Project CityCenter

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CityCenter is a 76-acre mixed use development project proposed (currently under construction) by MGM Mirage on the Las Vegas Strip in Las Vegas, Nevada. The development will be on the site of the now imploded Boardwalk Hotel and Casino and adjoining land between the Bellagio and the Monte Carlo, and will be connected to these resorts via a state-of-the-art people mover system. With a total cost expected to exceed $7 billion, Project CityCenter is proposed as the largest privately financed development in the United States. Unlike other themed resorts along the Las Vegas Strip, plans include multiple high-rise buildings with contemporary urban design. Project CityCenter will feature approximately 2,800 units of luxury condominiums, a 4,000-room luxury hotel and casino; two 400-room, non-gaming boutique hotels; and over 665,000 square feet of retail, dining and entertainment venues. The project will eventually employ an estimated 12,000 people.

A model of how Project CityCenter will appear from Las Vegas Blvd.

1 Development Plans
2 Development Team
3 Phases
4 Construction
5 External links

[edit] Development Plans

Conceptual Masterplan designed by Ehrenkrantz Eckstut and Kuhn Architects

4,000-room 60-story CityCenter Resort tower designed by Cesar Pelli

165,000-square-foot casino designed by Cesar Pelli

400-room Mandarin Oriental Hotel and Residences designed by Pedersen and Tihany

400-room The Harmon Hotel/Residences designed by Foster and Partners

1500-unit Vdara Condo-Hotel tower designed by Rafael Viñoly

Twin, 350-unit Veer luxury condo towers designed by Helmut Jahn

500,000 square feet of retail and entertainment space designed by Daniel Libeskind

225,000 square feet of convention and meeting space

900,000 square feet for back-of-house operations

2,000-seat theater

70,000-square-foot spa

7,500-car parking garage

Fire station.

people mover transportation system

On-site power plant

CityCenter is expected to cost over $7 billion. The original cost estimate was $4 billion, but had been pushed up by rising construction costs and earlier design changes. MGM Mirage expects to build over 2,800 condo-hotel and condominium units within Project CityCenter. The Mandarin Oriental, Las Vegas hotel at CityCenter will include 400 hotel suites as well as more than 200 condominium units designed to appeal to an international demographic. Two leaning 400-unit condo towers, located in the middle of the CityCenter site and above several floors of retail space, are designed for younger demographic who desire living in an urban environment. CityCenter will also include a 4,000-room resort hotel designed by world renowned architect Cesar Pelli, and more than 500,000 square feet of retail space. The other condo buildings include a condo-hotel with about 300 apartments and a bigger tower with about 1,500 condo-hotel units.

The multi-use project is being designed with green technologies to make it one of the world's largest environmentally sustainable urban communities. Plans include garden roofs, the use of reclaimed water, and an on-site power plant. MGM Mirage will pursue LEED certification for the project as outlined by the U.S. Green Building Council. MGM Mirage has reached a $100 million agreement with Siemens to design and build a central energy plant to help power and cool Project CityCenter.

CityCenter's retail district is being planned by Bloomfield Hills, Michigan-based Taubman Centers, Inc, a high-end retail developer. MGM Mirage in keeping the company's long-standing commitment to diversity, have announced that they are going to include minority, and women owned businesses in the retail district of CityCenter.

Preliminary reports from MGM Mirage state that a new Cirque du Soleil show, called Elvis, will premiere at the CityCenter Resort on opening day.

Ironically, a CVS located on a piece of land between the Monte Carlo and in front of the CityCenter project refused to give up its plot of land. The store is still standing, and the CityCenter project will be built around it.

[edit] Development Team

Some of the world's top design, architectural and construction partners will be involved in Project CityCenter. The design team is led by renowned architects Cesar Pelli, Rafael Vinoly, Lord Foster, James KM Cheng, HKS Architects, Inc., Helmut Jahn, Daniel Libeskind and Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates. Cesar Pelli and Associates, the architect responsible for the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, will be the lead design architect on Project CityCenter's 4,000-room hotel and casino with HKS Architects, Inc. as the architect-of-record, in addition LEO A DALY is the Block B Architect of Record. The Perini Building Company is lead contractor on the project, with Tishman Construction Corporation serving as the executive construction manager. Gensler is the Executive Architect, overseeing the project.

[edit] Phases

The combined project totals approximately 16,797,000 square feet of space and 7,190 hotel rooms and resort and hotel condominium units. It will be built in three phases, A, B, and C. [1]

Phase A

Phase A will consist of 10,345,000 square feet including the resort hotel with 4,000,000 square feet of hotel space, 155,000 square feet of casino area, a 3-story, 565,000-square-foot convention center, a 1,800-seat theater featuring the new ELVIS show produced by Cirque du Soleil, back-of-house areas, offices, two parking garages, one of which is a 13-level parking structure and a one subterranean garage located underneath the casino level.

Phase B

Phase B consists of 1,460,000 square feet with a total of 2,860 hotel and resort condominium units within two high-rise towers and associated open space and recreational areas. The resort condominium tower is 585 feet high with 120 units, and the hotel condominium tower is 585 feet high with 1,050 units. A shopping center area consisting of 17,000 square feet and accessory with incidental uses designed to support this portion of the project is incorporated into the tower buildings. Parking for this area will be provided within a portion of a parking structure currently under construction known as the Bellagio Employee Garage.

Phase C

Phase C consists of 4,992,000 square feet including two high-rise hotel towers (Sobella towers), 596,000 square feet of shopping areas, and associated and incidental offices and support areas. This area is framed by two 548-foot-high hotel towers consisting of 400 rooms each. The Mandarin Oriental Hotel is at the south end and Lifestyle Hotel is on the north end at the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard South and Harmon Avenue. A total of 1,620 resort condo units are proposed within the block, distributed within each hotel tower and mid-rise buildings above the shopping center known as Sobella. Parking for this area is provided by an 8-level parking structure located south of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel and a one-level subterranean parking structure underneath the shopping center.

[edit] Construction

Project CityCenter rises skyward in October 2006.

Construction began without an official groundbreaking ceremony in April 2006. The 20-month long design process was completed in June 2006, with final renderings of the project released in September 2006. The first phases of CityCenter are expected to open in 2009, with the entire project scheduled to open in 2010.

A 10-story, 5,300 space parking garage has been completed for MGM Mirage employees, freeing up the area for construction.

A two-story $24 million Sales Center and temporary management office has also been constructed on an unused plot of land between the New York-New York Hotel and the Monte Carlo. This is the world's second most expensive temporary building. When its no longer needed, it will be destroyed to make room for Phase two of the CityCenter project, a residential condo tower, designed to tie in nicely with the New York buildings on its south border.

The management office houses the executive project management including staff of the executive architect, Gensler, and the executive construction manager, Tishman Construction Corporation. Both Gensler and Tishman are leaders in their respective fields, with Gensler being the largest architecture/interior design firm in the U.S. and Tishman being a pioneer of construction management with projects such as the John Hancock Tower in Chicago, the original World Trade Center and the current builder of the new Freedom Tower and 7 World Trade Center in New York City.

The last remaining permanent building on the project site, the Boardwalk Casino's mid-rise hotel tower, was imploded on May 9, 2006.

Construction of the project started taking shape on June 26, 2006 when the first concrete was poured. Prior to this all of the work was site preparation including utilities and other infrastructure.

As of May 2007, the centerpiece Hotel Resort has been constructed up to level 12 and foundation work has just started on the Mandarin Oriental hotel, Vdara Condo Tower and Veer Condo Towers.

This page is from a blog that is carrying past and current photos of the construction.

[edit] External links

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