URBAN PARK DEVELOPMENT: Spring to Life

Cranes, earth movers and other heavy equipment sidestep a fragile ecosystem and brittle archaeological structures on a 180-acre parcel that is the historic starting point of Las Vegas. Construction crews, biologists and historians cautiously maneuver around the downtown site where a planned park and museum complex will combine cultural, educational and recreational components.

The site, the Big Springs area on Valley View Boulevard, was the center of life and activity for eons in the Las Vegas Valley, a classic life-sustaining oasis in an inhospitable desert. Wildlife and successive Indian tribes from time to time occupied the site, one of a chain of watering holes through the Mojave Desert.

When the city grew up around the site, the springs declined, and were pumped dry by the 1930s. As property of the Las Vegas Valley Water District, the parcel that was once the city's life blood became off-limits and largely abandoned. The land sat vacant for years, long overlooked even at a conspicuous location immediately south of the busiest stretch of highway in the state.

A few years ago, the water district decided to open up the land to the public and sought ways to preserve the land's resources while allowing the community to embrace its natural and historical significance. The idea was to design a true desert park, one that reflects the climate and respects the terrain.

Staff members gathered public comment and ideas for the land. Again and again, people asked for culture, something to reflect the valley's heritage and the site's natural characteristics, according to Francis Béland, director of the Las Vegas Springs Preserve.

Established by the water district, the Las Vegas Springs Preserve is a nonprofit agency charged with developing a park and educational center on land the district continues to use.

"The mission for us is to give back to the community a sense of place, a sense of community, to give that sense of identity to the city. We need to answer to the community," Béland said.

"At this stage of development in this city, this is something we need. People are looking for these kinds of things, so I think it is the right time and the right place."

If the notion of a desert park seems oxymoronic or unappealing, the finished project will prove otherwise, said Béland, who added it will provide a new facet to the city's identity as well as resources the community is lacking.

"The composition of the park would be comparable to Balboa Park in San Diego, or to Central Park in New York where you have cultural resources in the center of the city," Béland said.

"That's what it is, bringing nature and culture together."

Early on, preserve officials decided to set an ambitious goal. The park would be a center for history, but a contemporary resource as well. It would preserve the city's heritage, but would guide it's future. It would offer recreation and education, serve natural and civic needs, and draw residents and tourists alike.

"We have this reputation that we're Las Vegas and we have to be the best," Béland said. "We have the best shows, the best acts, the best hotels. So we can't just build an adequate museum. It has to be the best."

As parks go, it will also bear the unmistakable stamp of its landlord, the water district. The first structure under way in the project is a pump station -- an actual one used to deliver water to residents -- that will be designed to accommodate visitors. The station is set for completion in early 2004. Flood control is also integral to its design.

With a team of local and national experts, plans were drawn up for a visitor center, trails, a cienega fed by run-off water, the pump station, a series of gardens, support facilities, meeting rooms, offices, a gift shop, café and parking.

The visitor center features an amphitheater and museums, including a new home for the Nevada State Museum and Historical Society and the new Desert Living Center, which will promote "urban sustainability" within the deserts of the Southwest United States.

Interactive features within the Desert Living Center will show visitors how to become more desert conscious through high-definition movies, hands-on displays and 8 acres of demonstration gardens (By comparison, the water district's current gardens measure 2 1/2 acres.).

"This is `free choice' learning, similar to how people learned to use the Internet. We're giving our guests multiple specific ways of learning things they are actively seeking to learn," Béland said.

Water conservation is a dominant theme, one targeted at multiple audiences: property owners, developers and kids.

"Our center is not just for residents. A lot of it is meant for commercial builders. We need to reach them because they have a huge impact on our valley," Jesse Davis, spokesman for the preserve, said.

The park advocates other aspects of conservation as well, including various "green building" technologies such as energy-efficient construction, recycling and strategies to make buildings more comfortable for users.

"We've opened (the preserve) up to larger issues that affect conservation in general: water use, power use, even land use and waste management; all things that affect our future," Davis said. "This makes it a larger resource, one suited even for tourists."

The northern section of the park is mainly a preservation and restoration project. Nature trails lead past the old spring beds, archaeological sites and various artifacts of the water district itself -- 11 interpreted stops in all. One recent discovery is a pit house estimated to be about 1,000 years old. Previous excavations indicate human habitation more than 5,000 years ago.

More recent artifacts include the litter of explorers who made their way through the valley in the 19th century and one rickety old structure identified by Davis as a de-sanding facility -- one of the first attempts by Las Vegas residents at water treatment.

Ecology finds an unlikely refuge in the region closest to the freeway. Sheltered by a sound wall, the spring beds have become home to numerous critters including more than 100 species of birds.

The projected final cost: about $175 million. More than $149 million in funding has already been obtained. Earlier this week, the springs project received $5 million in federal funds originating from the sale of Bureau of Land Management-controlled property within the valley.

About 500,000 visitors per year are expected to come to the completed park complex. Over time, Béland expects tourists will outnumber locals among visitors, who would come to see the "natural side" of Southern Nevada, places such as Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.

He cites a demographic of about 5 million annual Las Vegas visitors, people over 30 who leave the kids at home, have been to the city multiple times and "want something more." Becoming a tourism draw is a priority of the preserve.

"We need to become a brand. We need to have an essence. We're creating an identity for our core group of visitors," Béland said.

"When you come here, you will have the feeling of being at one with nature, right here in the middle of the city. We want people to be awed again by where we're at. And then we want people to know how to live with it."

Living in the desert is the theme that brings together all elements of the preserve. The museums, trails, cienega and pump station all serve to inform residents and visitors of what a desert ecosystem looks like and what it takes to maintain a city within one.

"We want to create a feeling of respect for nature," he said. "Once you have that respect, love, awe, you become more open to the messages of conservation and history."

In addition to the pump station, trails and cienega, elements of the Desert Learning Center are expected to open in time for the city's centennial celebration in May 2005. Buildout for the project is slated for 2007.

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