Wynn Magazine - Las Vegas
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/725934
26 PhotograPhy by barbara kraft (andrea's); © ron yue (W ynn) from top: The entrance to Andrea's restaurant; Steve Wynn at the opening of Wynn Palace. When we were opening the Mirage in 1989, I had been pitched all these grand ideas from the biggest agencies. But Hal was a terse man, and he said, 'One thing I'll never do, Mr. Wynn, is show your building before it's open. No renderings, models, all that hyperbole. If you're considering us, I have to tell you: A chief executive, a president, a boss has to be able to define who they are. Because if the boss doesn't know who they are, then guys like us can't make it up. I've seen your model and I believe that your hotel is going to be spectacular, but the last thing I'll ever do is say that. Your job is to build it; my job is to pro- voke people to discover it on their own terms." When Wynn shot the commercial for the opening of Bellagio in 1998, he took away those lessons. "We didn't show the hotel in the ad. We had Andrea Bocelli singing 'Con Te Partiro,' and a couple on balconies—no talk- ing. All we had were pictures of the lake and the fountain, and water filtering over the woman's hand. Then, black screen: 'Bellagio. And so it begins.' We created the expecta- tion—and then we fulfilled it." Wynn is delving into hotel history, he explains, because he wants the hotel to do the talking. "As Hal would say, 'I can tell you that this is the eighth wonder of the modern world, but I wouldn't do that. I want to invite people to come and experience it [for them- selves].' If you're going to write a story, it should be called 'Wynn Palace Begins.' You can use that line," he says with a wink. "I want people to come to Wynn Palace and love the things they see, of course," Wynn says. But the things they won't see or know—the most luxurious employee dining room, a design coordinator painstakingly poring over sprinkler caps, and yes, even the story of that chandelier— are the founda- tion that Wynn Palace is built on. "And if it makes people joyful," Wynn says, "then I've done my job." "I want people to come to Wynn Palace and love the things they see." —steve wynn