Las Vegas Library and Lied Discovery Museum

Rising above Las Vegas Boulevard in a mass of geometric shapes, Predock's library and children's museum strikes a balance between whimsy and function. This building was the first in Clark County's effort to expand its library system by constructing a decentralized network of branches. These have been paired with cultural facilities such as theaters or museums, the better to serve Clark County's sprawling population.

Seeking to draw attention to the project and to give Las Vegas a preeminent cultural center, the Clark County Library District commissioned a major out-of-state architect. Predock was ideally suited for the job. Based in Albuquerque, he began his career designing houses in New Mexico that were inspired by regional vernacular forms and that responded to the local culture. Since then, he has received much larger commissions and has embraced a variety of architectural forms and materials that reach beyond the regional qualities of the Southwest. Nevertheless, he is known for designs that are appropriate to the environment of the arid Southwest. Predock views architectture as being able to create a surrogate landscape, tapping into the sense of place. Sensitive to how materials and colors appear in the bright light of the desert, he uses simple but bold forms devoid of ornamentation, which would be lost in the glare of sunlight. For this project, he also wanted to create a building that would respond to the unique nature of Las Vegas. The building stands near the Las Vegas Mormon Fort and the path of the old Spanish-Mormon Trail. Thus he designed a series of articulated spaces meant to indicate the place as a crossroads. Rather than build a “decorated shed,” he designed a structure with substantial volumes that, according to Predock, is “more about space than surface.”