Desert Oasis
by Jeremy Schoolfield
 As general curator of the new $250 million Las Vegas Springs Preserve, Jay Nichols is asked all the time to distill the sprawling 180 -acre facility into a sound bite, using the proverbial “25 words or less.”
The preserve opened in June 2007, so he’s been working on an all-encompassing definition for a little while now without much success. How to explain an attraction where in a few steps visitors can go from a botanical garden to a museum to a children’s learning center, then take a detour on a mile-long hiking trail to look for endangered species?
“Most of the people who come here are wowed by what they see. It’s an unexpected experience,” Nichols says. “But there’s no good explanation for us, because we have such a diverse campus of activities. It’s a tough description.”
Here’s a try: The Springs Preserve is an educational and cultural center celebrating how Las Vegas came to be and demonstrating sustainable living practices to ensure its future (that’s 25, on the nose). Put more simply, Nichols hopes the preserve can become a Las Vegas version of New York City’s Central Park.
“It’s an oasis in the desert,” agrees Dave Piper of Orlando’s Sparks Exhibits & Environments, which fabricated and installed the preserve’s Desert Living Center gallery. “It’s this lush, beautiful garden spot, and it’s very restful compared to the other entertainment options in the area. It’s unlike any other project we’ve worked on. Las Vegas has world-class attractions, and this is a world-class attraction. ”
“It’s a great addition to the slate of spectacular attractions we have in Las Vegas—of course, it’s very different,” says Erika Pope, spokesperson for the Las Vegas Convention and Tourism Authority. “I would rank this among [the best] educational museums that I’ve been to in other major metropolitan areas.”
Indeed, everything about the preserve is absolutely top-notch, which should come as no surprise given Nichols’ pedigree. He’s been in the exhibit design business for a quarter century, traveling all around the world to work on spaces for zoos, aquariums, museums, science centers, and theme parks (including several projects for The Walt Disney Company
and Busch Entertainment); he even helped roll out the first wave of Apple stores for Steve Jobs.
But after seeing and doing it all in the industry, Nichols, a Missouri native, seems to have finally found a home in Las Vegas at the Springs Preserve, a place he says is “head and shoulders above anything I’ve worked on before.”
“This project exemplifies the core values I have about the way I want to live my life,” he says. “It called out to me, and it’s so different from anything else I’ve ever done.”
And certainly different from anything else in Las Vegas, as you’ll see.
History: Vegas, We Never KnewYou
The Springs Preserve’s initial $250 million budget came from multiple sources, including the Las Vegas Valley Water District as well as donations from foundations, corporations, and individuals. The new facility is built on the site of the original springs, just a couple miles off the famous Las Vegas Strip. The land, owned by the water district, is listed on the
 National Register of Historic Places because it served as the area’s natural freshwater source before drying up in the 1960s. For thousands of years, the preserve was literally an oasis in the middle of the Mojave Desert; it’s credited with drawing Native Americans, European explorers, American settlers, and, eventually, the Union Pacific Railroad, which in turn led to the founding of the original Las Vegas town site in 1905. Bottom line: “Without the springs, there probably wouldn’t be a city here,” Nichols says.
The preserve’s historical importance is emphasized in the Origen Experience, one of two gorgeous interactive exhibit galleries on the property (for a full list of attractions, see “Things to See and Do at the Springs Preserve” ). Here visitors can see a replica of the original spring mound (complete with animal sound effects) and dig for fossils at its base. Other exhibits demonstrate how and why the various people groups came to the preserve over the centuries; one particularly engaging piece recreates a life-size train car where prospectors talk about their big dreams for the new territory.
“[The preserve] has captured that immersive environment and steered clear of the typical museum,” says Bill Nassal of The Nassal Company in Orlando, lead fabrication contractor for the preserve. “They’ve recognized that they’re competing for the entertainment dollar. If they want a family to come out and spend a day, they need to offer more than a case with an artifact in it.”
Message: The Sustainable Lifestyle
The Origen Experience demonstrates the Springs Preserve’s overriding message, Nichols says: the importance of water and how that precious resource must be respected and maintained. Origen also provides a perfect segue to discuss other environmental issues over in the five-building Desert Living Center complex. Here the center of attention is the Sustainability Gallery, a series of entertaining interactive exhibits promoting the preserve’s overall conservation message (for more, see “LEED-ing the Way in Sustainability” on p. 34).
 A Toyota Prius hybrid vehicle is parked inside, its windows filled with signage describing how the electric/gas-powered car works and how it requires less fuel to run (a clear plastic hood allows a great look at the unique dual engine). Elsewhere, the “Sustainable House” exhibit creates a replica domicile inside the gallery, demonstrating alternative construction and home décor methods. Some of the suggestions presented include bathroom tile made of 55 percent recycled glass; carpeting made from recycled soda bottles; energy-efficient lightbulbs; and much more. Visitors can then walk over to the Design Lab, outfitted with all the resources necessary to take what they learned in the gallery and put it into real-world practice in their own homes.
“We wanted to make sure anything we did would appeal to everybody on some level,” Nichols says. “It was important to us to deliver a message, but deliver it in a fun way.”
“People can see themselves in that story,” says Sparks Exhibits’ Piper. “The messaging is so clear: Here’s what you can do to make a difference. It shows you all of these practical solutions that you can bring into your home. You don’t have to build your domicile from the ground up for these things to work.”
“All we ask is that they think about sustainability and how they live their lives. We’re not suggesting anybody change drastically and live underground in a hole so they don’t use any electricity,” Nichols adds with a chuckle. “Any little thing you can do, it has a global effect. When 6 billion people get together and make a noise at the same time, it’s going to be a loud noise.”
Marketing: Cutting Through the Clutter
You know what else creates a loud noise? The Las Vegas Strip, with its giant hotels, massive billboards, and entertainment options of seemingly endless variety. As the Springs Preserve heads into its second year of operation, it’s up to Nichols and his staff to figure out ways to better cut through the sensory overload and start drawing people off the Strip and out to their beautiful buried treasure.
There are approximately 40 million visitors to Las Vegas annually, and Nichols says preserve officials assumed they’d get a chunk of those people just by opening the doors.
It didn’t quite work out that way.
“We’re still learning,” Nichols says. “We thought we’d somehow automatically get a bigger bite out of those 40 million.”
As it turns out, initial attendance figures showed 98 percent of visitors were locals—a pleasant surprise for preserve officials, to be sure, but disappointing in that more out-of-towners weren’t coming over. By December, that ratio improved to about 90 percent locals, 10 percent tourists.
 So while initial attendance projections have been revised, Nichols says growth is steady and he expects to get close to those original goals by the end of the preserve’s second year. Part of the difficulty, he says, comes back to that “25 words or less” problem: There are ads for the attraction all over the Strip on billboards, cabs, buses, etc., but “they say ‘Springs Preserve,’ and nobody understands what that is.” His staff has “a couple of things cooking with some of the big hotels” to help draw more tourists, but he isn’t able to divulge details at press time. Suffice to say, the preserve is devising plans to have transportation from the Strip to the preserve, as well as some ticket-packaging deals. “We have some plans to make a presence on the Strip,” Nichols says. (For information on how the Springs Preserve is helping change the cultural landscape of Las Vegas, see sidebar on p. 32.)
“That museum offers more culture to Las Vegas than what [the city] has stereotypically been sold as,” Nassal says. “Not only is it going to pull some of the clientele off the Strip, but the locals have a place to go—they could spend two days out there and not get through it all.”
One thing that will certainly help is the opening of the new Nevada State Museum, tentatively scheduled to open this winter or early 2009. This “inter-local agreement,” as Nichols calls it, between the water district and the state government should be beneficial to both sides; the state museum is moving into a brand-new building on the preserve property twice the size of its original facility, while the Springs Preserve receives yet one more reason for visitors to drop by.
“Our big concern is that we don’t lose sight of our message and our activity. We don’t want to become lackadaisical or go through the motions and figure we’re good enough as we are,” Nichols says. “In the time that I’ve been involved in museum work, I’ve never seen anything like this. I love coming to work here, to be in this place in the middle of a city like Las Vegas. I love being able to look out the windows and see the casinos. It gives me a chuckle to be on 180 acres of wilderness in the middle of town.”
Things to See and Do at the Springs Preserve
The Las Vegas Springs Preserve offers such a diverse range of activities and educational opportunities it can be challenging to get a handle on them all. Here’s a look at the wide array of elements that combine to make up one of
Las Vegas’ most unusual new attractions.
 Origen Experience
Comprised of three historic museum galleries featuring a plethora of eye catching and interactive exhibits, Origen tells the LasVegas story you’ve never heard, starting with the Native Americans of millennia past through the rail road employees who founded the town in 1905.
Exhibit Highlight: A flash flood scene roars to life every few minutes as a warning to those traveling the desert during a rainstorm.
 Desert Living Center
A five building complex that houses the Sustainability Gallery demonstrating environmentally efficient con struction techniques, as well as a working architectural Design Lab to help implement those principles in current
construction projects. Also included is the Nature Exchange, a 250 seat amphitheater, meeting rooms and classrooms, and much more.
What’s a ‘Nature Exchange’? This program allows chil dren to “trade” items found in nature as if they’re baseball cards. Kids bring in common items they’ve collected (pine cones, shells, rocks, etc.) and exchange them for more unusual items from the preserve’s collection. “The main focus is to get kids involved with nature and, therefore, science,” says General Curator Jay Nichols.
 Nature Trails
Upon completion, the preserve will feature approxi mately 2.6 miles of trails winding through its 180 acre grounds. Along the way, visitors can investigate historic and archaeological sites, keep a sharp eye out for endan gered species, or just enjoy the scenery.
Nothing Like the Real Thing: The Spring Mound Trail gives visitors a view of a 10,000 year old spring mound, one of the few remaining in the Las Vegas Valley.
The Cienega
A re-created desert wetland that borders the trails and serves as a tranquil home for hundreds of native plant, bird, and animal species.
A Look Back: This lush section of the preserve demon strates what the entire site looked like before the springs dried up in the 1960s.
 Botanical Gardens
An eight acre section of the preserve features thousands of native and drought tolerant plants, outdoor classroom areas, and an outdoor cooking demonstration site.
Paging Dr. Greenthumb: The gar dens feature a station where a gar dening expert is available to answer visitors’ questions about maintain ing their own back yards.
Springs Amphitheater
Located in the center of the facility, this 1,800 seat open air venue allows for seasonal concerts under the stars.
Previously Onstage: Singer/songwriter Jewel was the amphitheater’s inaugural performer.
Children’s Playground
Resembling a desert canyon, this area features oversized wildlife replicas such as a peregrine falcon, the skeleton of a wooly mammoth, and a 50 foot long sidewinder snake.
 Nevada State Museum
Scheduled to open this winter or in early spring 2009, this long standing Las Vegas community attraction is relocat ing to the preserve and will become an integral part of the overall attraction. The museum offers interpretive and interactive exhibits spanning Nevada state history, which will complement the more natural history experience cur rently offered by the preserve.
Partnership: Though the Springs Preserve allowed the state museum to build on its site and the two facilities will both be included in the price of admission, they will still be operated separately.
- Jeremy Schoolfield
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The Springs Preserve and the Las Vegas Cultural Evolution
The Springs Preserve appears to be at the front end of a
new cultural wave breaking on Las Vegas.The city is “a lit
tle starved for cultural activities,” says Jay Nichols, general curator of the preserve, and he believes his facility provides
some counter programming to the glitz and glamour people
expect from the Strip.
“We just passed the 2 million mark [in population], and
there’s increasing demand for cultural outlets like the Springs
Preserve,” agrees Erika Pope, spokesperson for the LasVegas Convention and Visitors Authority. “It’s an evolution, and the
sophistication of our visitors and our residents is increasing.”
This trend has been on display for the past few years in
casino design alone, as properties such as the Ferrari red
Wynn Las Vegas resort or MGM Mirage’s massive CityCenter complex (currently under construction) exude nothing
but clean lines, style, and class. Pope says that trend has
spilled over into the types of activities the city’s 40 million
visitors are looking for, as well.
Here are a few projects open now or on the horizon that
appeal to the new, sophisticated Las Vegas tourist:
- Formed in 1972, theVegas-based Nevada BalletTheatre (www.nevadaballet.com) is now the largest ballet company
and dance academy in the state. Focused on training, performance, and education, the NBT will be a resident company starting in 2011 at the newSmith Center for the Performing Arts (see below).
- The Las Vegas Philharmonic (www.lasvegasphilharmonic.com) debuted in July 1998 and is now the third
largest arts organization in the state.The classical music
group plays several series each year as well as perform
ing at special events.The philharmonic also provides children’s educational programs, and the group will become
another resident performer at the new Smith Center.
- The Las Vegas Art Museum (www.lasvegasartmuseum.org) will close in June so it can move to a new
100,000 square foot facility on East Sunset Road off the
south end of the Strip. The new location, scheduled to
open Sept. 26, 2009, will be the city’s first full service visual arts institution. It will include 30,000 square feet of
exhibit space, 7,000 square feet of educational space, and
a large lecture hall/event center, among other amenities.
- The Las Vegas cultural scene will be forever changed in
2011 when the $250 million Smith Center for the Per
forming Arts (www.lvpacfoundation.org) opens downtown.
The three-theater complex will include a
Broadway-caliber main hall with seating for 2,000 people.
The centerwill also feature an extensive educational program that will work in conjunction with the local school district.
- Jeremy Schoolfield |
LEED-ing the Way in Sustainability
The Las Vegas Springs Preserve built seven new “green” buildings as part of its $250 million project, holding itself to the highest environmental standards as determined by the United States Green Building Council. As a result, the pre serve will be the first attraction in the country to achieve “platinum” (i.e., highest) status according to the council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification program (www.usgbc.org).
“The LEED system is a way of measuring how energy efficient and green your buildings are,” says Jay Nichols, the preserve’s general curator. “To achieve platinum level, we’re doing about twice what it takes to earn a standard certification.”
 Though the term “LEED” may be unfamiliar to the gen eral populace right now, it probably won’t be for much longer. Nichols says he’s “seeing an exponential increase in the number of LEED certified green buildings that are going under construction now. Five years ago, it was not very well known 10 years ago it was virtually unknown. It took awhile to catch on, but now with the news media put ting green issues and climate change [on the forefront], it’s combining to make people aware that we need to be doing things differently.
“You have to change the way you think and educate yourself to cope with the changing society,” Nichols contin ues. “The way we live has to change for us to sustain our lives and our lifestyles. We need to be able to adapt and live our lives in a different method so we can sustain soci ety in the way we want it to be.”
Here are a few ways the Springs Preserve implemented elements of the LEED requirements into its facility:
Design Elements
Buildings are positioned to make the most of natural light ing, collect solar power, and take advantage of natural ven tilation and interior climate control. Certain roofs also help collect rainwater for reuse.
Reused Materials
Reclaimed timber and salvaged wood were used in con struction throughout the Desert Living Center complex. Carpet was made from recycled plastic bottles and corn husks, furnishings are from recycled sunflower seed husks, and countertops came from recycled paper. Reclaimed steel and glass were also used extensively throughout.
Sustainable Materials
Two buildings in the Desert Living Center, which total more than 41,000 square feet of space, make up the largest com mercial straw bale construction project in the United States.
Operations
Water used at the preserve is filtered and reused to irrigate plants and flush toilets, while solar panels throughout the site generate power for approximately 70 percent of the preserve’s attractions.
- Jeremy Schoolfield
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