Sahara West Library and Fine Arts Museum: Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle, Ltd.(Learning in Las Vegas)

The design was influenced by several external and internal factors. Regional, civic, and site phenomena have informed the design of its articulated mass, compound spaces, and expressive details. Unique programmatic components, a response to the harsh climate and our representation of metaphorical and symbolic ideas, underlie the design of the building and its site.

The xeriscape-designed site is sculpted to raise and present the building and sculpture garden as a "front" on a plinth from the public side without being compromised by a parking lot (common in Las Vegas). On the north (or interior/back side) the site is hollowed to create a sheltered bowl for parked cars and is a spatial complement to the entry courtyard. The entry court creates a shared entry for the two institutional components and spatially rotates around a soaring children's storyhour room (reached by a bridge) that sets above a dark, cool grotto on the first floor. Appropriate public, shared functions (museum store, assembly hall, used book store, visiting artist studio, board meeting room, fine arts reading room) all gather around this center. The two institutions (library and museum) radiate out from it.

The library is essentially a two-story box holding "ridded stacks of books with animated features (vaulted reading room, private carrels, arced young peoples library) ...