Paradise Palms - Las Vegas, NV

Location map of Palmer & Krisel-designed homes in Paradise Palms

Paradise Palms was the first master planned community in Las Vegas, Nevada mainly developed between late 1960 and 1965. The community consists of approximately 1,000 homes, of which about 400 are Palmer & Krisel-designed homes. Paradise Homes was the lead developer of the community and builder of the Palmer & Krisel-designed homes, built between 1960 and 1964.

Paradise Homes founders Irwin Molasky and Merv Adelson, who would later go on to found the television production company Lorimar, had hired Palmer & Krisel to design homes for their new master planned community after seeing the work that they had been up to in Palm Springs, as Molasky was an acquaintance of Robert Alexander. The homes ranged in size between 1,200 and 2,200 square feet, with a majority of the homes weighing in at less than 1,800 square feet.

The original unit, located near the northwest corner of the community, features generally the same floorplan rotated and with varying elevations. The floorplans are actually nearly identical to those found in the 1958 Palmer & Krisel-designed Racquet Club Road Estates in Palm Springs, CA, with the living, dining and kitchen on one side of the home, bedrooms on the other, and the mechanicals and bathrooms at the center of the home. The only difference is the addition of a fourth bedroom at the front of the home, which bumps the square footage up to 1,800 square feet from the typical 1,225 found in Racquet Club Road Estates.

This floorplan would be later incorporated into other phases of the community, with the kitchen placement moved to the side of the living areas rather than in-line with them. The styles of homes found here incorporated a myriad of elevations, including a Hawaiian themed series that featured heavy shake roofs, lava rock accents and crossed beams designed to resemble outrigger oars. Other elevations included flat, folded plate, butterfly, pyramid and open gable rooflines, mixed with various decorative block accents. Also of note was that the community included two Palmer & Krisel-designed tri-level models, a rarity as a majority of Palmer & Krisel-designed homes were single-story. 

A portion of the original model home complex was photographed by Julius Shulman in 1962. Thanks to the Getty Archive, we have three of those images in color and one on black and white available for viewing. If these photos are reproduced, please be sure to credit the Getty Archives with the following: © J. Paul Getty Trust. Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (2004.R.10).

Tri-level Paradise Palms Model 5, © J. Paul Getty Trust. Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (2004.R.10)

Backyard and pool of tri-level Paradise Palms Model 4, © J. Paul Getty Trust. Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (2004.R.10)

Backyard of Paradise Palms Model 8, © J. Paul Getty Trust. Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (2004.R.10)

Black-and-white backyard of  Paradise Palms Model 8. © J. Paul Getty Trust. Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (2004.R.10)