Thursday, December 31, 2009
Compared To The Top Shopping Malls On Las Vegas Strip, Crystals Does Not Measure Up
By Robert L. Candiotti
This afternoon, I visited four Las Vegas Strip shopping malls, including Crystals at the new CityCenter.
All
on foot, I started at Fashion Show Mall, went south to Grand Canal Shoppes, then Forum Shops and, finally, Crystals.
In interesting and individual ways, the first three have sexiness and romance. They exude life. Each has
a unified identity that grabs the visitor immediately upon entering through any door.
To me, Crystals
has none of these components.
In fact, when arriving at Crystals on the tram, one could just as easily be entering
a hospital than a new shopping mall on Las Vegas Boulevard. I sense dead and uninviting space there.
The first
three shopping spaces seem to do more compelling things with light than does Crystals. Also, Crystals' angular emphases
do not support a sense of comfort.
Each of the malls - except for Crystals - has many places to sit down.
Crystals has virtually none.
Though they all have high-end stores, only Crystals does not have a democratic feeling
that allows for a variety of people to be connected emotionally when inside.
I am not an expert. I am just expressing
how I feel when I am inside these four shopping malls on Las Vegas Strip.
One point that cannot be debated
is the Crystals architects have proudly added an "80-feet tree house."
Say what?
Earlier
this month, on a "State of Nevada" radio show on KNPR, David Rockwell, interior designer of Crystals, described
and rhapsodized over the 80-foot tree house.
Of the many things I do not understand about Crystals, the tree
house is probably number one. I invite anyone to go to Crystals, check out the "tree house," and decide for
yourself what to think.
The 80-foot tree house reminds me of Hans Christian Andersen's story "The Emperor's
New Clothes." In the tale, everyone is oohing and aahing over the emperor's new clothes, until a young child says, "But
he isn't wearing anything at all!"
Once the child speaks up, then everyone realizes they had not been willing
to face reality.
In addition to the tree house, I do not see the point of Crystals' "back lit red agate
and bamboo" stairway.
In my humble opinion, the successful shopping malls along Las Vegas Strip
are oozing with delicate sexiness, romance and fun.
To me, Crystals is just too intellectual
and removed from the free nature (take at look at the wild horses on Nevada's silver quarter dollar) of Las Vegas Strip.
I'll tell you what I don't want. I don't want any tree houses in Ivanpah Valley.
7:14 pm pst
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
After A Few Hours At Aria, I Get A Hankering To Hang With Pink Flamingos
By Robert L. Candiotti
Inside the Sunday, December 13, 2009, issue of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, there was a 30-page promotional section
for Las Vegas' 67-acre CityCenter.
30 pages. It was almost heavy to hold, with extensive articles to read. There
were informative pages with good photos for the 4004-room hotel-casino Aria (which opened two weeks ago on December 16), and
new hotel and condo skyscrapers Veer Towers, Vdara and Mandarin Hotel, as well as Crystals shopping mall.
There
were also individual pages for CityCenter's construction achievements, green building accomplishments, modern art displays
and the new Cirque du Soleil "Viva Elvis" show.
That was all fine. People are naturally curious about
CityCenter.
But the cover page of the elaborate supplement said "Welcome
to CityCenter. The heart of Las Vegas."
The heart of Las Vegas?
To me - even in an expensive
and slick promotional newspaper section - professing such a thing as CityCenter being the heart of Las Vegas is ridiculous
and, frankly, annoying.
CityCenter - though it is not supposed to have a theme - looks intentionally like mid-town
Manhattan.
The heart of Las Vegas, in my opinion, is definitely not at CityCenter with its New York City
skyscrapers on the Las Vegas Strip.
I have now lived in Las Vegas 11 years. My affection for this city has grown
continuously. To me, the heart of Las Vegas is in the Old West, the settling of Southern Nevada, the Old Mormon Fort, the pioneering,
visionary gambling entrepreneurs who came here, the trend-setting dizzying casinos constructed decades ago.
The heart of Las Vegas can also be the work ethic - and generally the pleasant demeanor - of the thousands
and thousands of local residents who enable Las Vegas to meet the expectations of the millions of tourists who come
here every single month.
Binion's downtown - in physical reality, or, after its gone, in Las Vegas mythology
- will always be more the heart of Las Vegas than the $8.5 billion CityCenter.
Las Vegas is really
too unique, mind-bending and fun to have as its heart glass and metal skyscrapers towering over CityCenter's museum-like
atmosphere.
As I have said earlier this month in this blog, I like Aria. I have been there a few times now. There
is a bar there I especially enjoy with the sophisticated relaxation it provides.
However, I will admit, after a
few hours in Aria, I get a distinct craving to go across the street to the simpler and warmer Flamingo Las Vegas. I often
feel the heart of Las Vegas is at that home of the awkward, silly, pink birds.
5:25 pm pst
Friday, December 25, 2009
If Aria At CityCenter Is Masculine, Venetian Las Vegas Is Feminine
By Robert L. Candiotti
In a December 17, 2009, online piece - "Opening night at Aria: It was a really, really big show" - John Katsilometes
of the Las Vegas Sun describes CityCenter's new Aria hotel-casino as "dark, masculine."
Other
people who have been to Aria - including me - also say it is masculine and dark.
The Aria skyscraper's repetitive
exterior patterns of glass and metal are clearly masculine. Its architecture has many points and steel edges that, also,
convey masculinity.
Inside the casino, Aria has brown carpets and a thorough darkness. Can this look
be called a guy thing?
I started wondering what might be a good example of a feminine hotel-casino in Las
Vegas. Venetian immediately came to mind.
With its gondolas and singing gondoliers, its canal, wandering
musicians, countless places to stop and look around, and even smooch, as well as sit down, Venetian's coziness
and warmth can, I think, be defined as feminine.
Unlike Aria's and CityCenter's points and edges, Venetian
has endless curves.
On the casino floor, I think Venetian's colors and lighting are warm and humanistic. This is
something I would like to study further.
At Venetian Las Vegas' St. Mark's Square on the second
floor, people like to dine and linger. They are not anxious to leave.
Can the same be said about Aria?
Before too long, it will be clear what type of public acceptance is being given to Aria.
On the other hand,
the decade-old Venetian Las Vegas seems to be a romantic and fun place with swarms of visitors day in and day out.
These two clear examples of both masculine and feminine hotels-casinos cause me to ponder.
What does the
future hold for Aria?
5:16 pm pst
Friday, December 18, 2009
Agree With L.A. Times Architecture Critic Hawthorne That CityCenter Is Not Truly Creative
By Robert L. Candiotti
Yesterday, on its second day of business, I entered Aria, Las Vegas CityCenter's centerpiece hotel-casino.
I like it.
It may never be one of my favorite Las Vegas casinos, but Aria has a sultriness and palpable darkness
that will draw me back soon.
Aria is classy. I am fine with that. Whenever I go - as was the case the first
time yesterday - I will make sure I am dressed pretty well.
My suggestion is, if you go there - especially
at night - dress up. Aria most definitely ain't no dive. I find it to be both mature and cool.
However, I
am not moved by CityCenter's general architecture. I have read statements by Jim Murren - MGM Mirage Chairman, CEO and
conceptual force behind CityCenter - that he wanted to create mid-town Manhattan on the Las Vegas Strip.
How creative
is that, really? The architectural firm Pelli Clarke Pelli designed Aria. That company is famous for designing Petronas
Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, International Finance Centre in Hong Kong and World Financial Center in New York.
No question, Pelli Clarke Pelli is capable of doing huge, modern projects.
But I am personally not that impressed
with the architectural statement of CityCenter, which has been built at the cost of $8.5 billion.
I agree with
Christopher Hawthorne, the architecture critic of the Los Angeles Times newspaper, that CityCenter could have ended
up with "a wilder, more inventive and more entertaining kind of architectural gigantism."
Hawthorne
says that "it's tough not to wander through the place and think - even if it's purely an architecture-lover's fantasy
- about what might have been if a really rip-roaring group of firms, one with a collective taste for scale, color, irony and
abandon, had been allowed to drain that $8.5 billion budget."
Hawthorne's thinking on this is similar to mine.
Also - and I will write more about it this month - I am disappointed with Crystals, CityCenter's grandiose shopping
and dining space. The success of the Crystals building already does worry me.
At this point, though, I
realize all of CityCenter needs to be lived with and supported. Over the next few months I plan to spend a lot of time
getting to know Aria, and the other areas of CityCenter.
I do have a deep interest in Southern Nevada's proposed Ivanpah Valley Airport and the town of Primm, Nevada,
40 miles south of Las Vegas, but my fascination with the Las Vegas Strip endures unabated after living in this unique
city for more than 11 years.
4:38 pm pst
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Man Who Conceived Las Vegas' $8.5 Billion CityCenter Never Inside Encore Or Palazzo?
By Robert L. Candiotti
Yesterday, December 8, 2009, I took the new tram from Bellagio to Crystals shopping and dining center for my first look
at the totally new 67-acre CityCenter in Las Vegas.
I walked around and through CityCenter for a couple of
hours.
Definitely, I have thoughts and opinions about CityCenter. However, I will hold off on a statement in this
blog until after Aria - the city-within-a-city's 60-story casino-hotel - opens a week from today, on December 16.
For right now, though, I will say I have read an interesting article by Amanda Finnegan of the Las Vegas Sun
that I came across on the Internet.
The piece is titled, "Murren: Locals will visit Strip to go to CityCenter,"
and is dated December 8, 2009.
The article is about a local television interview with Jim Murren - MGM Mirage Chairman
and Chief Executive Officer - who conceived CityCenter. In her story, Finnegan notes that L.A. Weekly newspaper has
written Murren has never been inside the newest casinos on Las Vegas' dazzling Strip, such as Encore or Palazzo.
He didn't think it would be worth his time to check out the newest majestic edifices on The Strip? Just not interested,
I guess. To me this is incredible, and probably revealing.
Having seen Crystals, I naturally have to wonder
if he has ever been to Forum Shops and Fashion Show Mall.
This is a very basic question, but does Mr. Murren actually
like Las Vegas? I wonder.
Anyhow, after I get inside Aria in a week or so, I will put in my two cents
about the $8.5 billion CityCenter project.
5:59 pm pst
