In The News: School of Architecture
During a record-breaking summer, experts suggest ways for Southern Nevada to beat the heat. According to officials from the National Weather Service, summer 2024 was the hottest on record in Southern Nevada. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials expect longer waves of intense heat to increase in frequency over time, with concrete areas remaining warm during warm triple-digit Southern Nevada nights.
I wasn’t actively looking for an earth-bermed home when I stumbled upon the property that would become our home, but my husband and I were searching for something that would allow us to live more sustainably and homestead with greater awareness of and integration with the natural world around me.
The Biden administration is taking unprecedented steps to address the rising heat in what many are already deeming the hottest year on record by releasing its National Heat Strategy, a 37-page strategy document outlining how the Administration will work with federal agencies and state and local governments to address the growing threat of extreme heat.
Mortgage defaults going up in Las Vegas, Red Rock stabbing unprovoked, suspect shot by security, ‘Wizard’ production would cost Sphere $80M and more on 7@7.
Each year, heat kills far more Americans than hurricanes, floods, tornadoes or the cold. When it’s hot, our hearts work hard to cool us, redirecting blood to the surface of our skin. But when nights are hot, our hearts don’t get a break, working on overdrive and depriving other organs of blood.
A new summer tradition has developed over the last few years: setting a new record for the hottest day on Earth. According to NASA, the high mark got bumped up twice already this year. The first new high came on July 21, and then pushed higher on July 22. It displaced the previous record, set in July 2023.
For the first time since records have been kept, Vegas hit 120 degrees this summer. That was just one day during the hottest June and July on record in the valley. During destructive natural events - like fires, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes - the president can declare a natural disaster area meaning federal dollars are immediately available for help. Senator Jacky Rosen wants extreme heat waves added to that list.
One-on-one interview with Steffen Lehmann, Professor of Architecture & Urbanism, 51ԹϺ.
Is Las Vegas prepared to last through future decades of extreme heat? Our roundtable panel discusses the impacts extreme heat has on infrastructure and the need to address urban heat islands. Representatives from Clark County, City of Las Vegas, and Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada share what entity is working on to face a warmer future.
"They’re living beings that come and go,” Lisa Ortega says, swaying slightly, full of kinetic energy. “And they’re misunderstood. They just can’t be the only answer.” She’s talking about trees, of course. Ortega is the executive director of Nevada Plants, a tree-planting nonprofit she founded in 2021. While environmentalists have long been stereotyped as “treehuggers,” we’ve come to learn that simple acts, such as planting trees, are part of a much broader network of solutions to a more complex set of problems.
If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a thousand times: older Americans overwhelmingly support aging in place in their own homes, with some recent survey data indicating at or over 90% of seniors supporting retirement living in their own homes.
The battle for Red Rock Canyon is lost. The national conservation area is still there, still breathtaking, still red—but it’s increasingly hemmed in by encroaching urban sprawl. It’s tempting to pin the blame on developer Jim Rhodes—who, owing to a protracted legal battle and some unforced errors by the Clark County Commission, now has the go-ahead to build 3,500 homes on the site of a former gypsum mine near Blue Diamond, which is just under nine miles away from Red Rock’s visitor center. But the melancholy truth is that we lost Red Rock several years ago, when nearby Bonnie Springs Ranch—seven miles down the road—was leveled to make way for a luxury gated housing development.