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(video) Hats off to MGM Mirage for their use of public art at City Center [and the 12,000 jobs created]…

Author: Shane Micheals

Take a moment and watch this video of the public art at City Center, the city within the Las Vegas strip. I always applaud corporations who not only include public art in their development but truly include it from the onset as MGM Mirage has clearly done with the public art sprinkled throughout the 67 acre development. Fantastic!

For those readers unfamiliar with City Center I will provide some bg. and some text links for further exploration and discovery.

City Center is a 67 acre parcel that is anchored on one end by Bellagio and on the other end by the Monte Carlo resort, both anchor properties are also MGM Mirage properties. City Center consists of luxury hotels, condo. hotels, condominiums and the beautiful Crystals retail shopping at the Strip front of the property.

Aria hotel is the flagship and at just over 4,000 rooms and suites it is also the largest. It’s sister property is the Vdara which is a condominium hotel (when you’re not using your unit you can put it into inventory as a ‘hotel room’ thus generating some level of income from the unit, the jury is of course out on that one, in light of the global economy).

The ultra-luxurious Mandarin Oriental hotel and residences (only the hotel rooms are open at the time of this post, its my understanding the residences are being built as I write this).

The eye-catching Veer Towers, two condominium towers that literally veer in opposite directions; very striking but then I love modern architecture!

There is also The Harmon which anchors the other front corner (The Mandarin Oriental anchoring the other front corner with Crystals shopping in between them at the strip from on C.C.). The Harmon Hotel’s opening has been delayed due to construction issues, which ultimately shortened the tower’s height, and eliminating the condos. that were part of the original design. What started out as a problem for the Harmon actually, in my opinion will make it a better and more interesting hotel option amongst the sea of hotel options lining The Strip. Now, the Harmon will be the only boutique hotel at City Center, which makes it special and the new, lower height must improve sight lines for the hotel guests and residents of City Center condos. having the Harmon as a shorter tower.

City Center has it’s own monorail which starts at Bellagio, has one stop at City Center and that’s perfectly positioned within Crystals which is the retail shopping & dining space at City Center and the final stop is at Monte Carlo.

City Center also has it’s own co-generation electrical plant. CityCenter is the world’s largest environmentally sustainable, mixed-use new construction development to achieve LEED certification. USGBC has awarded six distinct LEED Gold certifications to ARIA Resort & Casino’s hotel tower, convention center and showroom; as well as Vdara Hotel & Spa, Mandarin Oriental, Crystals, and Veer Towers.

Myself and two friends were in Las Vegas in January 2010 celebrating my friend’s birthday and although we didn’t stay at City Center we did use the new tram which begins at the Bellagio, had one stop at the Crystals shopping at City Center, and a final stop at the Monte Carlo resort which anchors the other end of City Center this is where we got off the tram. It’s impressive, worked well and seems very well thought out feeds you right into City Center shopping and dining; from there it’s your choice and there are serveral but we wanted to check out the new casino at Aria.

We wandered through Crystals and wandered through a small portion of Aria until we found the casino. We played in the Aria casino for an hour and we loved it! The modern architecture is a sight to behold and I really like the interior design of the few spaces we had time to see. We’ll go back the casino is beautiful, modern, inviting and quite fun! It’s modern and the casino is dark but it all works for me, it warms up the modern spaces while also keeping players focused on the gaming, which is of course the point in the casino but it works in the lobby space too — it plays off the vast height of some of the ceilings creating intimate spaces with a nice luxurious warmth that’s modern and welcoming; nothing cold at all. Stunning.

Kudos to MGM Mirage for their vision and use of thought-provoking, public art so beautifully and organically with the spectacular architecture!

Also, a big hats off to MGM Mirage for creating a development that added 12,000 jobs to the economy.

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