Taking advantage of new City of Las Vegas office standards, the Planning Department renovated a portion of its space, providing updated workstations, replaced finishes, and included a new central work / break area to encourage a collaborative creative work environment.
The project also included designs for a new distinctive entry from the elevator lobby, feature reception area and conference room to be installed in a future phase. Construction was completed in late-2018 after I had left the company.
One of the joys of working at generalist architecture firm is the variety of projects, and Aptus was particularly blessed with a diverse batch of challenges.
Master plans included studies as prosaic as a phasing diagram and cost analysis for incremental renovations to a local fire station, to programing and schematic design for a large equipment manufacturer. We also worked on a new distillery entertainment complex, a stadium for the UNLV track team, and a new RV park resort.
None of these projects have entered into construction (yet), but each of them were opportunities to research, stretch, and dream.
This was a conversion of the first floor into a couple restaurants and a street entry lobby for the upper floors. The original building had been constructed as a department store and had undergone haphazard renovations over the decades.
This project included extensive structural repairs, a new utility services, the installation of a grease trap and mechanical shaft to support the new restaurants, and coordination with the tenant design team.
In one of those architectural twists of fate, my previous firm had been located on this floor in this building, so I experienced an odd moment of recognition seeing my old office in the midst of the demolition.
This off-campus building had been recently acquired by UNLV. A portion of the vacant space was renovated to house a robotics lab for the development of unmanned drones and humanoids.
This tenant improvement was fairly straightforward with a break room, workshops, office, conference space, and exterior facade.
However, the building needed to be brought up to modern code requirements. We worked with the Building Official to remedy non-compliant renovation work and infill the building with fire partitions to accommodate the current occupancy types.
The tenant improvement was a complete redesign of the U-shaped space. Along with selecting finishes, we negotiated mall design standards and coordinating the increased structural and electrical loads.
The project involved a collection of different millwork installations including a heavy object feature wall, deep adjustable shelves, luxury belt display, POS counter, backlit column surround highlighting small object, and locked glass cabinets.
The storefront was redesigned to accommodate a sliding glass wall, metal panel fabrication, and a turquoise logo feature.
I was a staff architect and project manager working on a wide range of commercial projects.
Tenant improvement projects included a recording studio, climbing gym, high end retail shop in a casino mall, and office renovation for the City of Las Vegas.
Core and shell projects included mixed use office renovation, adaptive reuse of an office tower podium, retail to restaurant conversion, code upgrades in a strip mall, and pool deck courtyards for two apartment complexes.
Master plans included a RV park, new production and retail campus for a distillery, university track facility, and corporate headquarters with large equipment manufacturing facility.
I worked on all phases of the design process, and assisted the principals in writing proposals and reviewing team processes.
I also worked with an talented and diligent team of interns. My tenure with Aptus was marked by an entry into a middle management role and I am particularly grateful for their patience as I journeyed through this transition.
