Roberttracyphd's Blog

MGM-Mirage City Center: The New Capital of the World

roberttracyphd — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 20:00:24 +0000

Dancing Forth to Light Fantastic Airs

What do you get with 12 + 7? Sorry, in this case the answer is not 19. In fact, 12 + 7 will get you considerably more than 19. 12 + 7 is the title of an exhibition currently installed at the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art. The numerical title represents a unique development of shared interests which is coming on-line in Las Vegas this December 2009. The number 12 represents the group of contemporary artists whose works are showcased in the Bellagio exhibition. These 12 fine artists include: Tony Cragg, Isa Genzken, Anthony Gormley, Jenny Holzer, Masatoshi Izumi, Francois-Xavier Lalanne, Maya Lin, Richard Long, Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Nancy Rubins, Frank Stella, and Peter Wegner. The integer 7 refers to the number of master architects who are also featured in this exhibition. The 7 master architects are: Lord Norman Foster, Helmut Jahn, William Pedersen, Cesar Pelli, Rafael Vinoly, David Rockwell, and Daniel Liebeskind.
12 + 7 then, presents the public display of the creative process where a unique amalgamation of contemporary artists and master architects have come together, thanks to the forward thinking MGM-Mirage executives, to collaboratively design “a city within a city”. These 19 highly imaginative artists/architects are the creative energy behind MGM-Mirage’s CityCenter and the 12 + 7 exhibition is a rare opportunity for us to examine the artistic studio process behind the structures and works of public art that constitute CityCenter.
It appears to me the visionary leaders at the helm of MGM-Mirage, led by CEO Jim Murren, must have experienced a group epiphany in the past few years. Murren and his business associates have formulated a vision along Las Vegas Boulevard which has the unbridled potential to dramatically redefine our desert city. It was a stroke of genius to cull together some of the brightest and most creative minds at the formative stage of CityCenter in order to fix into visible form a new definition of urban life along the Las Vegas Strip.
These 19 creative contemporary artists and master architects started their collaboration by first assessing the 67-acre parcel of land MGM-Mirage leadership was able to put together for CityCenter between Harmon and Tropicana Avenues along Las Vegas Boulevard. With the building site existing as their aesthetic portal, the team of 19 creative designers aspired to transform the desert sand and rock into a symphony of melodic sounds and vibrations with 18 million square feet of new space. They have succeeded. The sonorous tones of CityCenter evoke a very different visual language on the Las Vegas skyline. As the seven component properties constituting CityCenter come on-line in the days, weeks and months ahead, citizens of Las Vegas and visitors alike will find themselves engaged in a new, enlightened interpretation of urban living.
The first structure to come on-line (December 1, 2009) is Vdara, designed by Rafael Vinoly. This 57-story hotel is sited toward the back of the massive development and linked to the Bellagio by a covered walkway. Vdara will be both gaming- and tobacco-free and will most likely appeal to those who want to experience the “feel” of Las Vegas without the usual noise and smoke. Vinoly designed a bright and contemporary aura within Vdara. Some of the attractive amenities associated with Vdara include the restaurant Silk Road and an 18,000 square foot spa on two levels.
The spectacular forms and unique shapes of Crystals was the next facility at CityCenter to come on-line (December 3). The shape of Crystals emanated from the beautiful vision of Daniel Libeskind as he and Studio Daniel Libeskind offer a different interpretation regarding the relationship between retail and architecture in the early 21st century. Crystals bequeaths to CityCenter a spectacular shopping and entertainment district fronting Las Vegas Boulevard that is sure to grab one’s attention. The interior design for Crystals came from the studios of David Rockwell. David Rockwell and Studio Daniel Libeskind transformed 500,000 square feet into appropriate space for showcasing such boutique offerings as Roberto Cavalli, Carolina Herrera and Ermenegildo Zegna. In addition to the re-branding of shopping opportunities afforded to visitors by Crystals, shoppers will be able to enjoy unique eating venues and sightlines as they engage themselves in the always pleasurable people-watching experience.
The day after Crystals opened at CityCenter another major structure came on-line. The highly anticipated opening of the Mandarin Oriental took center stage on December 4. Designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, the Mandarin Oriental boutique hotel features a stunning seven-story interior courtyard and atrium that will include a private sculpture garden for the exclusive use of hotel guests and condominium residents. The Mandarin Oriental defines elegance and simplicity in a way that re-brands or transforms Las Vegas.
Aria Resort and Casino is not only the largest hotel at CityCenter but it is also the only structure that includes a casino. Designed by Cesar Pelli of Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, Aria is the central focal point of CityCenter around which all the other facilities revolve. Soaring 61-stories into the Las Vegas sky, Aria is comprised of two counterpoised, curvilinear towers that are very dramatic to behold but which also possess a symbiotic relationship with adjoining properties, thereby acting as a magnet holding all of CityCenter together as a unified whole. The beauty of Aria, as seen in the sketches and models at the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art, stands in harmony with its surroundings. Cesar Pelli exclaimed: “We believe that the totality of CityCenter is more important than the building we are designing.” Look for Aria to open December 16.
Helmut Jahn’s design for Veer Towers is slated to open in mid-January. Among the more distinctive of properties constituting CityCenter, Jahn’s Veer Towers is a resident’s only property. The two structures lean in opposite directions and are purposely off center by 5 degrees. From a distance and from certain angles, Veer Towers form a 37-story V. The lobby will be open to the general public but the upper floors and amenities will be secured for residents and guests only.
The Harmon Hotel, designed by Lord Norman Foster and Partners, will open in late 2010. This 28-story curvilinear boutique hotel is facetted with a jewel-like façade of multi-colored glass. The Harmon Hotel is a beautiful, iconic tower sited at the northeast corner of the CityCenter property.
Scattered throughout the property, inside the various structures as well as placed within the unique pocket-parks that make CityCenter pedestrian friendly, will be the creative production of the 12 contemporary artists. Notable examples are Maya Lin’s 84-foot long Colorado River made out of reclaimed silver and suspended above the registration desk of Aria. For those who don’t recognize this artist’s name, Maya Lin designed the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C. Isa Genzken’s Basic Research will be installed in the Porte Cohere of the Harmon Hotel. Installed behind the Aria registration desk will be Frank Stella’s stunning Damascus Gate Variation I painting. Richard Long’s suite of drawings, called China Clay Drawings, will be installed in Helmut Jahn’s Veer Towers. Tony Cragg’s Constructor, a bronze curvilinear pillar, will be featured in the Aria’s VIP Rotunda. Antony Gormley’s Bodies in Space VIII will be installed in the West Oculus of CityCenter’s Aria Resort and Casino. Also installed in the Aria Resort and Casino will be Jenny Holzer’s Four-Corner: Truisms, Living, a scrolling 18 foot by 280 foot long LED message board/wall winds itself over the roadways and through the underground parking structure. Peter Wegner’s Red (The Sun As It Sets) and Blue (The Moon As It Rises) will be nestled onto walls of Vdara’s massive lobby. Nancy Rubin’s Studies (Big Edge) will be installed prominently on the CityCenter property visible to both pedestrian and vehicular traffic. Rubin’s site specific sculpture will consist of recycled rowboats, canoes, small river craft as well as ocean vessels finessed into a 57 foot by 75 foot gravity-defying sculpture. And last, but certainly not least, will be Claes Oldenburg and Coosje Van Bruggen’s Typewriter Eraser and Knife Ship installed outside the Mandarin Oriental hotel. There is a sad irony here as Oldenburg-Van Bruggen’s first collaboration was the 1981 Flashlight which is installed on the courtyard of UNLV’s Performing Arts Center. The Typewriter Eraser and Knife Ship outside the Mandarin Oriental will be the last collaboration as Ms. Van Bruggen died this past January 2009.
Not to be lost in this orchestration of design that is CityCenter, the creative 19 also sought to make their vision of the built environment sustainable. CityCenter will be awarded LEED Gold certification, thereby bringing to the world-famous “Strip” a new vision and an elevated level of environmental consciousness.
12 + 7 is more than the sum total 19. 12 + 7 is the must see exhibition at the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art featuring paintings, sculptures, drawings and architectural models that collectively reveal the early ideas and their evolution from these 19 chosen contemporary artists and master architects. This exhibition will not only underscore the unique design process that gave rise to CityCenter, it will also help us understand the curious matrix that will re-brand Las Vegas as the “capital of the twenty-first century”.

Have you visited CityCenter? If so, let me know your thoughts on Las Vegas’ newest offering.

MGM Mirage CityCenter, Las Vegas

roberttracyphd — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 06:07:30 +0000

There is no doubt CityCenter is like nothing yet seen here, or probably anywhere. The largest privately funded construction project in U.S. history, it is a complex, interconnected web of hotels, condominiums, pools, spas, high-end restaurants and retail outlets, a casino, convention space, “pocket parks,” public artwork and pedestrian walkways, each component with its own distinct architectural style.

And it is all squeezed into a relatively tiny amount of space–for Las Vegas, at least. The 67-acre site contains 18.5 million square feet of built space. Compare that with the Bellagio next door, which is on 76 acres but has just 5 million square feet of built space.

Making it so compact was deliberate in order to build a sense of community and to keep it pedestrian-focused, Murren said, explaining, “We built up instead of out.” While conspicuous consumption will be very much a part of CityCenter, with its multimillion dollar condos, lavish suites, high-end restaurants and retailers like Gucci and Cartier, the project also has won awards for its environmental engineering. For instance, instead of grassy lawns or lush tropical foliage, the gardens are laid out with native, drought-resistant desert plants and the irrigation system uses 60% less water than usual.

Will the collective efforts of the community of architects, urban planners and urban artists brought together by MGM Mirage leadership write a new chapter in the legacy that is Las Vegas or will this 11+ billion dollar project be a bust? Your thought on this massive building project which is scheduled to open in phases in just a couple of weeks?

Charles Garnier Criticizing Gustave Eiffel’s Tower

roberttracyphd — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:45:32 +0000

“We come, we writers, painters, sculptors, architects, lovers of the beauty of Paris which was until now intact, to protest with all our strength and all our indignation, in the name of the underestimated taste of the French, in the name of French art and history under threat, against the erection in the very heart of our capital, of the useless and monstrous Eiffel Tower, which popular ill-feeling, so often an arbiter of good sense and justice, has already christened the Tower of Babel. (…) Is the City of Paris any longer to associate itself with the baroque and mercantile fancies of a builder of machines, thereby making itself irreparably ugly and bringing dishonour ? (…)”

“To comprehend what we are arguing one only needs to imagine for a moment a tower of ridiculous vertiginous height dominating Paris,just like a gigantic black factory chimney, its barbarous mass overwhelming and humiliating all our monuments and belittling our works of architecture, which will just disappear before this stupefying folly. And for twenty years we shall see spreading across the whole city, a city shimmering with the genius of so many centuries, we shall see spreading like an ink stain, the odious shadow of this odious column of bolted metal.”

What are your thoughts on Charles Garnier and other “enlightened” critics with their “open letter” condemning and calling for the destruction of Gustave Eiffel’s design selected as the center piece for the 1889 fair celebrating the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution?

Joseph Paxton’s Crystal Palace of 1851

roberttracyphd — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:19:34 +0000

As the Industrial Revolution and the Age of the Machine takes solid root in the 19th century, what are your thoughts on this statement regarding Joseph Paxton’s design of the Crystal Palace for the Fair of 1851? “The new shapes of the time were based on straight lines—the straight lines of iron girders, the straight streets of industrial towns, the shortest way between two points.”

Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin

roberttracyphd — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:48:49 +0000

In his satiric publication Contrasts, Augustus Pugin abandons “the antiquarian project of providing designers with historical sources in favour of the polemical use of historical argument to justify the integral revival of a past style of building for a modern national architecture.” What are your thoughts on the design collaboration between Pugin and Charles Barry as they develop the replacement for the Palace of Westminster with a Revivalist logic calling for a universal national style that may be applied to a full range of building programs?

Sir John Soane

roberttracyphd — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:28:11 +0000

“It is impossible to compose one design adapted to every situation, an eminence and a valley require a different style of architecture; an edifice in an open country should consist of large and simple parts, while the peaceful valley, and silent stream admit of more delicacy and ornament. The difference in manner of living, and the different ideas of convenience, comfort and elegance, render the attempt at forming one plan for every situation still more impracticable.” (John Soane, Plans, Elevations, and Sections of Buildings, 1788) Your thoughts of Sir John Soane’s call for practicality in architecture design during th 19th century?

Urban architecture

roberttracyphd — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 04:18:44 +0000

“Yes, I believe that our buildings, above all our public buildings, should be in some sense poems. The images they offer our senses should arouse in us sentiments corresponding to the purpose for which these buildings are intended.” Does Boullee’s notion about architecture design and poetry jive with your perception of the School of Architecture’s studio culture?

Claude-Nicolas Ledoux

roberttracyphd — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 23:55:31 +0000

Ledoux envisioned architecture as the art form most useful in defining, shaping and implementing a utopian morality and happiness of the human race. Trying to fuse both utopian and utilitarian conceptions fixed into visible form, Ledoux effectively moderated the social consciousness leading up to the French Revolution. What are your thoughts on Ledoux’s design for toll houses leading into Paris?

Fischer von Erlach’s Karlskirche, Vienna, begun 1716

roberttracyphd — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 21:48:24 +0000

“There is an obvious and very meaningful division here between the Catholic and Protestant worlds of the 18th century, a division which, one feels, ought to be reflected in obvious distinctions of plan and style in their respective religious buildings. It is, indeed, so reflected but with all sorts of subtle and intriguing distortions. As a wide generalization it is fair to say that high Baroque adventure belongs to the Catholic world and restrained classicism to the Protestant.” Your thoughts?

Schonbrunn

roberttracyphd — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 21:29:49 +0000

As architects/designers were standing on the precipice of the beginning of the 18th century, they made a fateful choice. “As history turns to march bravely into the future, influenced by the Industrial Revolution, architecture in the 18th century retreated into the distant past.” What are your thoughts on the choice (made collectively) to “retreat into the distant past” for inspiration and focus?