CITYCENTER: Las Vegas ~ MubO

CITYCENTER

GENSLER (Exucutive Architect)
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

The 18 million square foot development, which officially opened on the Las Vegas Strip in December. CityCenter is expected to open with approximately 12,000 employees, includes almost 6,000 hotel rooms,2,400 condominiums, 38 restaurants and bars, a convention center, a shopping mall, a Cirque du Soleil theater, and a 150,000-square-foot casino. All of this was designed and built in just over five years for $8.5 billion, The original cost estimate was $4 billion, but it was pushed up by rising construction costs and design changes, making CityCenter reportedly the largest and most expensive commercial project in U.S. history.

The project was started by MGM Resorts International, Dubai World became a joint partner during the project's construction phase. It is the largest privately funded construction project in the history of the United States.

The firm acted as an extension of MGM’s design department, overseeing approximately 250 consultants and a cast of marquee architects that included Daniel Libeskind, Helmut Jahn, and Norman Foster, as well firms such as Tihany Design and the Rockwell Group for the interiors.

CRYSTALS

The concentration of buildings on the site was as much a result of the realities of the now-defunct real estate boom as it was the outcome of a new Las Vegas development paradigm. “Property values on the Strip had skyrocketed,” says Sven van Assche, vice president of MGM’s design group. “We had to consider the return on investment for the amount of land,” he explains, referring to the 67 acres formerly occupied by the Boardwalk Hotel and Casino.

For site master planners Ehrenkrantz Ekstut & Kuhn, the challenge was to develop a scheme in which “the buildings would create space, not just be attractive objects,” explains firm principal Peter Cavaluzzi, FAIA. His goal was to create a plan characterized by a mix of uses, pedestrian-oriented spaces, and buildings brought right up to the property line to form a street wall directly on the Strip.

HARON HOTEL

CityCenter’s buildings have earned a total of six LEED Gold certifications. The collection of plaques notwithstanding, it seems a bit of a stretch to call so much air-conditioned space enclosed largely by glass (even high-performing glass) in the middle of the desert “sustainable.” However, the complex does deploy some notable resource-conserving strategies, including an 8.5-megawatt natural-gas-fired cogeneration plant. It generates enough power to satisfy about 13 percent of CityCenter’s electricity demand. But the real benefit comes from capturing the thermal energy produced as part of the generation process and using it to heat the buildings’ domestic water supply and provide space heating in the winter, says Mark Powasnik, senior vice president at WSP Flack + Kurtz, designer of the plant.

VDARA HOTEL AND SPA

Six deaths have occurred since construction began. On February 6, 2007, a 3,000 lb (1,400 kg) steel wall used as a concrete mold fell from a crane, hitting another wall which struck four workers, killing two. On August 10, 2007, a worker died when the counterweight for a construction elevator came down on him as he oiled the machine. On October 5, 2007, a worker fell approximately 50 ft (15 m) while working on the main resort tower. On April 26, 2008, a worker fell approximately 20 ft (6 m) in the south tower of the Aria Hotel & Casino. On May 31, 2008, a worker was crushed and killed when caught between the counter-weight system and the track of a crane.

ARIA RESORT AND CASINO

Unfortunately, CityCenter’s parts don’t quite gel into a cohesive ensemble. The buildings come across as a collection of individual expressions jammed together on a tightly packed site. The structures do define a few spatially interesting outdoor rooms, including a small park sandwiched between Crystals and the Aria. But most of the other outdoor spaces aren’t particularly pedestrian friendly. One example is the long boulevard that leads from the Strip to the Aria’s main entry. The roadway, framed by the Mandarin, Veer, and Crystals, is impressive, especially when viewed from the passenger seat of a limo. But on foot it is a different experience, encumbered by level changes and footbridges.