Wynn Magazine - Las Vegas
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/760086
30 PHOTOGRAPHY BY BARBARA KRAFT sculpture competition is in progress. If these villages make you feel positively Brobdingnagian, that too is no accident. "Each village is named after a town in Gulliver's Travels, a favorite of Steve Wynn," explains Roger Thomas, Executive Vice President of Design for Wynn Design & Development, who designed the villages, along with Creative Director Alex Woogmaster, using some of their favorite European cities as inspiration. A gilded scroll outside the town of Mildendo (the metropolis of the Lilliput empire) announces it as "A prosperous town of golden wish givers and friendly, giddy goblins." The whirligigs of Waggywach are "powered by the warm breath of golden dragons in the valley below." And though "Project Deck the Halls" starts mobilizing more than a full year in advance and takes a small army of designers, installers, project managers, and horticulture specialists to accomplish, it is a decorating effort as personal to Steve Wynn as ornamenting his own home—because, in fact, it is. "The Wynns live here and entertain their personal friends and family here," Thomas says. "Mrs. Wynn in particular chose the white, gold, and silver palette for the decorations," whose purpose is the same as that of Wynn's year-round décor: to create a sense of joy and wonder. Even the plants are special: Among the 5,000 white and golden poinsettias in the Wynn atrium, you'll find the snow-white leaves of the brand-new Princettia Max, the first true white poinsettia hybrid. "There's always a plan here," says Maurice Wooden, President of Wynn and Encore, who has worked with Steve Wynn for nearly three decades. "We start early and work through the year on setting up an experience for our guests that is bright and energetic." It's a Wynn tradition that actually precedes "The Wynns live here and entertain their personal friends and family here." —roger thomas The entrance to The Buffet at Wynn is always a major focal point during the holidays. Past these holiday trees is another botanical wonderland, in the restaurant's skylit atrium.