CityCenter

Las Vegas, NV

With its spectacular hotels, legendary casinos and larger than life signs, Las Vegas occupies a singular place not only in the gaming and hospitality industries, but American culture as well. As the Strip has matured, its paradigm of flamboyant, free-standing buildings has become outmoded. With the increasing value of real estate along the Strip and shifts in the hotel and gaming industries, MGM MIRAGE recognized the need to take a different approach to development, featuring a more intense and broader mix
of uses.

EE&K’s plan for CityCenter introduced a new vision, rooted in a more urbane and sustainable sensibility. The plan, which incorporates a diverse program including Las Vegas’ largest hotel, two boutique hotels, retail, offices and 2,400 luxury residential units, focuses on a series of high quality and dramatic public environments as well as a walkable pedestrian realm. EE&K’s vision works both as spectacle and as a series of small-scaled pedestrian-oriented public environments. It breaks dramatically with established norms in several ways: positioning buildings to directly address and engage the Strip; making connections to the adjacent Bellagio Hotel and leveraging the tremendous amount of investment represented in its famous fountains; and incorporating public transit.

As the largest privately financed development in U.S. history, the implementation of CityCenter has presented challenges no less monumental. Inherent in EE&K’s vision of bringing urbanism to the Strip, was the principle that CityCenter be built like a real city. The strength of that vision and EE&K’s plan accommodated multiple architects from around the world. At its opening, CityCenter promises to be a transformational model not only for Las Vegas, but for the role of gaming and entertainment in the city.