Taylor Morrison’s signature Esplanade communities are known for bringing resort-style living to residents’ front doors. With a deep commitment to wellness and social connections, the communities offer a host of upscale amenities tailored to the markets they serve. With its emphasis on golf courses, culinary experiences, and active living, the Esplanade brand has thrived in Florida’s tropical environment and along the East Coast and is now expanding into new regional markets.

With sights set on Las Vegas, Taylor Morrison partnered with RVi to reinterpret the Esplanade experience for the Mojave Desert.

Perched above the Las Vegas Valley and framed by views of Red Rock Canyon, Esplanade at Red Rock called for more than simply replicating a successful formula. The challenge was to translate a hospitality-driven lifestyle brand to a dramatically different setting defined by rugged topography, desert landscapes, and a culture shaped by entertainment and outdoor recreation.

Reimagining a lifestyle brand for the Mojave Desert 

Esplanade communities are more than just amenities. They reflect a lifestyle centered on wellness, purpose, and vitality. They invite residents to share the resort experience right in their community, fostering social connection at every opportunity. This brand identity is well established in Florida and East Coast markets, where the tropical climate and relatively flat topography lend themselves to golf courses, spacious trails, and tropical plant palettes.

With Esplanade at Red Rock marking the brand’s first entry into a true desert environment, the design team needed to preserve the essence of Esplanade while responding to a different climate and landscape.

“We knew we weren’t trying to make Las Vegas look like Florida. Our goal as designers was to adapt the experience in a way that felt authentic to the Mojave Desert,” says Jillian Hagen, Senior Project Manager with RVi.

Based in RVi’s Scottsdale, Arizona office, Hagen and RVi team members have worked extensively on communities in Las Vegas and throughout the Southwest region. This brought invaluable insights to the collaboration with Taylor Morrison, the Esplanade team, and RVi’s East Coast team members, who have been closely involved with previous Esplanade developments. Bringing together those perspectives—deep familiarity with Esplanade and knowledge of the local landscape and market—proved to be a successful combination.

The brand adapted in several ways. Color palettes were adjusted to reflect the local stone and rock formations. Materials followed suit, utilizing local stone in the entry monument and climate-resilient plantings to sustain efficient watering practices.

Hagen and RVi team members also visited existing Esplanade communities as part of a lifestyle brand immersion to gain a deeper understanding of the programming, hospitality, and resident expectations.

But understanding the brand was only part of the equation. Translating that experience to Southern Nevada required the team to look beyond established templates and allow the landscape itself to shape the community’s expression.

Designing with the landscape 

The design team went beyond simply replicating other Esplanade communities and reinterpreted the brand through the lens of the Mojave Desert, using the site’s terrain, views, and natural character to create a distinctly Southwestern resort lifestyle.

“We kept the elements of their program, but we couldn’t use it as a mix-and-match set of pieces that you simply move to another location,” Hagen says. “It had to respond to the site and the region.”

Esplanade at Red Rock sits atop a dramatic canyon setting, a departure from the relatively flat topography of many Florida and East Coast communities. With up to 30 feet of grade change, the site’s topography challenged design teams to implement retaining walls and terraced construction familiar to the region, while leveraging the elevation as an asset for preserving sightlines.

“There’s a lot of elevation in Vegas, and the residential areas away from the Strip can have amazing city views. We had to preserve those sightlines while still creating comfort, shade, and a sense of place,” says Hagen.

The site’s thoughtful layout and use of terraced construction gives many residences a breathtaking view in a “stadium seating” format to minimize obstructions. By embracing the terrain, the design transformed a technical challenge into a defining feature of the community experience. Creating a stronger sense of arrival while prioritizing views offers residents a daily connection to the surrounding landscape, from Red Rock Canyon to the Las Vegas skyline.

Designing for the desert also meant rethinking comfort. Rather than relying on the lush landscapes common in East Coast communities, the team carefully considered where residents would gather, pause, and move throughout the site. Trees, structures, and landscape elements were strategically positioned to provide relief from the desert sun, with sustainable plant palettes to withstand low-water and drought conditions.

Amenities at the heart of the Esplanade experience

 

While the landscape shaped the community’s physical framework, the Esplanade lifestyle ultimately comes to life through the experience residents share within it. Esplanade at Red Rock centers those experiences around an amenity campus designed for wellness, recreation, and meaningful connection.

A 10,000-square-foot clubhouse anchors the campus and provides several signature Esplanade wellness amenities. An indoor spa includes a cold plunge, sauna, contrast therapy and more, where residents can relax and unwind in comfort. Next door, a fitness center provides state-of-the-art exercise equipment, while a longevity lounge offers additional relaxation and wellness-focused programming. A pool outside strengthens indoor-outdoor connections and the feeling of everyday resort living.

Recreation and active living continue throughout the campus. Pickleball and bocce courts create opportunities for friendly competition, while a golf simulator in the clubhouse offers residents a year-round outlet for practice and play. A dog park gives four-legged companions room to run and socialize, and an event lawn provides multi-use space for community gatherings and outdoor entertainment.

Equally important are the spaces designed simply to bring people together. Fireside seating areas, a Barrel House Bistro, and an expansive event lawn create settings for culinary experiences, community gatherings, and outdoor entertainment. Quieter moments of connection were considered through features such as a butterfly garden, welcoming pollinators and giving residents a casual space to pause, reflect, and engage with the landscape.

Together, these amenities capture the lifestyle of wellness and connection that runs throughout the Esplanade brand.

A scalable framework for future expansion 

Designing a successful community requires site- and market-specific awareness. Staying true to an established lifestyle identity demands an equally deep understanding of the principles that define it. At Esplanade at Red Rock, Taylor Morrison and RVi bridged the gap through close collaboration, blending national brand expertise with regional insight to craft a community that feels both authentically Esplanade and unmistakably Las Vegas.

The approach to collaboration among geographically dispersed teams brought each team member’s strengths to the surface while establishing workflows for future expansion into new markets. Hagen believes that willingness to adapt ultimately became one of the project’s greatest strengths. “We weren’t reinventing Esplanade,” she says. “We were helping it evolve.”

Rather than simply replicating a brand experience, the process demonstrated how successful lifestyle brands can evolve to preserve the experience that residents value while embracing the unique character of place.