The JW Zunino Landscape Architectural Records (1986-2003) contain landscape and architectural drawings depicting work performed in Las Vegas, Nevada by JWZ. Casino work includes The Mirage Resort Hotel and Casino, the Monte Carlo Hotel and Casino, Tropicana Hotel and Casino, Suncoast Hotel and Casino, Caesars Palace, and Desert Inn Hotel and Casino. The type of casino work performed include creating master plans for gardens and walkways, as well as developing planting, irrigation, and landscape lighting plans. The records also include work performed for parks, residential properties, public and civil buildings, and commercial facilities.
Archival Collection
On February 7, 1976, collector, Marc Hechter interviewed Herbert and Erma Holtam in the collector’s home in Las Vegas, Nevada. This interview covers the history of the early Las Vegas Valley area. The discussion includes an in-depth overview of the Helldorado Parade and Helldorado Village. The building of the hotels on the Strip, homesteading, and local housing developments, are also discussed.
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“At five years old, I was the youngest boy at the orphanage. This was the first time that I had lived with indoor plumbing and indoor showers.” To describe award-winning home builder Larry Canarelli as a self-made man is to grossly understate his accomplishments and his determination. Canarelli, founder of American West, Nevada’s largest privately owned development company, learned all about living without shelter as a very young boy. When he was nine years old, Canarelli, the second of his mother’s six children, encouraged his veteran stepfather to buy the family’s first permanent house for $80 down and an agreement to assume payments on the Veterans Administration loan. As his school peers dreamt of large, shiny cars, Canarelli envisaged big, beautiful houses. After self-funding his education, graduating from the University of California Los Angeles, completing two years of U.S. Army service, and earning his Master’s degree from University of Southern California, Canarelli began his career working with a large home building firm in the Los Angeles area. Three years later he switched firms, and the new company sent him to Las Vegas. In this interview, Canarelli reaches back to his childhood to explain his motivation to build houses: “All of my life, I had an interest in housing. Perhaps this is because of never having a house when I was younger.” He recalls how the Collins Brothers helped him when he founded American West. He describes the Southern Nevada “shelter market” of the 1970s and follows its evolution in style and marketing through the 1980s and 1990s; he talks about master planning and the builders who first master planned their Clark County developments: Pardee Homes in Spring Valley, American Nevada in Green Valley, and Howard Hughes Corporation in Summerlin. He speaks to the influences of interest rates and available land on housing prices; the importance of environmentally responsible housing; where the entry-level housing market will go, and ways that technology has changed home building and home buying. And throughout, he exemplifies his devotion to, knowledge of, and respect for Southern Nevada’s housing industry-its builders, its market, and its buyers.
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On March 8, 1975, Beatrice Scheid interviewed Mary and Bruce Eaton about their lives in Boulder City, Nevada. Mary first talks about her life in the early days of Boulder City, specifically the influences of the churches and schools. She also talks about housing, transportation, and her career as an educator. Bruce (born 1904 in Toronto, Kansas) also talks about his life in Boulder City and his arrival to Southern Nevada as he sought employment in working on the building of Hoover Dam. Bruce talks about his employment with Six Companies, Inc. and discusses topics such as the employment wages, his and Mary’s experiences in building a house, and their experiences in buying a house built by Six Companies. Bruce also talks about the roles of Sims Ely, the city manager of Boulder City, and Frank Crowe, the construction superintendent of Six Companies. Bruce then discusses the issues of worker’s compensation as it related to work on the dam, and he describes, in detail, the cooling system us
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Robert D. "Bob" Fisher is a Las Vegas, Nevada broadcast personality and lobbyist. He was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota and moved to Las Vegas in 1994 when he was hired to be the founding president and CEO of the Nevada Broadcasters Association (NVBA). During his 22 years as head of the NVBA, he produced and hosted Observations, a public affairs program broadcasted on radio and television throughout the state of Nevada. Soon after, he began producing and hosting the only weekly live television program about diabetes in the United States; in 2015 his weekly live radio program The Diabetes Show was the only one of its kind to be aired over commercial radio in the U.S. Fisher helped bring the AMBER Alert program to Nevada in 2003, and served as its chairman and coordinator for ten years. His other lobbying successes include the classification of certified broadcasters as First Responders and the elimination of Broadcaster Non-Compete contracts in 2013. He served on the Nevada Homeland Security Commission for 13 years, the Nevada Crime Commission, and the Governor's Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission. Fisher is a founding clergy member of Midbar Kodesh Temple in Henderson, Nevada and served as its cantor for over a decade. After his retirement from NVBA at the end of 2014, he established Bob Fisher Weddings to provide his services as a wedding officiant. In this interview, conducted shortly after his retirement from NVBA, Fisher discusses his childhood in Twin Cities, and the large role Judaism played in his upbringing. He speaks at length about his involvement with United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism over the years, including as regional director of the United Synagogue Youth Far West Region, which took him from Minnesota to California. He talks about his time in Los Angeles, and later, about his life in Las Vegas, including his broadcasting career as well as involvement with Midbar Kodesh Temple.
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