When a prominent couple decided to leave their Hidden Hills home in Southern California to plant roots in Las Vegas, their focus was on family connections. Seeking a space where their large family, including several children and grandchildren, could be comfortably housed all at once, they commissioned Daniel Joseph Chenin for their integrated design approach inclusive of the architecture, interior design, exterior environments, furnishings, and accessories. The 20,000-sf build is evocative of a boutique hotel with an eclectic mix of furnishings and art that serves as a family-centered hideaway on the outskirts of Las Vegas, Nevada.
“We realized right away that we were discussing a multi-year project, and that made our relationship with the client essential from the outset,” says Daniel Joseph Chenin, lead architect and founder of the firm bearing his name. “As a firm, rather than advocating for a set style or aesthetic, we apply our collective expertise to the fulfillment of each client’s vision.”
Arriving at a pivotal point in their active lives, the clients wanted a house that could function as a fully accommodating gathering space for the entire clan during holidays and seasonal visits, but which would also provide them with a retreat for themselves. That objective tapped into a cross-section of Chenin’s expertise, which applies his experience with notable project deliveries for five-star luxury brands including Four Seasons and Auberge Resorts to the design of unique, exclusive, and experiential signature residences.
“The concept struck a chord as being something that would exude the character of a five-star boutique hotel, but that would also be comfortable and liveable on a residential scale,” says Chenin. “They were seeking a harmonious balance of social engagement and blissful seclusion that could unfold simultaneously in a warm and well-appointed home.”
Working from the outside in, the first challenge the firm addressed was space planning for the totality of the complex, ensuring maximum efficiency within the confines of the purchased land. The long, narrow lot borders an adjacent hill, and the decision was made to excavate in order to nestle the rear limits of the property into a cut in the hillside. As the property weaves its way down to the main level of the residence, the firm incorporated elements of the excavated landscape back into its design, including a retaining wall, pillars, and a driveway comprised of stone, all transitioning towards a more distinct residential theme.
Upon arrival at the home, the long driveway declines towards a motor port that can accommodate multiple vehicles, complete with EV charging stations. Adjacent to the motor port, a large lantern serves as a beacon to identify the entrance to the home, while beginning the process of compressing the surroundings to a human scale. A landscaped path leads to a set of massive ornamental bronze doors, emblazoned with a pattern of rings radiating outward from the central handles. Beyond the doors, an inner courtyard flanked by fountains leads to a large black portal that shrouds the main entrance to the home.
Atop the entry portal, Chenin essentially created a glass box, referred to as the ‘crown’, to house a large entertainment lounge with a full-service bar, as well as a gym and spa along the periphery. The deep-set, tinted windows of the ribbed black structure were designed to block the harsh summer sunlight, while allowing temperate winter rays in for a peaceful coexistence with the desert climate.
Outside of the box, so to speak, the structure is flanked by landscaped decks that continue the curated gathering spaces outdoors, with views extending across the canyon towards the distant Las Vegas strip to the East, and raw, untouched desert vistas to the West. The formal layout includes a myriad of terraced outdoor dining and entertainment spaces, with a short descent to a bacchii ball court and a pool area, where fire pits and sofa seating provide several structured, yet casual, settings to experience the landscape and view.
The clients expressed their interest in an H-shaped layout for the interior of the house, allowing for opposing wings to provide a personal retreat on one side, and guest accommodations with a variety of configurational options on the other. The H-shape design also addresses an environmental option that allows for an entire side of the house to be shut down from a mechanical standpoint when the couple is home alone.
“We were captivated by the very first design presentation,” says the Client. “The level of detail and the way the design renderings, sketches, and mood boards captured the quality of the proposed spaces was beyond anything that we had seen before.”
Guided by the concept “discovery of the nuance”, the spatial organization breaks down the scale of the home to create livable environments. Each container serves as a beautiful backdrop to life’s daily activities as they unfold, thereby elevating the experience. Designed to be provocative in its own way, classical and modern references are deconstructed, reinterpreted, and combined to a create a nuanced aesthetic vocabulary. Unique and experiential, the distinct design style is representative of the family, and exclusive to the home, infusing the property with an identity of its own.
Through the main entrance portal, a central corridor through the middle of the house, adorned with 10-foot wall coverings, an additional two feet of upholstered fabric walls, and a white millwork ceiling with trimming, contains a variety of gathering spaces. At each end of the corridor, cast concrete archways prominently frame connections to the exterior. In between, portals to rooms along the circulation path are delineated by onyx insets in the marble flooring, inviting guests to move through the series of spaces. At the very center of the interior, a perpendicular corridor connects the opposing wings, presenting a crossroads where Chenin designed four containers to house programmatical concepts. The contents of the containers include a music room, a formal living room, a dining room with a secondary portal leading into the kitchen, and a framed stairway leading up to the upper entertainment level.
“The corridors provide movement and visual connections with the exterior through the periphery of the house,” notes Chenin. “And the bulk of the circulation is accessed through portals into the four main containers of the home, with the two paths crossing under a beautiful, custom-designed light fixture.”
A portal to the living room leads into a vestibule flanked by powder rooms on either side, which transitions into a communal space embraced by embroidered wall coverings and a double-sided fireplace featuring a 12-foot-tall orange onyx cladding. Framing the fireplace, calming blue millwork trimmed walls, adorned with artwork depicting aquatic themes, provide a contemporary twist to a classical room.
Directly across the hall from the framed stairway, a media room with a piano and a big-screen TV provides a casual setting characterized by faux leather upholstered walls that provide it with an acoustical wrap. Above the 10-foot mark, fabric-wrapped panels with carefully aligned seams provide further acoustical containment, as well as an infusion of warmth.
“Organizationally, the house is a modern interpretation of a Palladian design,” adds Chenin. “Its true beauty lies in its blend of classic underpinnings, modern flares, and whimsical infusions.”
Photography by Douglas Friedman.
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