Las Vegas Sun

March 18, 2024

Exile on Center Point

Swarkestone Hall Pavilion facade

Bill Hughes

This replica of a building made famous by Jagger and company is also, the owner says, among the greenest stone constructions ever.

Click to enlarge photo

The cover of "Hot Rocks" by The Rolling Stones.

The Details

  • What: Realm of Design
  • Where: 1188 Center Point Drive; 566-1188
  • Official site: realmofdesign.com

When I saw it, I immediately thought of the Rolling Stones — specifically, the back cover of Hot Rocks: 1964-1971, which shows the group standing in front of what looks like a castle. It's an absolutely kick-ass image. That building is actually the Swarkestone Hall Pavilion in Derbyshire — not technically a castle, but close.

I know this because I looked it up after seeing a structure that has several of its details — in the middle of a business park on Center Point Drive, in Henderson.

Turns out, it is modeled after the same building. Scott McCombs, owner of Realm of Design, saw Swarkestone on a Rolling Stones poster in Hawaii. McCombs isn't a huge Stones fan, but the minute he saw Swarkestone, he knew what he wanted to do — build a replica to advertise his business, which manufactures architectural details for homes.

Before you ask, no, you can't set up your office inside: The whole thing's just a façade for McCombs' cement-making plant. But what a façade! He is sweating every detail, from the rusted hinges to the fleur-de-lys emblems. "We've already had one guy come up from Palm Springs just to see it, and one guy parked his car in our lot and stared at it for a few hours," says Scott's wife and president, Cindy.

But the building is notable for more than aesthetics — McCombs claims it's the greenest architectural-stone construction ever. All the steel in the frame is recycled, there's fly ash in the slab concrete, and instead of sheet rock, recycled glass rock was used. Then there's the exterior, created with a product McCombs invented — green stone, 99.9 percent recycled glass from bottles. Yes, it's expensive, about $18 a square foot. But McCombs hopes it makes you think more about saving the planet than about money.

"No one's doing anything like this in the United States that we know of," says Scott's son and operations manager, Nick, who estimates it will require 100,000 pounds of glass to finish the "castle." "It's all part of doing the right thing," Cindy says.

— Originally published in Las Vegas Weekly

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