Southern California native and lifetime resident, landscape architect Chuck Degarmo evokes the Golden State's iconic theme park as he reflects on forty years in the landscape industry and the ways his work has shaped the way Southern Nevada looks and works. It is fitting he would do so. Degarmo forged his professional ties to Las Vegas in 1993, during the heyday of the Las Vegas Strip's "family-friendly" era, when Kirk Kerkorian's MGM Grand Hotel and Casino hired Degarmo's firm, Coast Landscape Construction, to design and landscape their planned 33-acre MGM Grand Adventures Theme Park. In this interview, Degarmo outlines his work history, which draws upon the combined skills of a salesman, an artisan, a problem-solver, and an entrepreneur. Having owned his own firms and worked for industry giants Valley Crest Companies and BrightView Landscape Development, he discusses an array of topics from running union and non-union crews; Tony Marnell and design-build projects; importing plant material into Nevada; the Neon Museum and Boneyard; The Smith Center for the Performing Arts and Symphony Park; Steve Wynn, the mountain at Wynn Las Vegas, and Lifescapes International; the Lucky Dragon; Cosmopolitan, CityCenter, and the Vdara "death ray", and the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act (SNPLMA). Throughout, Degarmo articulates his work through the lens of a lifetime Southern Californian whose talent has contributed much to the Southern Nevada landscape.

Artist's rendering of Amargosa Municipal Center, Amargosa, Nevada. The architect is Alton Dean Jensen.

Twentieth-century visitors to the Las Vegas Sands Hotel experienced the masonry work of Anthony A. Marnell, who removed his family from Riverside, California, to North Las Vegas in 1952 in order to build that structure. When he formed his own masonry company in 1958, he taught his namesake nine-year-old son the skills of a mason and the value of honest work. The younger Marnell learned all he could about construction from his father and completed his education by graduating USC School of Architecture in 1972, serving his apprenticeship, and becoming licensed in 1973. After designing McCarran Airport's A and B Gates, he teamed up with Lud Corrao in 1974 to form Marnell Corrao Associates, the first design-build firm in Southern Nevada. Marnell Corrao built many of Southern Nevada's most iconic hotel-casinos including the California Hotel, Maxim Hotel, and Sam's Town and Steve Wynn and Treasure Island, The Mirage, Bellagio, and New York New York as well as the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino and the M Resort Spa Casino. In this interview, the Riverside native speaks to the importance of teaching future generations about the value of work, of earning the sense of accomplishment, and of fueling one's inner spirit. His philosophy built a work environment that encouraged employee longevity from the beginning in 1974 (he is employee number one, and his assistant is employee number two). He talks of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), of entrepreneurial gamesmanship, and of casino greats Bill Boyd, Jay Sarno, Cliff Perlman, Kirk Kerkorian, and Steve Wynn. He describes the evolution of Las Vegas resorts from prioritizing casino games to fine dining to night clubs and entertainment. He credits his own Rio staff tradition of serving Chef's Table to the employees and the Rio's award-winning chef, Jean-Louis Palladin, for beginning the Las Vegas food renaissance in the late 1990s that rebranded Las Vegas as a Mecca for celebrity chefs. The nine-year-old who worked part time in his father's masonry business learned his lessons well, much to the benefit of Southern Nevada's growing skyline, its residents' growing waistlines, and its businesses' growing bottom lines.

Randy Lavigne, Honorary AIA, has every reason to smile. Since 1995 she has been the Executive Director for AIA (American Institute of Architects) Las Vegas professional organization; she works daily with her daughter in a beautifully restored historic building in the heart of downtown Las Vegas; and the architects with whom she works so value her contributions they compiled and submitted documentation in order to surprise her with honorary AIA membership. In this interview, Lavigne recalls growing up in segregated Emory Gap, Tennessee, where her grandfather bought all the schoolchildren new shoes every year. She details the cross-country trip that brought her to Las Vegas in 1994 and eventually to the AIA in 1995. The bulk of the interview focuses on the building where the AIA is housed and the history of the organization. In 2008 the AIA moved from its former home at UNLV’s School of Architecture to the historic Fifth Street School in downtown Las Vegas. Lavigne discusses the history of the building and its significance to the City of Las Vegas. She reveals plans to examine the architectural history Las Vegas to celebrate the AIA Chapter’s sixtieth anniversary. She also talks about diversity in the profession, the process of licensure, publications, continuing education, organizational records, and the now-defunct auxiliary organization, the Architects' Wives League.

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

On March 11, 1978, Sosuke Miyazawa interviewed Nanyu Tomiyasu (b. May 28, 1918 in Las Vegas, Nevada) about his family’s farm and their legacy as one of the pioneering families of the city. Tomiyasu begins by talking about what brought his family to Las Vegas, the city’s abundant water reservoir and his father’s farm. In particular, Tomiyasu discusses his father’s experiments with farming as one of the city’s early farmers, the transition into nursery farming and Japanese gardens. Moreover, he discusses his siblings, the local schools, their great quality, the successful students the city produced and the growth of school populations. Tomiyasu describes the large Japanese population and the Union Pacific Railroad that many of them worked on. He ends by discussing the change in architecture within the city, such as where old buildings stood and what they are used for now, the first Episcopal Church and the old Mormon Fort.

The interior of the green house at the end of the cul-de-sac envelops the visitor. Every room exudes comfort and encourages conversation even as the lake, lapping quietly on three sides of the house, beckons. Cindy Coletti revels in this house and its interiors, all of her own design, especially because they are so different from the daring, opulent, and award-winning custom homes for which she is known. Arriving in Las Vegas in 1988 as a single mother, Cindy immediately submitted a successful design for the first Southern Nevada Street of Dreams event and began networking. She established Sun West Custom Homes in Nevada by applying the design and contracting skills she had successfully honed by building nearly seventy houses in California, Florida, and Colorado—all the while grooming her son Danny—from the time he was in his teens—to eventually take over the company. In this interview, Cindy's husband, David Fordham, shares his background, his reasons for relocating to Las Vegas, work in commercial real estate, meeting Cindy, and living at The Lakes. Cindy then recalls the experiences that brought her to Las Vegas; shaped her ideas of self-help, friendship, design, and business, and instilled in her the confidence to succeed in a man's world. Cindy has retired from building and now enjoys traveling with her husband, but Sun West Custom Homes continues to thrive under the capable ownership and leadership of Daniel S. Coletti.