When development firm Blue Heron set out to create their one-of-kind residential showpiece, Vegas Modern 001, or VM001 for short, the goal was to stretch the boundaries of design and create an immersive experience that embraced both the natural and human-made worlds.
“We like to think about the home as being appropriate to our time and place, our culture and the technology that's available,” says Founder and CEO Tyler Jones. “And so there's an energy and spirit that comes from the city … so we're talking about digital media and this playful kind of vibe that we have in some big dramatic moments.”
These dramatic moments, which include a two-story atrium with multi-slide glass doors that retract at the touch of a button, a 2000+ square foot reflecting pool, and a suite with expansive floor-to-ceiling glass walls, required ingenuity, expertise, and a willingness to push the boundaries. Large expanses of glass combined with automation completely open the home up at the touch of a button, leaving the entire space feeling like an open-air pavilion surrounded by pools of water.
The partnership between the Blue Heron design team, door and window manufacturer Western Window Systems, Summit Automation, and dealer Custom Home Window & Door became essential to balance the technical requirements of the complex system.
“We chose Western Window Systems because we just have a comfort level that they have the competency to figure out some of the technical specifics in a complicated home like this,” says Jones. “They have everything we need to execute and actually bring something at this level together and make it look beautiful like it does today.”
The primary living area, kitchen, and second floor gathering space share the same soaring ceiling, with multi-slide and 90-degree glass doors that disappear into pockets. With the sheer size of the multi-slide glass walls, automation became not just a nice modern feature, but a necessity.
“We looked at not only what was required to power the movement of doors this size, but how do we put safety and security first, and how do we protect the system, so that things like debris in the track don’t cause a malfunction,” said PJ Gruetzmacher, CEO of Summit Automation. “There’s a precise science to ensuring the systems are functional, user-friendly, and quiet. And you want it to be seamless for the homeowner.”
The second floor Sky Suite, featuring a 35-foot-long floor-to-ceiling glass wall, was another area that required collaboration and smart engineering. The effect is a sleek jewel-box, with an uninterrupted view of the skyline.
“The design team wanted the drama of no vertical mulling – just this expanse of glass looking out over the Las Vegas Strip. The challenge was to ensure that the glass would have the support it needed to stay within the safe deflection rate, even with the wind shears that we faced up on the mountain,” said Rick Salter, owner of Custom Home Window & Door. “We were able to use Western Window Systems’ Performance Line and custom 1 ½ -inch thick glass to meet those structural requirements.”
These collaborative accomplishments allowed Blue Heron’s vision of a modern biophilic design to come to fruition, blurring the lines between the inside and outside, and creating a showcase for what’s possible in indoor-outdoor living.
