Wynn Las Vegas Magazine by MODERN LUXURY

Wynn - 2014 - Issue 1 - Spring+Summer

Wynn Magazine - Las Vegas

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through the atrium, you were in the middle. I used curved hallway corridors to the elevators so you didn't look down long avenues; I put the cashier cage in the middle so you wouldn't look across the casino toward the showroom. I des- perately tried to reduce scale by blocking your view of the corridors." His next resort, Bellagio, opened in 1998, was massive in size. That iconic lake with its fountains was beautiful, "but when you were in the lobby, you were 1,000 feet from the elevators!" A walk to the convention center from a faraway room could log three quarters of a mile on a pedometer. "It was an old-fashioned way of thinking," he says of the design. When Wynn bought the 272-acre Desert Inn property, just a few years later, he sat in the building where Encore stands today and envisioned his opportunity to offer guests the ultimate in luxury and convenience. "I sat down with the whole design team from The Mirage— De Ruyter Butler, Roger Thomas, and Janie Radoff—and we said, 'Let's take a look at our own work. How do we get out of this? And the answer to that is the reason you feel and have this sense of discovery and intimacy here." The inspiration for creating a grand space with pockets of exclusivity may not be imme- diately apparent when you visit Wynn and Encore: New York City. Consider Wynn's ratio- nale, however, and it makes perfect sense. "It is surely a big place, but in Chelsea and Little Italy and Chinatown and the Upper West Side and Tribeca, there is intimacy, and those neighborhoods take on a shape, a form, and a culture relevant to the people who live there." Thinking vertically—not horizontally—would facilitate creating those neighborhoods. To wit: Rather than put all the suites atop the hotel, he could create a column of suites with its own entrance, and banks of elevators for the remaining rooms, cutting walking distance to a fraction of the length of the hallway. The result of this plan for high-limit players is South Tower Suites. "And that created the opportunity for a neighborhood," says Wynn. "I could put the baccarat and high-limit slots near those eleva- tors, and [Asian restaurant] Red 8." At the end of the hallway, the newly redesigned, Michelin- starred jewel box that is Wing Lei tempts "residents" of that neighborhood. Even the retail is no accident, with Tower Suites guests residing closest to Chanel, Louis Vuitton, and Cartier. The subtlest delineations reinforce the neighborhood feel, says Roger Thomas, execu- tive vice president of design for Wynn Design and Development. "When I create a neighbor- hood, I often do it by using a special language of color and finishes. For instance, the Tower Suites at Wynn are completely different in color language than the rest of the hotel. Wynn is dark backgrounds with light accents and moldings, while the Tower Suite is light back- grounds with dark accents." "When people leave the excitement of a casino to eat dinner, we want to separate the restaurants so you can take an emotional beat and reset yourself." The Pagoda table at Mizumi, with its waterfall view right over the lake, is a private piece of dining paradise. photography by barbara kraft 38 Wynn STEVE WYNN 034-040_Wynn_FOB_Steve_Spring14.indd 38 5/15/14 4:07 PM

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