Vegas Modern: Builder adding twist to re-energized luxury-home market

For years, Las Vegas has been a place where thoughtful architecture goes to die, with cookie-cutter stucco homes, strip malls and mid-rise office buildings blanketing the valley.

The luxury-home market is no different, with supersized Tuscan-style mansions stuffed with the same toys and amenities.

Homebuilder Tyler Jones, however, is adding a dash of style to this look-alike landscape.

Jones, through his Las Vegas company Blue Heron, is developing three communities of high-end, desert-themed luxury homes in Henderson and has built custom homes around the valley. He founded the company with his father and has been in business for a decade, getting project sites that flopped under previous owners and racking up numerous design and environmental awards from construction-industry groups.

The 37-year-old Las Vegas native tries to blend indoor and outdoor space, and subtly packs his cube-shaped homes with electronics.

The design, he said, is Vegas Modern.

At his four-bedroom, 5,800-square-foot model home at Sky Terrace a development off Sunridge Heights Parkway near Eastern Avenue most doors are automated, glass pocket-doors that glide completely into the walls. Outside, the courtyard has a water wall, fire pit and flat-screen TV. There are three other fire pits, including on the rooftop skydeck, which also boasts a wet bar.

There are more than 20 flat-screen TVs scattered around the house, with several hidden behind mirrors, including two alone in the master bathroom. The kitchen bleeds into the living room, and walking around the house, it can take a while to realize that bedrooms and hallways are nowhere in sight.

We want it to feel open, Jones said.

Most luxury homes in the valley not only look the same but often have the same perks movie theaters, elevators, gyms, wine cellars, massage rooms, libraries, gaming and billiards rooms, outdoor kitchens, and manicured landscaping with palm trees, ponds and swimming pools.

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Vegas Modern: Builder adding twist to re-energized luxury-home market