Intersection

Bunnyfish Studios helped revitalize Fremont Street and wants to do the same for North Las Vegas

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Craig Palacios and Tina Wichmann of Bunnyfish Studios.

When North Las Vegas officials decided to redevelop a portion of its downtown—a section of Lake Mead Boulevard between I-15 and Las Vegas Boulevard, provisionally named Lake Mead Village West—they considered the businesses of the revitalized Fremont East: Eat, Carson Kitchen, Inspire, the renovated Bunkhouse and more. As it happens, they all have one thing in common: Architecture firm Bunnyfish Studios.

Gina Gavan, director of economic and business development for the City of North Las Vegas, knows Bunnyfish principals Craig Palacios and Tina Wichmann, and suggested the city brainstorm with them. “We wanted to work with a firm that has some energy and new ideas,” Gavan says.

The results of the collaboration will remain under wraps until mid-September. For now, Bunnyfish and Gavan can only hint at what they’d like to see North Las Vegas’ downtown become—a robust, pedestrian-friendly neighborhood of housing, restaurants and retail, one that could serve the needs of tech professionals working at nearby Hyperloop and Faraday Future, while respecting the area’s history and existing neighborhood culture.

“When you’re traveling on I-15 in either direction, there’s no indication that there’s anything of value on Lake Mead,” Palacios says. “There’s a real opportunity here to create place.”

The redevelopment agency owns 15 acres of largely vacant land along Lake Mead. Gavan is confident that, if done correctly, redeveloping this land could have a positive effect on more than a hundred acres surrounding it. “We’re just trying to provide a catalyst,” Gavan says. “We have an idea of how we’d like to start. It may shift, even after we roll it out—and we’re absolutely okay with that.”

This opportunity came to Bunnyfish at the same time as two other large civic projects: The studio is working with the RTC to create a transit corridor on Maryland Parkway and helping repurpose the NV Energy-owned Spencer Utility Corridor as a scenic greenway. But there’s nothing quite like rebuilding a downtown, and Bunnyfish Studios is thrilled to do it again. “The opportunity to take an area that has so much potential, and to see it turn into a thriving community—it’s a dream come true,” Wichmann says.

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