Lifestyle event: Street of Dreams

About 50,000 people are expected to attend the 2004 Street of Dreams luxury-home and lifestyle event that opens a five-week run today in MacDonald Highlands. Through June 20, four custom showcase residences will be open for public viewing at the hillside community in Henderson.

Bryan Ashbaugh, chief executive of Street of Dreams Inc., said visitors will experience the newest trends in design, comfort, entertainment and gadgetry.

"We are thrilled with the four teams of builders and designers involved in our fourth Street of Dreams show in Nevada," he said. "They have incorporated the finest in materials and searched the world over to embellish their homes with the best in furniture, specialized design accents, unique colors, fabrics, materials and many other features that will be seen in Southern Nevada for the first time."

Highlights, per home, include a master suite with his-and-hers everything, a shower with teakwood flooring, a kitchen with a built-in computer programmed with recipes, and a $65,000 set of weights.

Views of the city and the community's DragonRidge Country Club further enhance the residences.

The names of the homes and builder teams are as follows:

Villa Vista by Sunwood Inc. Luxury Home Developers. Architect: Richard Luke Architects; Interior: ZINAZ Inc.; Landscape: Poggemeyer Design Group.

Priced at $4.5 million (unfurnished), Villa Vista measures 8,875 square feet. It combines Old World styling with modern technology, and features Italian windows in the bedrooms and a kitchen island with an Indian cashmere granite top. Natural stone flooring extends 8,000 square feet; it is not featured in the bedrooms.

Also included is a 26-foot high foyer, as well as seamless windows that are nearly floor-to-ceiling high. The home is decorated with heavy wood furnishings and rich textures, and contains a hidden "panic room," which is the nerve center of the high-security residence.

Aria by Christopher Homes. Architect: Scheurer Architects; Interior: Bloomingdale's.; Landscape: NUVIS Landscape Architects.

Priced at $5.9 million (furnished), Aria measures 9,553 square feet. This contemporary residence provides outdoor access from nearly every room. It has an interior courtyard, curved metal roofing, and brushed aluminium I-beams on the ceiling of the great room. The home incorporates feng shui elements to create harmony, good health, wealth and peace of mind.

KinKara by Sun West Custom Homes. Architect and Interior: Sun West Custom Homes; Landscape: Tropicana Pool & Landscape.

Priced at $4.3 million (unfurnished), KinKara measures 5,408 square feet. It blends traditional European design with contemporary Asian touches to create a living environment that is beautiful, practical and spiritual. Elements include limestone tile, an iron front door, and a great room with a wall of sliding glass doors and a wood-beam trellis floating down from the 16-foot-high ceiling.

The designers juxtaposed contrasting elements and styles, such as soft and hard, straight and curved, and light and dark. The dining room, for example, has a dark-wood floor perimeter, where light enters through rock-laden channels and illuminates the dark suede walls. The master suite contains an embossed copper ceiling, a free-standing copper tub, glass walls and a fossil-stone counter.

Bond Manor by Merlin Contracting and Development. Architect: Michael Knorr & Associates; Interior: LaStrada Furniture & Interiors; Landscape: Nevada Sources.

Priced at $1.89 million (unfurnished), Bond Manor measures 5,639 square feet. Designed to capitalize on the indoor/outdoor experience, walls of windows accentuate the golf course and mountain views from a variety of vantage points within the home. Furnishings include a western-themed child's room with a teepee bed and covered wagon for play; and an exercise room with laser-cut, electric-blue workout equipment that resembles art. Also included is a marble and wood bed with a footboard that contains a 40-inch flat-screen television that appears with the push of a button.

In conjunction with the show, Street of Dreams has pledged to donate $5,000 to Chefs for Kids Inc. a nonprofit project of the Fraternity of Executive Chefs of Las Vegas. Volunteer chefs from the organization will present scheduled cooking demonstrations in the homes.

Street of Dreams Inc. is a Seattle-based company that produces luxury-home tours nationwide.

Real Estate home