amenity area significantly. However, it did become an opportunity to create a branding wall for the project above the hammock garden.

Additionally, the tubular steel shade structure at the center of the pool presented a challenge as the bond beam of the pool had to be engineered to serve as the shade structure's foundation; this required extra coordination between the design team, the structural engineer and the pool contractor.
Scouting the Results
Shortly after opening, the Landscape Architect leased an apartment at Elysian at Flamingo for 18 months before moving to Portland, Oregon to start up their Northwest office operations. He found that this experience gave him the chance to observe and take note of how the residents used and enjoyed the amenities and facilities.

"It was a great way to do a post-evaluation of the project. The pool courtyard space was a "splashing" success: used by residents of multiple generations, with recreational activity occurring at all times of the day. All the spaces were enjoyed for their intended use. It was and is great to do fulfilling and exciting design work with The Calida Group; for they are extraordinary clients who appreciate high design. To help them with their vision to create exceptional multi-family living spaces is a very rewarding experience."

Team List
Owner/Developer: The Calida Group, Eric Cohen and Doug Eisner, owners
Landscape Architect: James Chaddick & Associates, Jim Chaddick, RLA, director of design and Eric Kelly, project designer
Landscape Contractor: Silver Lands, Inc., Paco Horta, president
Architect: Perlman Architects, Howard A Perlman, AIA, president
Civil Engineer: Collins Engineers, James Yancey, PE
Interior Design: Faulkner Design Group, Stephanie Dunn, senior project manager
General Contractor: The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company
Electrical Engineer; Helix Electric, Andy Bedora
Pool Contractor: Integrity Pools, Larry Scherr
Tubular Steel Tensile Fabric Structure Fabricator: USA Shade
Fence and Tubular Steel Archway Fabricator: Red Star Fencing, Gregory McWilliams