Wynn's Win

Steve Wynn's new project is open!:

For five years, casino developer Steve Wynn has labored over his latest creation, the $2.7 billion Wynn Las Vegas, forbidding photographs of the interior and keeping most of its design aspects secret.

The wait to see Wynn's much-hyped design was ending early Thursday as the towering, bronze glass hotel-casino with 2,700 rooms made its official debut, perhaps bringing with it a new era of architecture that could reshape the city.

Oh no! More reasons to visit Vegas!

...Ultimately, the public will pass judgment on Wynn's curvy property, but a tour of Wynn Las Vegas reveals an intriguing design that differs in many ways from his previous hotel-casinos such as the Bellagio, The Mirage and Treasure Island.

...Along with Wynn Las Vegas, the gambling tycoon is building Encore, an adjacent $1.4 billion hotel-casino scheduled to open in 2008. Wynn is also erecting a $700 million casino in Macau and is bidding on one in Singapore.

....While the days of dark, smoky casinos have long passed, Wynn has finally taken full advantage of the sun that illuminates this desert valley. Light pours into many of its spaces, providing a sense of openness.

Vibrant and distinct colors are everywhere from the powerful red carpets with purple and green to the chocolate-brown ceilings.

Wynn Las Vegas, located on the northern end of the Las Vegas Strip, also embraces nature. He has built an atrium that connects the property's two main entrances filled with an array of mums and orchids. His restaurant, Okada, boasts an authentic Japanese garden with a pond teeming with vegetation found traditionally in Asia.

Other restaurants have patios facing a "Lake of Dreams," a watery area hidden behind a mountain of evergreen trees.

Sounds really interesting! I'm glad to hear about the space. One thing I never liked about The Mirage is the claustrophobic feeling one gets in the casino, which occurs because you can see very far horizontally, but not vertically. You feel like an insect under a hammer.

Wynn is counting on the restaurants to help generate a quarter of a billion dollars in revenue. He has landed top-notch chefs to work behind the stove instead of courting celebrity chefs more interested in television shows and cookbook signings than their cuisine.

Elizabeth Blau, Wynn's executive vice president of restaurant marketing and development, said the food will live up to the hype, surpassing anything she and Wynn did at the Bellagio.

The restaurants, she said, will make a "giant statement."

Smart move! The "cultcha" of Las Vegas has really advanced over the last decade.

Perhaps most striking about Wynn Las Vegas is that the traditional casino layout has been scuttled. The casino is no longer centerstage, dominating a visitor's attention and wallet. Many of the high-end restaurants and upscale shops like Louis Vuitton and a Ferrari-Maserati dealership can be reached without traversing the casino floor.

The place also feels deceptively small. Getting from one end to the other isn't like trekking across Caesars Palace or MGM Grand. But this isn't a boutique hotel, either. People clutching maps still had to ask for directions.

But the real switch for Wynn this time around, more than 15 years after he opened The Mirage, is what he has done with his name.

"This is the launching of a brand," Kramer said.

Wynn is omnipresent. His name is on the casino's parapet, the two marquees and slot machines. He has a slew of stores, carrying Wynn clothes, Wynn china and Wynn home furnishings.

If anyone can make this massive project work, Wynn can! Flamboyant showman, rich as Croesus, determined and energetic, appreciative of art, and smart!