Denise Willer 'Where There's a Willer There's a Way' Las Vegas

If you have any free time or any skilled trade abilites related to building a home, Habitat for Humanity of Las Vegas is in dire need of volunteers.

The jobsite needs workers in closed-toe shoes, hats, sunscreen and sunglasses to help out every Tuesday through Friday.

They also have the ReStore, where you can get discount appliances and other items for your home. Proceeds benefit the home-building projects.

If you would like to sign up for the ReStore or the jobsite, please visit Habitat's website:

http://www.habitatlasvegas.org

Happy House Hunting!

Habitat for Humanity of Las Vegas is in need of construction site volunteers every Tuesday -Friday from 7:30am to 2:30pm. They have numerous projects that they need help with so that their annual "Home for the Holidays" event is a success!

Please visit their website for the liability waiver and the calendar to see what's available. If you have closed toe shoes, some sunscreen and helping hands, they can use you! If you can paint, you can help!

If you have previous construction experience in any facet of home building, please, please try to find some time in your busy life to help them out! All good deeds come back to you.

Habitat for Humanity Las Vegas website: http://www.habitatlasvegas.org

Give a little, get a little peace in your heart, a little hope to someone else. It's not the holidays yet, but they are soon upon us. Pay your dues now.

I can feel it in the air. Last night was gorgeous. The heat's "edge" has died down and right now's the "dog days" as far as I'm concerned. Fall is my absolute FAVORITE time of year.

It will be here in just 20 days!

Las Vegas Valley Water District wants you to change your clocks now, though.

Mandatory watering restrictions have been adjusted to just three days a week for fall, you can go to http://www.changeyourclock.com to see what days you are scheduled to water.

They have a great commercial of a mid-40's man whooping it up in someone's grassy front lawn, wearing just a speedo, hollering and rolling around in the sprinklers like little kids do! Then it says "Don't make us ask you again" You can view the commericals on their website as well.

So change your clocks, get out your harvest decor and don't forget to bust out that American flag on Patriot Day next Thursday, the 11th.

Happy, happy fall!

Las Vegas has one of the BEST mayors in the US!

Mayor Oscar Goodman, a former mob attorney, has been our mayor since 1999 - he is serving his third and final term and I think the city will be very sad to see him go come 2011.

Mayor Goodman portrayed himself in the movie Casino, proclaims himself to be "The Happiest Mayor in the Universe" and has proven his love of Las Vegas by his driven, continued investment in our great city.

The region of "Las Vegas Proper" was becoming run down and during Mr. Goodman's term, has seen a huge revitalization in the downtown region, including the revamping of Fremont Street; the original "Strip", and the tremendous projects underway in Union Park, including the Lou Ruvo Brain Center, The Smith Center for the Performing Arts, as well as The World Market Design Center and Showrooms, The World Jewelry Center, oh the list goes on!

Some residential areas that I am passionate about, like the John S. Park District, have become historic districts in the last few years during Mayor Goodman's presence.

Las Vegas proper will absolutely miss this man who has given so much to one little city in the desert. I hope his successor will bring just as much passion for Las Vegas to the table.

Have a great day! It's sunny and toasty in Las Vegas!

This is a group I believe strongly in, ATOMIC AGE ALLIANCE in Las Vegas

Celebrating Mid-Century Design and Architecture

As of this week, Maude Frazier Hall on the University of Nevada, Las Vegas is surrounded by chain link fence. UNLV in the face of highly publicized budgetary cutbacks wants to waste more money by tearing down its first historic building and plant a lawn in the desert.

College officials keep reporting that the building will cost too much to renovate, but as of this date no financial feasibility study has ever been made public.

Scarce Las Vegas History

Frazier Hall (1957) qualifies on numerous counts for National Register Status. The pickings for such an honor in Las Vegas are incredibly slim. Maude Frasier Hall was built by an award winning architecture firm, Zick and Sharp, who have few buildings left standing. It was dedicated to a pioneering woman, Maude Frazier, the first female Lieutenant Governor of Nevada and the person responsible for bringing educational facilities to Southern Nevada. And finally, it is the first and oldest building on a State University campus.

In some strange way, it seems oddly understandable that Las Vegas reinvents the Strip with demolitions. But for a city with no overwhelming evidence of its past, to tamper with its educational heritage is plain perverted. It certainly sets UNLV apart from almost every other respected major educational institution in the country.

The nation is full of universities proud to flaunt their first buildings, knowing it engenders a prestige that nothing new can ever bestow.

In November 2007 the Clark County Planning Commission voted unanimously to preserve Maude Frazier Hall. A majority of university regents showed support for looking at the possibility of preserving Maude Frazier Hall. The Atomic Age Alliance online petition showed overwhelming local and nationwide support for this building.

Yet before the year is over, UNLV will demolish its first building to put in grass and an arch? Something doesn't add up.

Ivy League History by Comparison

At Harvard, oldest institution of higher learning in the , the university president has his offices in Massachusetts Hall (1720). Founding fathers who walked through Massachusetts Hall include John Adams, John Hancock and Samuel Adams. One may ask, what notable Las Vegas citizens walked through the halls of Maude Frazier over the past fifty years?

At Yale the oldest building on campus, Connecticut Hall (1750), was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1965. Princeton honors its oldest building on campus, Nassau Hall (1756) by making it the central administrative building. Cornell University's simple but elegant oldest buildings located on the Arts Quad are affectionately known as Stone Row. Columbia puts its first building, Earl Hall (1902) to use as the spiritual headquarters of campus!

And lastly, the City of Brotherly Love knows how to love its history, not lose it. The University of Pennsylvania relocated College Hall (1873) and listed it on the National Register in 1978. The University of Pennsylvania president also chooses this building for his offices. A far cry from UNLV President David B. Ashley, who, although it was within his rights to do so, was not even willing to review the master campus plan to demolish the first UNLV building drawn up years before he took the job. Something doesn't add up.

Campus and Identity

Historic university buildings are revered not just on Ivy League campuses. Stanford University, preserved what it could of the original 1891 quad as part of its core identity.

When University of Southern California underwent a landscape transformation in 2001, the resulting Hoover Corridor includes a pedestrian mall, green space and a landscaped garden court adjacent to the very first building on campus, the 1880 Widney Alumni House, a California landmark, which was not demolished, but moved to accommodate the new campus plan.

And not all universities have the advantage of being 200 years old. The 1949 International Modern Style Merrick Building on University of Florida, Miami's campus is preserved and the Anthropology Department resides there now!

Whereas Ivy League schools honor their history, UNLV President David Ashley and Regent Chair Michael Wixom are willing to trash it without a second thought. They do not care to showcase UNLV a context that will last beyond today's instant gratification. They prefer to teach their students that culture is disposable and history is unimportant. They also don't mind future UNLV donors knowing that whatever legacy they bequest to UNLV may be gone in 40 or 50 years.

Sustainability

In light of the global warming world we live in, the "green" thing to do would be to reassess the plan and consider how to adaptively reuse existing buildings.

The Atomic Age Alliance put together an adaptive reuse plan for the University that was never responded to. http://www.vegastodayandtomorrow.com/maudefrazier.htm

Adaptive reuse is not the expensive proposition that it is made out to be by some college officials. And besides, where is the restoration financial feasibility study?

On November 29 and 30, 2007, The Board of Regents addressed this issue (items 18 and 19 on their agenda) and VOTED that Dr. Ashley should form a task force to look into the future historical preservation of buildings on campus. As far as we know, this has never happened. Something does not add up.

Private Benefit from Civic Demolition

ALL that exists to promote demolition is an out-of-date Midtown plan from 2004 submitted by Michael Saltman and the Vista Group who own the property directly across the street on Maryland Parkway. They believe their private property will benefit from the demolition of Maude Frazier Hall.

What adds up? Saltman is on the UNLV Foundation Board of Trustees and has donated millions to the university.

UNLV proves that it does not care about spending money they supposedly don't have. UNLV proves it does not care about its surrounding community's sustainability. And UNLV proves it does not plan to be in the big leagues with its cavalier attitude towards its own history.

Mary-Margaret Stratton
Executive Director, Atomic Age Alliance