Good House of the Week: Clark County, Nevada (Patreon)

Hello friends! I just realized I didn't post a good house of the week for this week's McMansion. Sorry for the late post. 

This is a first for GHOTW in that this house hasn't even been built yet! I'll be honest, it took a lot of work to find a half-way decent house in a place like Las Vegas, where speculation was so heavy before the recession that garbage went up at a rate of what seemed like a mile a minute.

What is encouraging is that building companies have started to take an interest in building more authentically in the local vernacular styles like Spanish Colonial Revival (which this house imitates) with varying degrees of success. Some imitations come off as cringey and patronizing, but this particular example seems more genuine. 

I can't harp enough on why window selection and consistency is so important. If the windows on this house were as inconsistent as they tended to be ten years ago, the house would be significantly less convincing. Also, the overall pitch of the roof is nice, even with the multiple hipped masses - because they are all the same low pitch, it creates an almost soothing horizontal architectural rhythm rather than an infuriating mess. I like the new trends in garage door design, where the garage door is more harmonious with the other exterior voids, as well as being of higher build quality. 

Vertical and horizontal rhythm is what gives this otherwise plain house its charm - the roofline and the windows on the second story complement each other, despite the material interruption of the stone entryway, which is trendy but not overwhelming. I also enjoy how the arched windows on the first floor continue into the entryway. 

Since this is a speculative build, there's no guarantee that the final product will end up looking like this highly-stylized rendering. However, it's encouraging to see more careful consideration for new houses in a place with a lot of fake stuccoed blight from 2005. Builders who take the time to make improvements in architectural consistency deserve to be praised, and this house is no exception. 

Link to listing.