You don’t get more Vegas than Irwin Molasky
Visionary developer, dad, mentor, sports enthusiast, philanthropist, racehorse aficionado; Irwin is everywhere in this city. He built our local hospital. He researched, developed, built, and ran a hospice that changed the landscape of end-of-life care in Southern Nevada, a project that the “regular guy” Molasky admitted, “I’m proud to talk about it.” His vision for our city was one of sustainable energy and recycled materials.
Working with his longtime partner Merv Adelson, Irwin Molasky made Las Vegas a place where people wanted to live. The duo gave Vegas one of our most enviable and enduring calling cards—a mid-century modern neighborhood he named Paradise Palms. Whether the homes around the Las Vegas Country Club or those at Desert Inn Estates, Molasky’s golf course communities gave many important transplants and regular families a place to live. His retail centers gave us a place to shop—Commercial Center, Boulevard Mall, and Best of the West. The spirit of the city inspired Irwin and his many collaborators: “New people come here and bring new ideas, new backgrounds, new social instincts to the city.”
Since January 2025, Reid Public History Institute has partnered with the Molasky family at Ovation to collect, archive, and celebrate the contributions of Irwin Molasky. Our aim is simple: document and institutionalize the legacy of Irwin Molasky, his family, and his community collaborators. Whether he was working alongside his wife Susan, collaborating with his sons, or brainstorming projects with the founding fathers of UNLV, his influence on Las Vegas is nothing short of profound.
Working through the Reid Institute, undergraduates, Masters students and PhD candidates in history, journalism, sociology, and urban affairs, have worked collectively with archivists to research historical information and images. This content is the basis for a large-scale timeline installation at Ovation’s Summerlin headquarters. What we have found in archives all around the Valley, Southern California, and Northern Nevada, is truly a treasure trove of Vegas history—oral histories still on cassette tape; photographs of the day Irwin broke ground on UNLV’s Interfaith Center in 1968; a key chain from the Pyramids Hotel, the property that he opened with his parents in 1952.
And that project keeps growing.
We celebrate this collaboration with an April 2026 event at the historic Morelli House in partnership with Nevada Preservation Foundation and Ovation. Entitled “Designing a City: Irwin Molasky and the Making of Mid-Century Modern Las Vegas,” the event features student research, interactive maps of the family’s 70+ year influence on urban development, and a lively discussion about why Irwin Molasky loved Las Vegas…and why Las Vegas loves Irwin Molasky.