Bloch Residence
Narrative

Taking advantage of the Southern Nevada Water Authority’s turf reduction rebate program, the Bloch residence was designed to be a water smart landscape. The Bloch’s wanted something affordable yet unique to their neighborhood. The original landscape which typifies the old Las Vegas style of Landscaping can be seen in the before and after photo in the following pages.

In this design we decided to use retaining walls to deal with the 4’ of elevation change from sidewalk to building foundation. In the construction of the retaining walls we decided to go with a synthetic stone mortared in place. This was roughly half the cost of using real stone. We designed boulders into the walls to add interest.

At the entry walk, we mortared a thin veneer of flagstone onto the existing sidewalk, stairs, and landing to save on demolition costs and the cost of building something entirely new. The newly veneered flagstone steps and landing compliment the landscape nicely. We also saved the existing foundation planting and trees to help alleviate additional plant material expenses. We designed the plant palette so that the Block’s Landscape would have something flowering during all seasons of the year.

As a ground treatment we used several sizes of decomposed granite in a meandering pattern to add interest to the ground plane and also to compliment the boulders and retaining walls. As you will see from viewing the following images, the Bloch Residence had a delightfully unique landscape.