UNLV’s Mojave Bloom solar home at Storyteller’s Garden
Councilwoman Olivia Diaz; Dr. Nancy Uscher, dean of the UNLV College of Fine Arts; and Dr. Rama Venkat, dean of Howard R. Hughes College of Engineering, will cut the ribbon at the Mojave Bloom solar home as it goes on display at the city’s Storyteller’s Garden.
The ribbon-cutting is scheduled for 10 a.m. June 14, at the garden, just north of the Las Vegas Community Healing Garden in the 1000 block of South Casino Center Boulevard.
Mojave Bloom took third place in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon competition that challenges collegiate teams around the world to design and build solar-powered homes. Over the course of 32 months, approximately 50 UNLV students from a variety of academic backgrounds, including architecture, engineering and psychology, designed, planned and built the 628-square-foot house.
Through a partnership with the city of Las Vegas, Mojave Bloom now will be at the Storyteller’s Garden and serve as a gathering area for the volunteers who help the city with upkeep at the garden and the adjacent Las Vegas Healing Garden, which was constructed by the community to remember those lost during the Oct. 1, 2017, massacre.
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NAIOP members support community
Members of NAIOP Southern Nevada, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association representing commercial real estate developers, owners and related professionals in office, industrial, retail and mixed-use real estate, have gone to great lengths to serve others during this challenging year.
According to NAIOP Southern Nevada Community Service Chairwoman Patti Dillion, NAIOP members have donated thousands of dollars in food, clothing, hygiene products and school supplies to homeless teens, senior citizens, at-risk youth and medically fragile children throughout Southern Nevada this year. They have also volunteered hundreds of hours of their time.
For many years, NAIOP Southern Nevada has organized and executed community service projects that benefit local nonprofits, including Casa Foundation Las Vegas, Communities In Schools of Nevada, Helping Hands of Vegas Valley, Hollingsworth Elementary School, Make-A-Wish Foundation, Street Teens, St. Jude’s Ranch for Children and Ronald McDonald House Charities of Greater Las Vegas.
Over the past year, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the NAIOP Community Service Committee to get more creative and to reframe its service projects, while still providing volunteer opportunities for members. So far in 2021, NAIOP members have volunteered 199 hours to nonprofits throughout
Southern Nevada. In 2020 NAIOP volunteer hours totaled nearly 1,300 hours, including 720 hours at the renovation project at St. Jude’s Ranch for Children and 156 hours working on the Communities in Schools Thanksgiving event.