Landscape architect Jack W. Zunino is a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) and president of the Society's local chapter. He has designed many of Southern Nevada's iconic landscapes: the Rio Hotel, the M Resort, the Desert Demonstration Gardens, the gardens at Ethel M. Chocolates, the Cactus Avenue overpass, and most notably, the Springs Preserve. He's also a third-generation Nevadan from Elko, grandson of Italian immigrants who met and married in the Silver State and raised their large family in that Nevada mining town. The product of Elko schools, he graduated from the University of Utah in psychology and Utah State University in landscape architecture while earning his tuition as a road construction laborer. In this interview, Zunino tells of his employment with G.C. Wallace Engineering and JMA architects before founding his own landscape architecture firm in 1989. He speaks to the importance of planners and landscape architects on Southern Nevada's conser
Oral history interview with Christian Giovanni conducted by Cecilia Winchell, Jerwin Tiu, and Stefani Evans on May 17, 2022 for the Reflections: the Las Vegas Asian American and Pacific Islander Oral History Project. In this interview, Giovanni describes her early life being born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada. She discusses her mother, Oywan, who first worked for the casinos before turning her focus to community building. Throughout Oywan's life, she did everything from start the first temple in the city to the first Thai newspaper, Las Vegas News. Giovanni mentions having what she considers a normal childhood, especially because of her more Western appearance, and did not embrace her AAPI identity until much later in life after she started helping her mother with different organizations. Currently, Giovanni is involved in many organizations, from the AAPI County Commission to the Thai Culture Foundation.