Fresh off a Silver Nugget Award for best design and architecture of a custom home, Forte Specialty Contractors keeps raising the bar with its latest projects. The luxury builder won the award for its $13 million, 13,500 square-foot home built in The Summit Club in Summerlin. Titled “Cascade,” the four-bedroom, eight-bath home was named because of the way its architecture cascades modularly and its landscape blends with the surrounding desert, overlooking the golf course through floor-to-ceiling windows. It was built for a prominent business executive and art collector, taking 13 months to complete, according to Forte’s CEO Scott Acton. The home was designed by Las Vegas-based Tal Studio.
“A lot of it was built with a tolerance of ten thousands of an inch in the stainless steel and stone reveal. All the travertine (banning) flows in one direction. The art gallery goes down the hallway. All the walls are floating on an art railing. There is no penetration at all. A lot of the walls are upholstered. It’s all hung like in an art gallery off a cable.”
Forte was a brainchild of the economy, Acton said. It started in 2010 at the bottom of the market and their ability to do design-build, value engineering, and maintain the experience of the developer’s visions, while at the same time-saving costs.
“As we developed that process, the luxury residential market started to take off and a lot of our visionary customers we were doing commercial work for wanted us to do luxury homes for them,” Acton said. “We did Cascade in 13 months because of our ability to self-perform a multitude of trades from framing and drywall to architectural metals, stone, and tile. We’re able to produce these luxury homes at a high level of finish.”
Forte builds about 10 to 12 custom homes a year for clients, such as former casino mogul Steve Wynn, other prominent Las Vegans, and business tycoons from around the world, who want to move to the valley. Forte is finishing up three homes in The Summit Club, the resort development in Summerlin, after which they will build five others. Forte will also be starting one in Ascaya in Henderson and Southern Highlands in the south valley.
The most expensive one under construction, about three months from completion, is named “Palladio” at $25 million. Designed by Daniel Chenin
“It is an amazing blend of European garden design and has a contemporary hospitality feel to it,” Acton said. “It’s an entertainment home with a beautiful rooftop deck that overlooks the Strip.”
Luxury home clients demand a higher level of quality on which Acton said Forte is built. Their skillset, as well as time, sets Forte apart because of their ability to construct faster than other builders, he said. “The real commodity in this world is time,” Acton said. “A lot of people have money and a lot have ideas. Time is slowly ticking away from all of us.”
Forte is leading the construction industry into the future by leveraging 3D printing technology. Forte’s 3D printer is one of the largest west of the Mississippi and is used to considerably speed up the production process. Used to create in-house tooling, single part molds, and themed elements
In the era of COVID-19, Acton acknowledges what customers want has changed. They’re looking at their theaters, home gyms, and home offices differently. “I think home offices were looked at as ‘hey that’s my office’ but when it comes to COVID it had to work and function properly,” Acton said. “To that end, there’s a lot more attention paid to how that functions.”
There’s also more attention paid to healthier components in homes such as spa, steam, and air filtration systems, Acton said.
Many of the homes now being built end up as three stories. Two stories for living and one for subterranean parking, Acton said. Lots are expensive in The Summit, and buyers want to maximize every square foot they can, he said.
Stone, marble, upholstery are important components of luxury homes. It’s vital to focus on acoustics so the home doesn’t have an echo like an institutional building and there’s an art to that, he said.
Cascade has clean lines, neutral tones, upholstered walls, millwork, and perfect symmetry works that in concert with elegant décor and abstract paintings. Walls of polished Las Vegas rock, quarried from Jean, resemble the deep tones and lines of petrified wood. The travertine floor runs seamlessly from one end of the house to another. In the entry, an art piece doubles as a hidden closet. White orchids on a center table are proportionately arranged. “People want a contemporary feel,” Acton said. “They want something timeless — that’s not dated or repeated. They want something unique and has its own DNA.”
Acton said his company caters to prominent business leaders from around the globe.
“Vegas is seeing a remarkable boom from interesting families that have built amazing businesses,” Acton said. “It’s very interesting what is happening to Las Vegas right now.”
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