Megaresort
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A Megaresort is a type of destination resort which integrates the services offered by a hotel, casino, dining, entertainment, and shopping into a single, large, and highly stylized or themed venue. The hotels along the Las Vegas Strip are most typically thought of as megaresorts owing to their immense size and complexity.
Two Las Vegas, Nevada projects in 1969 and 1973[1][2][3] by architect Martin Stern, Jr. and entrepreneur Kirk Kerkorian, the International Hotel (later the Las Vegas Hilton) and the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino (later Bally's Las Vegas), set the standard for such casino resorts.
After the International and the MGM Grand, the first megaresort is generally considered[citation needed] to have been The Mirage given its size and emphasis on non-gaming entertainment options like shopping and fine dining to draw in customers. Megaresorts use the same fantastic or mythical theme (medieval life at Excalibur, tropical at The Mirage, famous cities, etc.) throughout their properties.
[edit] Megaresorts on the Las Vegas Strip
Listed from north to south:
| Name | Rooms |
|---|---|
| Stratosphere | 2,444 |
| Wynn Las Vegas | 2,716 |
| Treasure Island (TI) | 2,900 |
| The Venetian | 4,049 |
| The Mirage | 3,044 |
| Harrah's | 2,667 |
| Imperial Palace | 2,635 |
| Caesars Palace | 3,349 |
| Bellagio | 3,953 |
| Paris | 2,916 |
| Planet Hollywood | 2,567 |
| Monte Carlo | 3,014 |
| MGM Grand (Including Signature) | 6,772 |
| New York-New York | 2,035 |
| Excalibur | 4,008 |
| Luxor | 4,476 |
| Mandalay Bay | (including THEhotel) 4,825 |
[edit] References
- ^ "The Hidden History of the Xanadu" (html). University of Nevada, Las Vegas Center for Gaming Research. “Two Martin Stern-designed and Kirk Kerkorian-built casinos, the International (later Las Vegas Hilton) and MGM Grand (later Bally's) had just raised the bar in casino/hotel design. Whereas previous casinos had featured modest, low-slung motel wings or mid-rise hotel extensions, these two structures opened with over 2000 rooms and suites located in mammoth hotel towers. These two projects boasted virtually every feature of what is today canonical casino resort construction: a single complex combining casino, dining, and entertainment facilities with a massive hotel.”
- ^ "Remembering Martin Stern, Jr.: Architect of the Modern Casino Resort" (html). University of Nevada, Las Vegas Center for Gaming Research. “Stern’s most enduring contribution to the Strip was his trailblazing fusion of convention hotel, casino space, and retail, seen first in 1969 in Kirk Kerkorian’s International (now the Las Vegas Hilton) and then in his original MGM Grand (now Bally's Las Vegas), which opened in 1973. These behemoths integrated high-rise hotel towers, parking garages, convention space, gaming, entertainment, and shopping for the first time. These structurally-integrated designs supplanted the patchwork of older Strip casinos, which had grown by adding a showroom here or a hotel tower there. And the International pioneered the tri-form, y-shaped design that has become a Strip trademark. The freshly-minted mega-resorts of the 1990s, from The Mirage to Paris, all used Stern’s basic ideas of casino design.”
- ^ "Nevada Swings Into the Seventies" (html). Southwest Contractor. “The massive, 2.5 million sq.-ft. MGM Grand set a new standard in defining the mega-resort. The monolithic building, larger than in size than the Empire State Building, had over 300 miles of draperies, 2,300 television sets, and enough heating and cooling capacity to serve 8,000 homes.”
