Guardian Angel Cathedral: Designed by pioneering African American architect Paul Revere Williams, the Guardian Angel Shrine opened in 1963 and became a cathedral upon the creation of the Diocese of Las Vegas in 1995. Its A-frame design features a large mosaic over the main entrance by Los Angeles artist Edith Piczek.
Kirsten Clarke Guardian Angel Cathedral: Designed by pioneering African American architect Paul Revere Williams, the Guardian Angel Shrine opened in 1963 and became a cathedral upon the creation of the Diocese of Las Vegas in 1995. Its A-frame design features a large mosaic over the main entrance by Los Angeles artist Edith Piczek.

The Las Vegas Valley is a land of hidden treasures. Though most tourists come for the bright lights, the Nevada Preservation Foundation has made it its mission to hunt down and highlight striking midcentury modern buildings that are oft-ignored, even by locals. Through the power of Instagram and a passion for preservation, it was able to gather hundreds of options for a project that it has dubbed #UncommonVegas.

“It stems from a misunderstanding of modern architecture,” says Michelle Larime, the foundation’s deputy director of neighborhood stabilization, “and this idea that the recent past isn’t necessarily important. In the preservation field, the last decade has seen a real effort to help educate and advocate for why these buildings are relevant in our historic landscape.”

These three buildings are a fraction of the chosen 100 photographed by Kirsten Clarke for the project-culminating book Las Vegas: Uncommon Modern, which can be purchased at nevadapreservation.org. All were designed and built between the mid-1940s and the 1970s; some were known but underappreciated, while others were hiding in plain sight. Regardless, they’re all part of what Larime calls “the first and only mass effort to document what the Vegas midcentury modern architectural scene looks like on a great scale.”

Brutalist/New Formalist/postmodernist structure: This building, Michelle Larime says, was discovered through the survey. “The assessor’s record shows it was built in 1975, making it a late-modern building,” she says. “You can see elements of Brutalism, New Formalism, and even some Postmodernism.”
Kirsten Clarke Brutalist/New Formalist/postmodernist structure: This building, Michelle Larime says, was discovered through the survey. “The assessor’s record shows it was built in 1975, making it a late-modern building,” she says. “You can see elements of Brutalism, New Formalism, and even some Postmodernism.”