Sparkflight Studios

Image Credit: NASA. Taken from Emergence Magazine : Ten Love Letters to the Earth by Thich Nhất Hanh. In honor of Earth Day this week, we would like to share with you our passion for creating healthy, equitable, and community-centered design. In our practice areas (Multifamily, Commercial, Interiors, and Public Art) we approach every project with this care and sensitivity. This stems from one of our core beliefs that a healthy, sustainable world is possible. As design professionals, it is our job to ensure that the spaces we live, work, and play support our health. Organizations like the  Healthy Building Network  are raising their voice and partnering with communities to advocate for a built environment in which all people are free of chemicals that harm us. To make spaces where we breathe easy, think clearly, and feel more creative requires research and community buy-in. According to the HBN, of roughly 85,000 chemicals available in the market, few are adequately tested fo...

Battle Born Academy. Image by Sparkflight Studios © All Rights Reserved. Here at Sparkflight, we design spaces of learning and play for children and families in need as part of our commitment to the community. Our joy is collaborating with educators to discover how the built environment can support their educational mission. We partner with developers who serve students that qualify for the  National School Lunch Program  and Title 1. Our services range from entitlements and pre-design to permitting and construction administration. We are available to advise charter founders and boards as they embark on the development process. Battle Born Academy Our most recent project is with Battle Born Academy, a school focused on project-based learning. Its founders strongly believe that all children can and will love school when strong academic supports are combined with student-led inquiry, a focus on social-emotional learning, and strong values that create a community of learners and ...

  The Nature Conservancy in Nevada. Image credit © Simon Williams. Wetlands: Hands On! (W.H.O.) is a stewardship program at the Clark County Wetlands Park involving more than 5,000 community volunteers since 2013. Volunteers participated in monthly projects including picking up trash and debris, removing graffiti, painting, removing invasive plants, trail maintenance, and restoration. Dozens of southern Nevada organizations, clubs, businesses, and agencies have participated. The next W.H.O. stewardship opportunity is this Saturday, 2/12/22, from 9 AM - 11 AM. Sign-up link here:  who.ccwetlandspark.com . Additional contact information :  7050 Wetlands Park Lane Las Vegas, NV 89122 (702) 455-7522 wetlands@clarkcountynv.gov More February programs may be found by clicking here .

  City Of Las Vegas Hosts Black History Month Events (Jan. 16-Feb. 26, 2022) Today we honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.. Let us take inspiration from that beloved man, and commit to nonviolence and always protect the dignity of others! "We cannot walk alone." City Of Las Vegas Hosts Black History Month Events Jan. 16-Feb. 26, 2022 Peace Week 2022: Extending the Dream Celebration “Inspiring the Movement through Change” Sunday, Jan. 16, 3 to 5 p.m. Free and open to the public. West Las Vegas Library Theatre, 951 W. Lake Mead Blvd. Peace Week 2022 will honor, pay tribute and celebrate the life, legacy and contributions of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. For more information, call the West Las Vegas Library at 702-507-3989 or the Doolittle Senior Center at 702-229-6125. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Youth League Basketball Tournament Thursday-Saturday, Jan. 20-22; 4 p.m. Thursday-Friday and 10 a.m. Saturday. Free and open to selected schools and youth programs. Doolittle Community Center...

  Futuro Academy, Charter Schools Development Corporation, East Las Vegas campus. Images by Sparkflight Studios, © All Rights Reserved. It brings collective joy and relief that our children are back to school and enjoying running, playing, and learning together in the same space again! It has been Sparkflight's privilege to realize the Futuro Academy, together with the Charter Schools Development Corporation, as a long-term client through four phases, and ongoing projects for the school. Futuro Academy now operates in a former grocery store that has been renovated on approximately 4.6 acres of land, and includes classrooms, a health center, and multi-purpose room with adjacent food service area.

Image credit: The annual 4th Avenue Fest in Austin, MN was imagined by city planner Holly Wallace, Cheryl Berglund of MacPhail Austin (pictured percussion experience), and multiple community artists and volunteers. Forecast is a non-profit arts organization founded in 1978 by and for artists working in public space. Based in Saint Paul, MN and working both locally and nationally, Forecast connects artists with cities, institutions and communities to courageously tackle the vital issues of our time. They partner with decision-makers and stakeholders on arts and cultural planning efforts, and support public artists with funding, training and opportunities to create partnerships and advance their public art careers. They also help others find, select, curate, fund and commission public artists. Forecast emphasizes access for artists of color, indigenous artists, and groups that are traditionally excluded. This blog post's headline image captures moments from a Forecast project which ...

Artolution imagines a brighter future for global refugees. Artolution began a decade ago with two nomadic artists, circling the globe to promote positive social change through one-off projects in crisis-affected locations; in places that few people would dare to travel on their own. They brought together groups of people who never knew that they could exist in the same room; only to discover their shared traditions and hopes for the future created the capacity to feel hope together. The communities where they worked repeatedly asked, “But, when will you be back?” Artolution believes that through the process of creating collaborative art, diverse communities can come together in times of conflict and social turmoil to address the challenges they face together.  Projects are organized and facilitated in partnership with local artists, grass-roots organizations, schools, and international organizations to ensure locally-led programs survivability and long-term, integrated presence wi...

Tonight is Family Promise of Las Vegas' "Share the Promise" Facebook Live event! Come learn more about the mission of Family Promise of Las Vegas from 4 - 6 PM; at showtime, follow the link here . Family Promise of Las Vegas has been empowering homeless families to achieve sustainable independence for over 30 years. They do this through support, education, and providing a safe place to land while a family re-stabilizes.  Their families experience a 70%+ success rate with establishing a permanent residence.  As more families are on the brink of homelessness following layoffs and shut-downs from the pandemic, Family Promise’s successful model is especially relevant—and needed. We’ve been fortunate to partner with them for about 3 years while developing a new 12,300 square feet Family Navigation Center where families receive residential and support services all in one site.  Family Promise has received a significant grant from the County and gifted land.  And now, they...

A country’s overshoot day is the date on which Earth Overshoot Day would fall if all of humanity consumed like the people in this country.  Humans use as much ecological resources as if we lived on 1.6 Earths. The Ecological Footprint is the only metric that compares the resource demand of individuals, governments, and businesses against Earth's capacity for biological regeneration. Earth Overshoot Day marks the date when humanity’s demand for ecological resources and services in a given year exceeds what Earth can regenerate in that year. In 2020, Earth Overshoot Day lands on August 22. We maintain this deficit by liquidating stocks of ecological resources and accumulating waste, primarily carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Earth Overshoot Day is hosted and calculated by Global Footprint Network, an international research organization that provides decision-makers with a menu of tools to help the human economy operate within Earth’s ecological limits. More information may be found...

Although we wish to again be with one another in the same physical space, we have learned to adapt and rethink our approach to gathering virtually. As architects and problem-solvers, we look to our toolkit to provide means for visualizing and analyzing three-dimensional space with real-time feedback for our clients. In this post, we'll introduce a few of our tools illustrating how Sparkflight Studios is navigating architectural practice in a virtual environment. Zoom This video conferencing platform is well known, and for good reason. We use Zoom on a daily basis, both internally and with our consultants and clients. It's a reliable tool with features that allow for productive and engaging meetings. We find that the annotate and whiteboard options are especially useful when communicating ideas graphically. Often, we screen-share our 3D BIM model and annotate over floor plans to work through problems, and imagine new solutions. BIMx BIMx is a unique tool to interactively present...

Sparkflight Studios is now certified for WBE and WOSB under the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), which means we have an advocate for access, capacity development, recognition, and community support to facilitate real-time business opportunities. WBENC also offers training that helps grow our capacity. WBENC is the largest certifier of women-owned businesses in the U.S. and a leading advocate for women business owners and entrepreneurs. The United States Small Business Administration (SBA) has approved WBENC as a Third Party Certifier for Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB) certification as part of the SBA's WOSB Federal Contracting Program.  WBENC President and CEO, Pamela Prince-Eason, explains the importance of WBENC and WOSB certification to women's business growth in this short video; link here .

Walking into the World Market Center SFS recently had an office lunch at the Lou Ruvo Center before heading over to the World Market Center to view trends and styles in interior design. The SFS team observed several exhibits and was most excited at those that engaged the senses. To this point, the most extreme was TŌV’s “On Fleek” showroom— complete with an ice cream stand (and complimentary rosé). TŌV was an immersive experience in tactility, bold colors, and geometry. (Yes, plenty of millennial pink too). TŌV’s “On Fleek” showroom: candy, donuts, and Cardi B On the "Contemporary" floor there were several showrooms that allowed the team to investigate ways of combining materials and details of those mechanics:  How can brass and wood connect in sleek yet architectonic ways?  How can wood be used texturally?  More subdued than  TŌV, but still interesting was Four Hands’ showroom. Sleek design with a rustic palette defines their catalog. For exam...

This February our office participated in the I CAN BE program with the Henderson Chamber of Commerce.  Our office volunteered at Foothills High School for a day to help  high school freshman learn about career choices and options.  This program was created in 2008 and reaches about 2,100 students each year.  We were in the "Architecture and Construction" industry booth, and answered questions from students, shared our experience and challenged them with questions of our own.  It was a rewarding experience and we look forward to future participation.

Futuro Academy, a public charter school, will be opening Fall 2017 in Ward 3 at Lamb Boulevard and Washington Avenue. We're pleased to complete the design for this new campus that is transforming a vacant grocery store into a center for learning.  Phase 1 is 28,870 square feet of developed space and includes six classrooms, administrative offices, and a multipurpose room.  Executive Director Ignacio Prado has recently appeared on the news and in the Review Journal  after Futuro Academy was picked by the Nevada Department of Education to participate in Nevada's Achievement School District.  The R-J article quoted Prado considering the effort ahead of him, “One thing we know is now our clock is ticking, and we have a ton of work to do...Our goal is to target populations that are often marginalized and might have barriers to entry,” he said.  Project partners include the Charter School Development Corporation and Opportunity 180 . Photo credit: Chase Stevens...