User friendly: a high-tech home without a high-tech feel - Estate of the Art

Ask a focus group of wealthy, middle-aged, suburban women to create a wish list for the perfect home, and you're sure to get some interesting ideas. That's what the editors of BUILDER, our sister publication at Hanley-Wood, LLC, did to develop the plan of its 2003 show home, HomeDestinations, at Southern Highlands on the outskirts of Las Vegas. Designed by Scheurer Architects of Newport Beach, Calif., and built by Las Vegas-based Christopher Homes, the 10,000-square-foot villa is the vanguard in luxury home design. And nowhere is that more evident than in the electronics threaded throughout the residence.

"State of the art" is how Greg Simmons, vice president and co-owner of Eagle Sentry, Las Vegas, describes the vast but largely concealed electronics array. "The system gives very good but simple control of all the low-voltage systems in the house," he says. "We can turn on the fireplaces from any touchpanel, turn on the audio/video system, control HVAC and lighting.... And from the same panels, homeowners have full control of security--both perimeter and surveillance.'"

Eagle Sentry designs and installs the full gamut of residential electronic subsystems from central vacuum systems to automated home theaters. Despite the show home nature of the project, Eagle Sentry's assignment for HomeDestinations wasn't unlike a typical job for the high-end installation company. Upscale homeowners want all the cool, trick features provided by technology but they don't want to see that it's there.