Jay Swayze was a general building contractor from Plainsview, Texas. In 1961, he and his brother Kenneth built the first Atomitat in Plainsview and subsequently formed the World Underground Homes Corporation. He went on to build both of Jerry Henderson's underground homes in Boulder, Colorado as well as Las Vegas, Nevada. He and his brother also built an underground house exhibit at the 1964 World's Fair in Queens, New York City, New York.

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Claes Oldenburg is an artist and scultpor resposnible for the Flashlight sculpture between the Artemus Ham Concert Hall and the Judy Bayley Theatre on the University of Nevada, Las Vegas campus. He was born in 1929 in Stockholm, Sweden. Because of his father's job as a diplomat, the family moved frequently between the United States and Norway until they settled down in Chicago, Illinois in 1936.