Paradise Palms

Plan 8 - The Last Of The William Krisel Designed Models Of Paradise Palms

March 12th, 2010 Categories: Mid Century Modern, Paradise Palms

This is the last of the series showing the original 1963 sales brochures of the William Krisel designed homes of Paradise Palms.

I’m just intelligently guessing that about 300 of the 1044 homes in Paradise Palms were Krisel designs. Irwin Molasky’s Paradise Development Company developed the entire master planned community, and directly built the Krisel homes. There were other construction companies that built some of the “units” of Paradise Palms.

For example, in the first of the newsletters, we learned that the whole section north of Desert Inn, between Camelback Road and  Eastern Ave. were built by Miranti Homes. These 83 homes in Unit 11 were concrete block, ranch style homes with pitched roofs or flat roofs, and sunken living rooms.

The same article told us that “Unit 10” (which is the Tioga finger into the golf course), and “Unit 12” (the first few homes on the streets west of Spencer) were the work of Secrest Construction, who dubbed a group of 77 homes as the Americana Series. I think these were the ranch houses west of Spencer.  

I have no clue if Irwin Molasky’s Paradise Homes actually built the rest of the homes in his development. If anyone else has a clue or some history for me, please email or call me.

 

 

 

Plan 8 was the largest of the Bill Krisel Designs. It was 1900 square feet. The fireplace was the centerpiece of the home as it was an island which served as a divider between the family living room and the dining room. The other distinctive feature was the screened front courtyard in front of the kitchen window, which stretched over to the carport.

Almost all of the model 8’s have had the carport converted to garage. Unfortunately, many of them have had the screen walls removed. 

A good (bad – fixer upper) example of the Model 8C just sold as a foreclosure at 3419 Seneca, and a terrific well kept and beautifully painted example of the model 8B can be found at 3522 Pueblo Way, which is 3 or four houses west of the “Revision House”.  

I don’t recognize the 8A at all. I don’t recall any that have an extended facia providing shade to the bedroom windows. Nor do  I recognize the shadow block design on the left front of the house. Am I wrong?

There’s at least 3 people/couples that I know of who have been driving around Paradise Palms with these brochures trying to identify all the houses of each model. I wish I had the time to do it lesiurly as well. Perhaps one of them will spot an 8A that I’m not remembering.

 

The prices, which were rubber stamped onto the back of the brochures is a little harder to read on the the model 8, but they were:

Lot B $31,900 and

Lot C $34,500

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March 10th, 2010 Categories: Paradise Palms

Our Paradise Palms 1963 series is coming to an end soon. There’s only one more floor plan brochure, an after this, the August 1963 edition of the Paradise Palms Desert News, there’s only September left to show you.

I was hoping someone else would surface that had other editions stashed away, but, alas, it hasn’t happened.

We’ll continue with some more 1960’s fun with a new series of photographs from our secret historian. He just delivered a whole cache of 1960’s pictures, and we’ll need your help figuring out where they are.

 

Today’s edition of the Paradise Palms Desert News features smuggled art, more hair, a new gas station, and lots of furniture that we’d all love to have now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My mother used to “let” me lick the S & H Green Stamps. There’s actually 3 full books of them in a box in her store room. All that licking, and they never got turned in for valuable merchandise.

Anyone know when the “flying A” got torn down?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Home Of Walter Zick Featured In Paradise Palms Newletter From July 1963

March 1st, 2010 Categories: Mid Century Modern, Paradise Palms

Where was I before the last week got lost?

It’s time for another volume – July 1963 – of the Paradise Palms Newsletters. This one contains a special treat, which we’ll get to on page 3. There’s also a lot of great hair, 2 tone shoes to match the dogs, and a real “leave it to beaver” moment!

 

 

 (UPDATE: regular VVV reader and client Anya just discovered that that’s her house in the bottom right photo of the Welcome Mat. She vows to not only do over the house, but to get the same haircut as Naida Ormond!)

 

 

 

Here’s our special treat. Old time readers will remember that we’ve been championing the cause of getting a school named after Walter Zick, the prolific modernist architect of Las Vegas.

Walter Zick is responsible for the Mint, and the “Pod Schools”. He designed UNLV’s Maude Frazier Hall, and Flora Dungan Humanities Building; as well as Clark and Valley High Schools.  We still have numerous banks, office buildings, a dozen or so houses. Walter Zick was the preeminent architect of 1950’s and 60’s. The body of work that still remains are some of the best examples of modernism in what we now call Vintage Vegas.

We did a bus tour of the Zick buildings last October, and a panel discussion with Alan Hess and Walter’s daughters Claire and Karen.

Walter and his family moved from Washington and Decatur to a new home in Paradise Palms in 1963.

Claire told us at the panel discussion that people always asked her father why they lived in a tract house when he was an architect. He told them there was nothing he could build that was better than the Bill Krisel designed home in Paradise Palms.

Turns out that Irwin Molasky, the developer of Paradise Palms (or at least his staff) had a lot of respect for Walter Zick, and gave him not only the article on page 4, but a full page of photos. Maybe we should re-think full wall, floor to ceiling draperies!

The house is a Bill Krisel design, Plan 8 which we’ll show you in a couple of days.

The article in the Paradise Palms Newsletter about Walter Zick is here on page four.

For the sake of the search engines…I’m re-typing the article, (syntax, grammar, punctuation, typo’s and all) though it can clearly be read in the scan to the left, which is a clickable thumbnail if you’d like to see it full sized at 8.5 x 11.

Walter Zick, a partner in the firm of Zick & Sharp, outstanding architects in Nevada, threw open the doors of his beautiful home to the staff of your community Newspaper, the Desert News.

The Zick home at 3614 Ottawa Circle is the object of many sparkling eyes, particularly those playing the Stardust Golf Course adjoining the home. Its beauty and landscaping blends rounding homes.

Zick first came to Las Vegas in 1945 as an associate architect for the Flamingo Hotel. Although scheduled to remain only for one year, he fell in love with the Las Vegas Valley and decided to make it his home. In 1948, he joined with Harris Sharp to form the firm that now bears the name, Zick & Sharp. Many of the finest homes and buildings in the area are the results of their creation. The Zick home decor is styled in contemporary with oriental influence. Pictures of the home and the furnishings are presented on page 3 of this issue.

The Zicks – Walter and Mildred – have two daughters, Karen and Claire, both of whom attended Las Vegas High School. They are avid and ardent horse women. Their room in the home is the only one with a western atmosphere, completely dominated with ribbons won as contestants, and statuettes of horses too numerous to count.

Zick’s partner, Harris Sharp, also is a resident of Paradise Palms., and is in the midst of decorating and furnishing his home at th present time.

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The June 1963 Paradise Palms Newsletters - Commercial Center In Urban Las Vegas Is Introduced

February 17th, 2010 Categories: Mid Century Modern, Paradise Palms

In today’s installment, we get introduced to “Commercial Center”, which is currently under construction and scheduled for an August 1963 Grand Opening. A must read article!

 “New concepts in the use of space and frontage design, based on architectural studies, create a feeling of activity which is essential to bringing traffic to a shopping area.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The “Welcome Mat” introduces us to Sam Melchionne and his family. Sam’s the band leader at the Desert Inn Sky Room.

A great piece of Las Vegas History in the tribute website. There’s some terrific pictures buried in it.

Lynn Zook at Classic Las Vegas also has a picture of Sam Mechionne with Robert Goulet in this post 

I want that Sunburst Clock!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s all about the “ladies”! And the HAIR!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Watch your speed. Sometimes I think they really struggled to fill the page. In retrospect, it’s still a fun read, though.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paradise Palms was the first Master Planned community in Las Vegas. It’s filled with what we now call Mid Century Modern homes. They deserve to be restored and collected.

Paradise Palms can be located on both sides of Desert Inn Road, between Maryland Parkway and Eastern Avenue. Some of the homes are on what’s now the “National Golf Course”. When the community was built, the course was the “Stardust Golf Course”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Paradise Palms Desert News - Building Community In 1963

February 12th, 2010 Categories: Mid Century Modern, Paradise Palms

“Let’s keep Paradise Palms looking like paradise!!” — a motto worthy of re-embracing!

Here’s Volume 2 Number 5, the May 1963 newsletter of Paradise Palms.

 

 

This is how people networked back in 1963. Today, they’d just have a facebook fan page. Oh, they do! New fans welcome. New content welcome as well.

Of course, if it’s a real scoop, as these newsletters are, you should give it to me to publish first! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Welcome Mat introduces us to saxaphone legend Vido Musso, and lots of grass and a pine cone lamp.

We also meet The vice president of the Flamingo, a pair of pedal-pushers, and 2 pairs of flood pants.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An Impala and a ?

Any of these names recognizable?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

Another plug for Vido Musso

Babette DeCastro of the DeCastro sisters.

Frances Faye 

Jack Nicklaus – you know who he is, so I didn’t link it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m hoping someone will uncover more of these newsletters.

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Plan 5 - The Tri - Level In Paradise Palms - A Mid Century Modern Neighborhood In Las Vegas

February 10th, 2010 Categories: Mid Century Modern, Paradise Palms

This one’s for you, Clay.

There’s no mistaking the Tri-Level design. They were only built South of Desert Inn, in Paradise Palms– the first Mid Century Modern Neighborhood of Las Vegas. You can’t miss them. There’s about a dozen or so of them all together spread out through the neighborhood. There’s still 3 or 4 of them that haven’t had additions or severe modifications or haven’t been stucco’d over.

Find the one on Pawnee Circle. It’s the best original.

They have some of the largest of the “Stone Screen” or “Sun Screen” privacy walls made out of the decorative concrete block that I’m so fond of. (that link will take you to the entire series that we spent all of last year on)

You’ll also note that they came with a zig zag of concrete panels that made up the steps from the street to the front door.

 

 

The line of shadow block in the chimney has always been inspirational.

 

 

 

 

The rubber stamped pricing isn’t very legible but the builder price is starting to really get up there in 1963.

Lot A = $27,950

Lot B = $25,950

Lot C = $31,550

A few (many) of you have been actually reading the amenities list. A few of them that have amused me, or caught my eye:

“ilsa imported Italian tile or glass tile walls around tub”

“Extra large Superamic tile counter top and splash”

“Wall to Wall Carpeting”  and a “Built-In TV outlet”

“full luminous ceiling with fluorescent tubing”

“6 foot built-in sloped mirrored medicine cabinet”

“Decorative block screen wall across entire lower level”

 

 

 

 

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Paradise Palms Was The First Master Planned Community In Las Vegas

February 7th, 2010 Categories: Mid Century Modern, Paradise Palms

Someone – quite wrongfully – suggested that I’m focusing too much attention on Paradise Palms. They asked me why I haven’t done anything on downtown lately….or McNeil or McWhatnot.

I’m just very happy to be back to consistent and regular blogging, and the “Revision House”, as well as these Paradise Palms newsletters and brochures from 1963 were just the thing to get me jump-started.

Another reader posed a good question recently. She did some driving around in Paradise Palms, noting that some of the properties – in fact, some of the blocks looked kind of shabby.

I explained that she’s quite right.  However, that’s true in neighborhoods all over the valley after the last 3 years of market decline, recession, and all that other bad stuff.

There’s dead lawns and peeling paint in Summerlin as well. The HOA there has more power to fight it than we do considering the budget constraints of the city and the county.

Never the less, there’s a TON of foreclosures that have been sold during the last 6 months. (AND A TON OF THEM BEING RELEASED AT THIS MOMENT – IF YOU HAVEN’T BOUGHT YET! The shadow inventory is starting to emerge.)

Most of the people who have already taken advantage of the low prices and the low interest rates have been putting their time and energy into fixing and repairing and redecorating the insides this winter. 

With Spring approaching, I think we’ll be seeing a torrent of outside activity among the many new homeowners.

First however, I think we’re going to see the biggest crop of weeds ever. It just might get uglier for a few months before the lawns and landscapes start to look good again. Of course, we needed the rain, and the logical (natural) outcome will be weeds.

So I’m taking a moment to start the appeal early. I saw my first little green shoots of growth this weekend. They were in the fringes of A NICE LAWN.  Whether you’re Downtown, or in McNeil, or Westleigh or Scotch 80’s or Fran Park, or EVEN in Paradise Palms….get an early jump on them, and stay ahead of them. Go talk to your neighbors. ENCOURAGE THEM to stay ahead of the weeds. Help a neighbor who might not be able to pull them. Your HOME VALUE will benefit. Lots and lots of those vacant properties are going to get new owners soon. The better the homes around them look, the more they’ll be fighting over the available ones. The FIRST thing they always do is pull the weeds at their new home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There wasn’t a lot of news in this issue of the Paradise Palms “Desert – News” – therefore the little essay above, but….

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

I do believe we should try to track down Fu-Fu.

Is she still around?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We know from a previous issue that the tennis courts were in the park that ran westward from Spencer along what’s now the South side of Chippawa Drive, and Chippawa Circle. I believe the pyramid roof house that shows in the background of the the top “tennis anyone” picture is at the end of the Commanche Circle Cul-de-sac.

The butterfly roof “clubhouse” in the bottom picture seems to be where Chippawa Circle is now. What a shame it’s now lost to us.

 

I’m trying to figure out EXACTLY when the association for Paradise Palms was dissolved. Does anyone know? Any details? Was there a fight over it? Was the community thrilled to lose it? Who led the different factions. I just know there had to have been a battle. Any of you original or extremely long time owners have any insight?

The ONLY clue I have at the moment, is that all 5 houses on Chippewa Circle were built in 1979, and are absolutely NOT part of the brochure series, as they are on the North side of Chippewa Drive. So I know it had to have been at least a year or two before that. But when? Why?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tomorrow or Wednesday  – Plan 5 of the brochure series.

 

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Plan 4 - The Original Sales Brochures For Paradise Palms - The Mid Mod Neighborhood Of Las Vegas

February 6th, 2010 Categories: Mid Century Modern, Paradise Palms

 Both The 4A and The 4B models are easy to spot when you drive around in Paradise Palms.

Again, many of the carports have been changed to garages, or living area.

There have been many changes and modifications (some/too many of them being absolutley horrible) to the houses, especially the part of Paradise Palms north of Desert Inn – which even in 1962 and 1963 was the lower end, “starter home” part of the neighborhood.

Many of the 4B’s still maintain their rooflines and clearstory windows. Many of the A’s are now unrecognizable.  

I’m real happy that we can put these out there as a resource for the future new homeowners.

 

 

Any of our Paradise Palms readers who live in 4’s care to comment?

 

 

 

 

The rubber stamp says:

Lot A = $24,950

Lot B = $26,050 

Lot C = $28,650

 

This is the first of the brochures to give us clue that there was different pricing for different lots.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the brochure, the street is obviously along the right side of the drawing. It really makes more sense like this, when you can picture the driveway cutting across the front of the house with a side entry carport as it shows in the elevation drawing.

 

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February 3rd, 2010 Categories: Mid Century Modern, Paradise Palms

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Here’s our second installment of the Paradise Palms Desert-News from 1963!

Each page is clickable if you want to read it in it’s full sized 8.5×11. 

 

Walter Winchel, Tony Martin (?) and Ray Bolger get nods as “Top Stars” of the entertainment world, and golfers Gene Littler, Mike Souchak all get nods as endorsing the Stardust Golf Course.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The bottom left photograph in the Paradise Palms Welcome Mat from this March 1963 edition is none other than Maisie and Garland Ronnow. Maisie is who provided us with this treasure trove of material from 1963.

Garland went to the property every day while it was under construction. Maisie told me this little story when I met her. He noted that the studs in the walls weren’t always “exactly” 16 inches on center, so he measured and and filled a notebook with the exact measurements of the difference between each stud before they got sheet rocked.

 

I’m not recognizing any of these kids names as adults. Surely they didn’t all move away from Las Vegas.

Anyone recognize any of them? If you do, make sure to direct them to VeryVintageVegas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The DOTS…AND—–DASHES column tell us about a “package from heaven” and a new “Jr. Prom Queen”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I really hope you are all getting a kick out of these the way I am. Comments? Feedback? Back Story? Current Updates on people who are named? Click on the comments link just below.

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The Paradise Palms Brochures Are The Work Of Architects Palmer And Krisel

February 3rd, 2010 Categories: Mid Century Modern, Paradise Palms

Below you’ll find Plan Three of our series on the group of houses in Paradise Palms that were commissioned by Irwin Molasky. They were designed by the famed architectural team of Palmer and Krisel. NOT all of the houses of Paradise Palms are Palmer and Krisel’s however. The series we’re running now are, though.

Next week is Palm Springs Modern week. I’m still working out the details, but I’m planning on attending the premiere of the new Documentary on William Krisel. It was filmed by JG Gorst, and Design OnScreen. The documentary series they’re doing is about noted regional architects of the Modern Era. This is one of them  It’s being shown for the first time on Sunday Night the 14^th as part of Palm Springs Modern Week.

If you recall, last March, we contributed to the film with a major segment on the Palmer and Krisel houses of Paradise Palms in Las Vegas. I’m told that I didn’t make it to the cutting room floor, and that the interview with me is several minutes of the film.

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s the trailer for the film.   

 

William Krisel, Architect from Design Onscreen on Vimeo

 

Model 3 in our series has me confused at the moment. I recognize the floorplan, but not the front elevations.

I’m going to do a drive around and see if I can remember which houses I’ve been in that have that floorplan, and compare the fronts.

Plan 3A seems similar to one that I know that has a soaring vaulted carport

I don’t ever recall seeing a 3B that would have the butterfly roof with 5 sets of clearstory windows to the left. Or maybe my memory isn’t what it used to be.

3C is even more perplexing.

Anyone else able to help on this mystery?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Paradise Palms Original 1963 Sales Brochures - Model # 2

February 2nd, 2010 Categories: Paradise Palms

The “Model 2” plan was 1200 sf. I’ve mostly seen it the part of Paradise Palms NORTH of Desert Inn. It was the “starter home” and was base priced (according to the rubber stamp on the floor plan side) $22,300.

A terribly kept, run down, broken, but original of this model just sold for $55,000 as bank owned repo. It breaks my heart to report that. Especially since the buyer I wrote an offer for didn’t get it.

Most often, I’ve seen it as a plan B

There’s a few plan C’s along Golden Arrow Drive on the north end of Paradise Palms, and Several A’s on Burnham and Gaucho.

Some of them have had the carports converted to living area, and a few of them have been thoroughly butchered with room additions that block the “wall of glass” at the back of the house.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tomorrow, we’ll do the March edition of the Paradise Palms Neighborhood Newsletter from 1963. If you missed the first edition, you can scroll down, or click here.

Both of these pictures are clickable thumbnails if you’d like to see it in the full 8.5 x 11 version.

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The Paradise Palms Brochures From 1963 - The Most Important Mid Century Modern Housing Tract In Las Vegas

January 31st, 2010 Categories: Mid Century Modern, Paradise Palms

One of the coincidental outcomes of the ReVision House (the deep green retrofit that was done for last weeks International Homebuilders show) was that I got to meet a few of the original Paradise Palms owners on Pueblo Drive. One of them made me an incredible offer.

Maisie Ronnow, and her late husband Garland bought their Palmer and Krisel “Jet Age” Modern house in 1963. The Ronnow family were the owners of Superior Tire.  

During her tour of the ReVision House, she told me that she had all the original floor plan brochures from 1963!

I now have them in my possession and am busy busy scanning them for you. Here’s plan number 1. Previously, we had some photo copies of an abreviated version that we had published one of them here. Alan Sandquist had a few of them on his flicker page, but they are no longer there, and I can’t remember why I was requested to not show them.

But now we have our own set of originals so they’ll be permanantly archived for everyone during the next few weeks.

But wait! There’s more. I also have 8 of the original Paradise Palms Community Newsletters that were part of the marketing of the neighborhood. The were handed out to potential new homeowners, and mailed to the existing owners. They’re full of fun pictures of Mid Century Modern furniture, hairdo’s, clothing styles, as well as a TON of previously lost knowledge about the Paradise Palms community of Las Vegas.

These are clickable thumbnails. They’ll open in a new window, at their full 8.5×11 size. You’re welcome to Save As or whatever you’d like. If you have friends in Paradise Palms that are regular readers of VeryVintageVegas, I hope you’ll share these with them as I publish the whole set.

One of the most interesting things about the floor plans, and why it’s so easy to believe that there’s actually dozens of different models is because of the multiple elevations and roof lines. Besides that, some of the models could be turned 90 degrees left or right and then combined with a different roofline.

That is the same floorplan could get built with the front door facing the street, or turned with the door facing to the side. Depending on that, you alway got the rear living room wall of glass  facing the side the back of the house. Depending on the rotation of the house, the fireplace wall and the glass wall were interchangable.

So there really are dozens of variations thru out The Mid Century Modern Neighborhood of Paradise Palms.

 

 

 

 

One of the Plan 1A’s is the shortsale listing of mine (it’s already sold) at 1977 Caballero.

Now, armed with these brochures, I’m going to go find us 1B and 1C.

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Demolition Nearly Complete At The Paradise Palms “Green” Makeover

November 18th, 2009 Categories: Paradise Palms

I told you last week about the home in Paradise Palms that’s being greened and re-built for the International Builder’s Show in January.

Putting things back together takes much longer than ripping out what you don’t want. They’ve been busy all week and I’m VERY happy to report that the wall of french doors and small paned windows is finally gone for good.

They do a much better job of cleaning up after themselves than I do!

 

 

 

 

Yes, this is the same wall at the back of the house that I first posted about this home back in January, 2008.

Even worse than that the small paned french door windows (and therefore lots of mullions), was the fact that they had oppressive iron gates behind them as well. The merging of indoor and outdoor living space had been completely undone by previous owners.

In the rebuild, all the clerestory windows will be triple pane, low-emissivity glass, and the bottom half will be triple pane, low-E sliders all the way across for maximum visibility and north light.

 

The mirrors and 4 inch tiles have been removed from the floating hearth fireplace. It’s original to the house, but the “80’s mirrors were not. Thankfully, the original design will be kept.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The previous expansion of the master bathroom and walk in closet into the original courtyard is being undone as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of the new framing is being started. The original bedroom windows went clear to the floor. In some cases the windows will be slightly smaller to further reduce heating and cooling loss. Remember, the goal is to acheive a 70% reduction in energy usage.

Electrical and plumbing work began today, and the windows and glass will start to be installed the first week of December. I’ll be talking, then, with the glass guys, and the environmental engineer who did the calculations for acheiving the 70% reduction in average energy consumption.

If you want to see the original 2 posts I did about this house, they’re on page two of the January ‘O8 Archive or they’re about 7 pages back if you did a search in the top left column for “Paradise Palms”. (which is a good place to read every post I ever did that mentions Paradise Palms. There’s some real good stuff there, if you haven’t been reading along with us for the last 3 years).

I was all excited at the time to see a home on the golf course for under $250,000. It looked like a great deal at the time. Who knew?

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Paradise Palms Home To Get Energy Efficient Makeover For International Builders Show

November 12th, 2009 Categories: Paradise Palms

I’ve been talking to them behind the scenes for over a month now. A subsidiary of Dupont, called Building Media is going to do a top to bottom rebuild of a home in Paradise Palms. The entire process will be filmed, since that’s what Building Media does. They create training videos for the construction industry.

The original home had little attention paid to energy conservation. Green wasn’t even a topic in the 60’s, never-the-less a movement. One of the most important things that can be done to the 50’s and 60’s Mid Century Modern homes is to improve their energy usage, or as they say – the Carbon Footprint. Very few homeowners will ever go to ALL these lengths, but each element that will be used can be applied to any MCM home.

I’ve been consulting with them on the history of Paradise Palms, as well as the architecture and style of the home as it was originally conceived. They’re not “purists”, however. Their goal will be energy related, not perfect historical preservation accuracy. But they will attempt to preserve as much of the architectural and design character as possible. When all is said and done, it will still be a home fitting of Paradise Palms, and will bring major international attention to the neighborhood, and to Mid Century Modern in general.  

I’ll be visiting the home – camera in hand– as it progresses, and I’ll try to share with you everything that I learn.  We’ll have a chance to watch the progress, and discuss the concepts, materials and techniques that will be used to obtain a 70% reduction in energy usage in the home.

Major demolition began on Monday.

I’m not supposed to give out the address quite yet, but since I’ve had pictures of this house on VeryVintageVegas in the past, some of you will figure it out. Especially since there’s a huge dumpster in front of it at the moment.

There will be several weeks in January when the home will be hosting bus loads of attendees for various home builder shows, especially the International Builders Show, January 19–21, 2009, which will be held 2 miles away at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

I’ve been assured that the readers of VeryVintageVegas will be offered a private opportunity to view the home once the shows are over. Stay tuned. This should be both fun and educational.

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“Vintage” Las Vegas Home Featured On Channel 8 News Report About 1st Time Buyer Tax Credit

April 16th, 2009 Categories: Paradise Palms

The  first time homebuyer tax credit of up to $8,000 was featured on Tuesday’s Channel 8 News. Alyson McCarthy allowed me to set up the story with Kevin Bowman who recently closed on his butterfly roof home in Paradise Palms.

If you’ll remember, Kevin got his keys on the day we were shooting the documentary about Bill Krisel, the famed architect that designed many of the homes in Paradise Palms.  

I’m was surprised at the amount of time it takes to shoot a 90 second piece for the news. Alyson interviewed us each for about 20 minutes. I told her all about Paradise Palms, Bill Krisel, the convergience of multiple forces that are attracted to the Vintage Las Vegas homes, and a whole lot more. Naturally, I only got about 5 seconds of air time, but seeing my face on TV – priceless! There’s also hours of footage that got shot – both inside and outside - that didn’t get used. I’m hoping to get the file of her interview with me.

Kevin described the process of saving for a downpayment, watching the prices fall for over a year, and then the gravy….an 8000 Tax Credit that is bigger than the down payment he made to become a homeowner. Kevin’s new payment will be less than he was paying for rent.

I tried all day yesterday to be able to put the piece into the blog, but the Channel 8 site wasn’t cooperating until today.

For even more on the Tax Credit, see the post and the video that I posted last week that explains it in detail.

If you missed it, here’s the piece that played on the 6pm News.

Posted by Jack LeVine | Currently 4 Comments »

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