Silver Nugget Awards to celebrate homebuilding

The Las Vegas Review-Journal, in partnership with the Southern Nevada Home Builders Association, will be celebrating the homebuilding industry’s accomplishments of 2013 at the Inaugural Silver Nugget Awards to be held March 29 at the Renaissance Hotel.

Winners will be chosen from 43 categories covering, architecture, interior design, floor plans and sales and marketing.

The panel of judges has been selected. All are experts in multiple fields.

David Baird is the director of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas School of Architecture, which houses Nevada’s accredited design programs in interior architecture, landscape architecture and planning and architecture.

“We spend more time in our homes than any other place. Our homes comfort us, inspire us, protect us, rejuvenate us and more than any other environment mold us. It is fitting that we take time to recognize and celebrate excellence in the homebuilding industry,” he said.

Samra Leedy-Keller of Chicago Title in Irvine, Calif., has been the vice president of sales and marketing for several private and publicly owned builders.

Her experience includes the management of sales and escrow teams, product pricing strategy, interface and strategic development of in-house mortgage operations, sales training, establishment of marketing, merchandising and style guidelines and training and leadership development.

“I am honored to have been selected as a judge for the Silver Nugget Awards,” she said. “As a recipient of many such awards, the thrill of being acknowledged for outstanding achievement in sales, marketing and design is a reward for the dedication put forth to create a community that is not only successful but attains a higher echelon for all to reach. This will be a great awards program and I’m looking forward to the challenge of determining the finest in each category.”

Tom Weston is the co-founder and CEO of Weston-Mason &Associates, an independent Los Angeles-based advertising and marketing firm.

The Los Angeles Business Journal has consistently ranked it among the top independent advertising firms in that city. It also ranks among the top 500 advertising agencies in the nation, according to Advertising Age magazine.

Weston is a 30-plus-year veteran of the real estate and financial services industries.

“Peer-to-peer recognition similar to the Oscars, Emmys and Grammys, is an important benchmark for industry professionals to showcase their hard work and innovation,” he said. “Recognition of the excellence in the homebuilding industry that the Silver Nugget Awards provides is an important tool consumers can use to compare new homes from resales and also compare builders, plans and features offered when determining value. It is good news for everyone involved in homebuilding that the Silver Nugget Awards are here, bigger and better than ever.”

Judging will be taking place Feb. 27 to March 1.

The winners will be announced at the award celebration.