In Las Vegas, Blue Heron is known for its high-end, striking designs. This summer, the company sold its most expensive home ever, Vegas Modern 001 (and the most expensive yet sold in Las Vegas as of press time). We talked recently to founder Tyler Jones about the company and building the home.
Your family has been in Vegas for a really, really long time. But Blue Heron has only been established since 2004. What was your impetus behind founding the company?
I grew up with my father’s (home building) company … and ultimately went to architecture school at University of Colorado in Boulder. By the time I was 25, when we started up the company, I’d already had quite a bit of both construction and design experience. Blue Heron was a way to put it all together to come up with a process and a workflow for our clients and for our team. It was more efficient, and was always about this ultra-strong architectural vision.
A lot of Blue Heron architecture has a (particular) contemporary feel. Why does that type of style resonate with you?
Our Vegas Modern design philosophy is all about being authentic to the culture and what people who live in Las Vegas in 2021 need and want in their homes. It’s also about what is appropriate to build in the desert with modern technologies and modern abilities. It’s really kind of a common-sense approach, and it’s also beautiful. There are no rules to the type of design we do, which is very important to us because we like to push boundaries and (we’re) constantly evolving.
The Vegas Modern 001 house recently sold; it is incredibly beautiful. What in that home were you most proud of?
The cohesive nature of the design. You can really tell that it was done by the same team that had a perfectly aligned vision, and we didn’t compromise on any of that as we went all the way through a very complicated and expensive and difficult design and build process. That takes an incredibly talented team, and it takes a special structure from a company standpoint, to be able to orchestrate a large group of professionals coming from different disciplines.
It was the most expensive house sold in Las Vegas yet. What do you think contributed to its quick sale?
Well, I had the opportunity to meet with the buyer personally. And he recognized that this was really a masterpiece, and what the Blue Heron team did in Vegas Modern 001 is not otherwise available in Las Vegas. There’s nothing else out there that’s been designed to that same level and executed to that same level.
Thinking about Las Vegas’ future and home building, where do you think it’s going?
I just don’t think there’s a limit to what could happen in Las Vegas. As a city, we’re still in our infancy. I think technology moves very quickly these days. So what’s possible in terms of how you design and build homes changes month to month. That’s very exciting for us because we like to stay at the very cutting edge of construction science and design. And the modern lifestyle is evolving faster than ever. Part of the fun of what we do is to continuously adapt and evolve to meet those needs. We’re just getting started on Vegas Modern 002 right now. That’ll be our next step (and) it’s kind of our research and development.
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