Las Vegas High School Academic Building and Gymnasium, now the Las Vegas Academy of International Studies and Performing Arts, is an Art Deco building in Las Vegas, Nevada. It represents a subset of the Art Deco style known as "Aztec Moderne", in which Aztec design motifs were used in an overall Art Deco palette of forms and materials. The academic building and the gymnasium are two of the original 3 buildings that we built. The third was destroyed around 1950.
Described as the best example of Art Deco in Las Vegas, the school was designed by father-and-son architects George A. and Lehman A. Ferris of Reno, Nevada. The stucco-covered reinforced concrete buildings are decorated with a variety of polychrome medallions and friezes depicting animals and plants. The two story academic building, measuring 208 by 82 feet (63 by 25 m), is part of a seven-building complex within the larger Las Vegas High School Neighborhood Historic District. The gymnasium is of complementary form and construction, measuring 113 by 83 feet (34 by 25 m). The gymnasium's entrance is rendered as a stylized Mayan arch. The Academic Building and Gymnasium are linked by the 1952 Humanities Building, which is not regarded as contributing to the historic character of the complex.
The Academic Building and Gymnasium were listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 24, 1986. The school became a magnet school for specialized studies in 1993.
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