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>> Wynn Las Vegas Casino Resort
Wynn Las Vegas, built at a cost of US$2.7
billion, is a casino resort on the Las Vegas Strip, in Las
Vegas, Nevada. The resort is named after casino developer
Steve Wynn. It is the flagship property of Wynn Resorts Limited.
The 2,716 rooms range in size from 620 square
feet (58 m²) to the villas at 7,000 square feet (650
m²).
Wynn Las Vegas is one of the tallest buildings
in Las Vegas, towering 50 stories over the Las Vegas Strip.
It is located at Las Vegas Boulevard South and Sands Avenue,
across from the Fashion Show Mall.
The property features a 111,000 ft²
(10,200 m²) casino, a 3 acre (12,000 m²) lake, 18
restaurants and bars, 26 retail outlets in 76,000 square feet
(7,000 m²) of space, one of which is a Ferrari-Maserati
dealership, an art gallery, and two wedding chapels. A convention
center with 223,000 ft² (20,700 m²) of space is
also available.
In a departure from the previous trend
of providing free sidewalk attractions to draw in customers,
the Wynn Las Vegas is constructed so that visitors must enter
the site to view the free attractions. The main feature is
large, flat waterfall stationed behind the mountain, running
into a small "lake", both of which have images displayed
on them to produce a unique show on the hour, every hour,
starting at some point in the afternoon.
The historic Desert Inn Golf Course was rebuilt
while the hotel was being constructed. The new course, the
only one on the Las Vegas Strip, was designed by Steve Wynn
and Tom Fazio, who previously worked together on the Shadow
Creek Golf Club, also in Las Vegas. Called the "Wynn
Golf and Country Club", use of the course is restricted
to hotel guests at a cost of $500 per round.
History
The site was assembled by buying the Desert
Inn Hotel and Golf course for most of the land. The remainder
was acquired by purchasing private residences that were generally
located along Paradise Avenue. While some owners sold early
on, others held out. This resulted in numerous legal actions
between the various parties. In the end, the site acquired
totaled 215 acres (870,000 m²).
The initial commercial for the hotel aired
in some local spots during the 2005 Super Bowl. The commercial
stands out in that Wynn stood atop the edge of his tall building
(with a helicopter a few feet away).
Wynn Las Vegas opened on April 28, 2005,
Wynn's wife's birthday.
Attractions
Nightclubs are an important part of the
resort, as are theaters housing several production shows.
One production show is Avenue Q, which enjoyed
considerable success on Broadway.
The other production show is a new, 1 million
gallon water-oriented production, entitled "Le Rêve"
(the original name of the resort project), designed by Franco
Dragone. No seat is more than 40 feet (12 m) from the stage
for this production. Dragone was a director of Cirque du Soleil
and creator of Céline Dion's "A New Day"
at Caesars Palace. Although not a Cirque du Soleil production,
"Le Rêve" shares many of the characteristics
usually associated with a Cirque du Soleil show.
The resort holds much of Wynn's considerable
art collection, which was largely removed from the Bellagio
following the merger of MGM Grand, Inc. and Mirage Resorts,
Inc. in 2000. The collection, which focuses primarily on 19th
and 20th-century works by European and American artists, includes
masterpieces by Édouard Manet, Andy Warhol, Vincent
van Gogh, Paul Cezanne, and Paul Gauguin, among others. The
centerpiece of the collection is "Le Rêve,"
the Pablo Picasso portrait that was the resort's original
namesake. Wynn reportedly purchased the painting for $42 million,
one of the highest prices ever paid for a Picasso. The collection
was on display at the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno while the
Wynn Las Vegas was being constructed and was installed in
the resort shortly before it was opened.
Inspiration and vision
Wynn purchased the Desert Inn hotel and
casino to obtain property for his future dreams. The Desert
Inn was imploded to make room for his new hotel project. The
first name assigned to the hotel was Le Rêve. Along
the way, Wynn Resorts Limited was formed and continued development
with Wynn being the controlling stock holder.
Wynn has stated that the major shift with
this new resort is the concept of designing from the "inside
out." In contrast to his previous hotels Bellagio and
The Mirage, there is no Las Vegas Strip attraction to draw
in the gawkers. Instead, visitors must venture inside to see
what the hotel is all about. Wynn has said that "there
is no franchise in a casual observer, there is a franchise
in a guest."
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