Hospitality Design Graduate Student Capstones

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About the Collection

At the UNLV School of Architecture, Master of Architecture students who elect the Hospitality Design (HD) Concentration are immersed in the unique challenges and opportunities of designing for the global experience economy.

Every year, each emerging professional in the HD studio produces a design thesis book chronicling their research, design processes, and architectural outcomes. The works are developed under the guidance of Associate Professor Glenn NP Nowak, AIA, and are informed by the constructive criticisms of numerous faculty and countless industry professionals to whom the School of Architecture is sincerely grateful. Las Vegas has attracted architectural researchers for over half a century, and the continued strength of academic inquiry within the field is credited, in large part, to the graduates of the Hospitality Design Concentration. The beginnings of this collection showcase the benefits of studying hospitality design while embedded in the entertainment capital of the world. The opportunities provided by learning from Las Vegas are compounded when the city becomes an extension of the classroom and design research questions truly become an extension of the city.

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Hybrid Hospitality

John Gassaway
5-15-2020
In order to understand the proposed coupled system, there must be an understanding of each component and how optimal performance of the system depends on sustainable architectural design. The basics of each component, a brief history and applicable case studies will be explained and presented starting with ground source thermal loops and then thermal mass (concrete walls). This will be followed by a more detailed explanation of how the components couple to form a functioning energy efficient system, how research can prove energy efficiency and how architectural design concepts can merge to influence sustainable hospitality design.
The Impact of The Autonomous Vehicles In the Integrated Resort

Chester Gaudiel
5-15-2020
The study delves into three main properties in The Strip. Bellagio, Caesar's Palace, and The City Center. These areas of study looked into the possibilities of incorporating an autonomous vehicle system in multiple scenarios. Each study was analyzed individually in hopes to develop claims based on the observations made in each property.
Module

Jin Lee
5-15-2020
Las Vegas is the place where every famous iconic building is in the same place. The tourists don't have to go to every iconic building in the world to experience. In Las Vegas, they can experience it through iconic hotels such as Luxor, Wynn, Caesars Palace, etc. They have great interior and exterior designs. But, the problem of these buildings doesn't accommodate a place for quick changes. In other words, their design is the static form which requires a lot of time to change. The big portion of the building needs to be stopped for new renovations.
An Alternative Approach To Food Market Design Strategies That Nurture Human Health and Well-Being

Kendall Marsh
5-15-2020
Access to food is being implemented in newer and more convenient forms now more than ever before. However, many of the methods that people utilize to purchase food may have substantial adverse health effects. Markets were once centered around a direct exchange of locally grown food and intimate social gatherings. Major developments like the industrialization of agriculture, rapid urbanization, and technological advancements introduced a shift in food market settings. Redefining the design of the market environment can transform a routine task into a valuable experience that nurtures human health and well-being.
Designing A Non Conventional Philosophy of Punishment: Rehabilitation and Reintegration of Young Offenders

Paola Ortiz
5-15-2020
Architecture is one of the few disciplines that sends a silent message to everyone walking into any space. Design is crucial to create specific environments, but when it comes to a prison design, the concept is restricted. Design for prisons, jails, and juvenile corrections are more focused on cost and security, than humanity and hospitality related principles. Access to natural light is a luxury, windows are expensive, and the standardized colors used on their walls are far too depressing.
Global Change Through An Integrated Resort: Healthy Spaces That Positively Affect Our Health, Community, and The Environment

Iwona Reducha
5-15-2020
Integrated Resorts (IRs) play a significant role in countries' economics, health, and environment around the world. These large mini "cities" help create thousands of jobs and can sustain themselves solely on tourism. The scale of an integrated resort also puts its effect on the environment at three to four times higher than most other building projects. Spreading beyond the boundaries of the famous Las Vegas Strip, each year more permits are being issued for their construction globally opening up a huge opportunity to reinvent its archetype to allow for a more sustainable and health conscious design.
[In]Hospitable

Pedro Borquez and Taylor Wolak
5-15-2019
Through comparative analysis of existing development in this region, this project identifies archetypes of ranging scale and magnitude which will influence evidence-based adaptive reuse design strategies and prototypical responses. With such a vast infrastructure, many opportunities exist to subvert paradigm shifts of thinking in terms of desert living, resource management, and utility distribution.
Artscape

Emylanie Carnate and Ronald Cano
5-15-2019
In this thesis, three design opportunities are presented. The first design iteration looks at the micro scale. Public infrastructure along the length of the strip serves as canvases for public art. By expressing art on posts, utility boxes, guardrails, and bollards, a consistent rhythm of public art along the strip links together the separated attractions and properties. To emphasize this connection, the second design iteration implements intermittent hooks. Here, the meso scale reinforces public art interventions on medium-scale sites, such as street medians. The third design iteration is in the macro scale, which involves artscape anchors at either end of the strip. The south anchor proposes a memorial for the tragic October 1 shooting, while the north anchor proposes a sculpture park as a foothold for future projects in the surrounding context. The combination of these three design iterations at their different scales will provide the strip with a sense of unity and community that engages people with the environment in meaningful ways.
Hospitality Design Pattern Language

Tracy Hang
5-15-2019
The Strip is a destination location where visitors can experience the uniqueness that each integrated resort has to offer. This thesis argues that the design of all aspects within and around an integrated resort influences guest experience and is a major contributor to creating the uniqueness of each property. The intent for the exploration of this thesis is to prove that the compilation and documentation of the patterns specific to hospitality design is necessary in becoming a design tool to guide designers and hoteliers in the development and management of this specific typology.

Three tasks were performed within the application of this study in order to discern and analyze how the design of integrated resorts can enhance guest experience and aid in the expression of a resort’s identity. The first task includes the analysis of design patterns that currently exist within and around all the integrated resorts on the Strip. The patterns were identified through the process of walking the Strip and on-site observations of public functions within each property.

The second task consists of the documentation and review of the patterns found in task one. This involved distilling overarching patterns through a process of elimination by the comparison of recurring patterns found between multiple resorts as well as patterns referenced in Christopher Alexander’s A Pattern Language.

The final task presents the articulation of the language within the context of specific properties on the Strip in order to facilitate the conversations between architects and individuals within the hospitality industry.
Typology of Stigma

Silvia Flor Quiroz-Perez
5-15-2019
This study begins with an analysis of the proposed site and campus of what is being called the “Corridor of Hope” in Las Vegas. Followed by an analysis of “Haven for Hope” in Texas which is a built campus that is being used as a model for what the “Corridor of Hope” will become.

This base analysis of the proposed campus will be used to compare and contrast with other typologies of shelters that exist.

In order to better understand the homeless population in and around the Las Vegas valley, an initial demographic analysis is done, followed by a geographical and ethnographic study. This study allows for a better understanding of the diverse types of homeless situations and sets a framework for understanding what the needs are of each type of homeless in the Vegas valley.

Shelter typologies and their sites are analyzed to understand whether they fully accommodate the diverse populations within the homeless community and whether they perpetuate social stigma. The program ratios, spatial relations, materiality, color and other urban theories of design will be used to analyze these typologies. This analysis will facilitate a comparison between typologies and of “Haven for Hope”. Once there is a better understanding of the current accommodations and of the different groups in the homeless community, the Las Vegas area can be analyzed and compared to the areas from all the shelters studied. This is an attempt to better understand the demographics of Las Vegas and why existing shelters, health clinics, and government housing are located in speciﬁc areas. This analysis will begin to answer whether these locations are the most beneﬁcial for society and whether the stigma of shelters can be better addressed by, placing them in areas that may have been socially unacceptable, a change of site and/or architectural layout, etc.

From the studies conducted, the typologies that were the most successful will begin to inform what type of program, sites, and size of shelters work best. But also show, what accommodations are needed to better serve the diversity in the homeless population allowing for different typologies of shelters to be formed to improve and de-stigmatize shelters.
AER-075

Yasmin Soliman
5-15-2019
Anticipating the potential future changes of airport design and expansion along with city planning for the purpose of bringing the two entities in closer alignment with one another is the main purpose of this book.

By conducting a timeline analysis of five different US cities and their airports, conclusions were drawn from tracking the relationship between the growth patterns of both. This allowed for a discovery of methods to increase connectivity with one another. These conclusions were followed by an overview of the jet industry and its possible future impacts on the way airports are designed, considering future adaptations of airports to new design and technology concepts in aerospace.

The concept of ”integration through fragmentation” is explored in the final two chapters. Architectural fragmentations of airport programs and their integration into urban design/planning were applied to three cities - from the five previously selected- in order to; give readers a closer vision and understanding of how the concept might work. Possible variations of “fragmentation” design decisions were simulated in response to each city’s driving forces.

The application time of the proposed concept considered by this book is the year 2075, the ideas consider a long-range of planning and work with a mixture of hard data and hypothetical scenarios.

This project predicts that by 2075, new building, security and aircraft technologies will enable a fragmenting of airport programs and a reintegration of them with city future master plans to simultaneously address the needs of both cities and airports.
The Appendix

Nasko Balaktchiev
5-15-2018
This is the story of a building. The goal of this paper is to inspire citizens to take greater action in their built environment to help determine its form being demolished. The conclusion about Las Vegas identity is up to the reader to decide if it's valid or not.
The Strip Reimagined: Accommodating Esports In Everything From Ballrooms To Guestrooms

Edrick Ferreras
5-15-2018
From lobby to guestroom, esports has the potential to provide visitors with an authentic gaming experience through flexible design, connectivity, and community. It has the capability to go beyond just the ballroom of the resort and impact all aspects of design.
Integrated Stadium Design

Nolberto Fu
5-15-2018
Several stadiums today surround themselves with hundreds of acres of parking. The Los Angeles Dodger Stadium for example, takes up over 17 million sq ft (400 acres) of parking space. That is roughly the size of Grand Central Station. This inefficient use of space creates a disconnect between the stadium and the city. In an attempt to avoid this disconnect from the city, the stadium must: Activate the stadiums street front and surrounding context, provide multiple programmatic functions for daily interactions and blur the lines between stadium and community.
From Envelope T Skin Exploration of The Facade As A Synthetic Organic Material

Eduardo Gonzalez
5-15-2018
Building facades comprise a large area of unexplored potential. Facades present large surface footprints in the archetype of the high-rise and tower buildings; which, if properly designed, can benefit from the direct contact to the sun, light, wind, and water to solve multiple energy and environmental issues at different levels.
Food, Culture, Architecture, Lighting

Jeannie Kim
5-15-2018
In this study, I benefit from food as an interpretation of culture. Food is the most inspirational element of culture due to the emotional connections, a sense of belonging and ethic pride found in food. Food is important for our nutrition, but also has important cultural and symbolic meanings that make it more than what is on our plates. My childhood memories of traveling are mostly associated with the dining experience. Food is the most familiar way to interpret culture because it is highly associated with memories and experiences.
Retail Revolution: E-Commerce Effects On Retail & Hospitality Architecture

Kylie Kircher
5-15-2018
As many economic markets change with the innovation of technology, Physical spaces are transforming to adjust to people's wants and needs. The purpose of this research is to provide insight and solutions to e-commerce effects on retail and hospitality architecture. This book contains an exploratory study on the evolution of retail spaces by considering historical information, analyzing and assessing case studies, and identifying the gaps and opportunities in the shifting world of retail design.
Integrated Aesthetic Aquaponic Systems into Las Vegas Resorts

Bryce Shintaku
5-15-2018
Las Vegas' resort properties are constantly looking for innovative ways to generate revenue and increase guest experience for their property. With a steady increase in annual visitors, there will be a subsequent growth in food consumption. Las Vegas casino properties currently obtain a majority of their food from other states and countries. The purpose of this research is to illustrate how Las Vegas casinos can utilize a sustainable on-site agricultural practice for more than just food production.
Man Vs Car: The Ultimate Clash Designing A Safer Walking Experience For Las Vegas Pedestrians

Jenn Wong
5-15-2018
The car has become a common weapon of choice for terrorists and others hoping to do harm to unsuspecting pedestrians. There is a pressing need for the development of effective, preventive design strategies to stop vehicular attacks before they cause pedestrian fatalities. Vehicular violence has broader consequences beyond the pedestrians directly involved in specific incidents. The fear created by vehicular attacks undermines public trust and unity, resulting in harm that is less obvious than the immediate casualties, but is just as damaging. Is it possible to design the fear away? Do street safety devices enhance pedestrians feelings of safety?