86 CASINO CHIP AND TOKEN NEWS | October · November · December 2002

THE EVOLUTION OF LAS VEGAS ARCHITECTURE

The travel industry has alwaysbeen important to Las Vegas. TheCity’s location is due to the naturalsprings of the Las Vegas Valley andit’s position along the route from SaltLake City to Southern California. Thetown’s history is the history of thegambling industry in which Vegasbecomes a destination and not a reststop. Much has been written about thehistory of Las Vegas. Mostly thefocus is the unique cast of characterswho ran the casinos and the evolutionof the industry from miners playingfaro in sawdust bars to today’spalaces of slot machines for retiree’s.This article chronicles the evolutionof Las Vegas architecture. The City’spioneering roles in both the gamblingindustry and casino architecture aredeeply intertwined. The inspirationfor this article is a wonderful book byAlan Hess: “Viva Las Vegas: afterhours architecture.”

A Railroad Town - 1905 - 1930

In 1905 Montana Senator WilliamClark completed the San Pedro, LosAngeles & Salt Lake Railroad. TheLas Vegas Valley was the obviouschoice for a townsite because it wasapproximately midway and had plen-ty of groundwater to support the rail-road as well as a town. Las Vegas waslaid out as a typical railroad town.The train station formed the base ofthe town with the main road at rightangles to the tracks. Today thestation would be in the back of thePlaza Hotel and Fremont Streetremains the heart of downtown. Theearly Vegas economy was driven by a

by Alex Cilento

railroad repair facility and as a supplystation for the mines to the northwest.For much of this period the MissionRevival railroad station was thegrandest building in town. FremontStreet was an undistinguishedcollection of single story woodenstructures. In the late 1920’s a road ispunched through from Baker to Vegasand the automobile began to replacethe train as the dominant means oftravel to Las Vegas.

Legalized Gambling - 1931 - 1945

The construction of Hoover Damin the early 1930’s brought Las Vegasa measure of prosperity through thedepression. Dam workers and damtourists provided the customers forthe small clubs that lined FremontStreet after gambling legalization in1931. The single story woodenstructures on Fremont Street werereplaced with two and three storybrick buildings. Neon was first usedin signs in the early 1930’s. By theend of the decade neon had become amajor architectural feature of Fremont

Street and Vegas began its longromance with over-the-top glitz.Special mention needs to be given to“The Meadows Club”. Built in 1931by underworld figure, Tony Cornero,it featured an elegant nightclub/casinoand hotel. Long gone, the MeadowsClub was at the current intersection ofFremont and Charleston. A mob run,upscale joint that preceded theFlamingo by fifteen years!

This era was complete with theconstruction of the El Rancho Vegas(1941) and the Last Frontier (1942.)While downtown was centered on thepedestrian, these hotels were focusedon car travel, primarily from LA.The highway into town provided lotsof inexpensive land and both thesehotels were comprised of spread outsingle story buildings and bungalows.Architecturally they had their roots inthe motor courts that were spreadingall over the country. Both had acasual “dude ranch” theme. To attractpassing motorists the El Rancho had ashort tower with a windmill while theLast Frontier put its pool next to the

The Meadows Club (1931)

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highway as an incentive to stop. TheLast Frontier is at the location of thecurrent New Frontier.

Sophistication 1945 - 1957

For many Las Vegas history fans,this was the golden era. It begins withBugsy Siegel and the Flamingo.Before the war, the Sunset Stripoutside of LA was notorious for wideopen gambling in swank surroundingsfor the Hollywood crowd. LA got areform mayor and Vegas got a bunchof mobsters anxious to show howexciting their gambling industry couldbe when practiced out in the open.Like the El Rancho and the LastFrontier, the Flamingo was a glorifiedmotel. But the Flamingo was no duderanch. Mr. Seigel wanted a buildingwhere LA high rollers would feel athome. The result was was a spacious,elegantly appointed building that usedthe clean lines, materials and anglesthat were becoming popular in theupscale homes and clubs of theHollywood elite. Actually, theFlamingo was conceived by BillyWilkerson, who owned severalupscale nightspots on the SunsetStrip. But this article is about architecture and not history. While the

The Flamingo (1947)

Flamingo was conceptually similar tothe motel-inspired layouts of the ElRancho and Last Frontier, its contem-porary/ urban style and use of exoticlandscaping began the trend of creating“other worlds” in the desert.Unfortunately Mr. Seigel was to dieof unnatural causes before hisFlamingo became wildly profitable.The mob was ecstatic with their new

The Sands (1952)

The Flamingo (1953 remodel)

(almost) legitimate industry and thenext decade brought to Vegas theDesert Inn, Sahara, Sands, Riviera,and Dunes. Each of thesecasino/hotels followed the lead of theFlamingo with an emphasis onsophisticated contemporary designs.The Sands broke new ground withthe incorporation of the marquee asan integral part of the architecture.

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The older hotels were forced to keepup. The El Rancho’s Round-Up Roombecame the Opera House, the LastFrontier became the modern NewFrontier and, in 1953, the Flamingounderwent a major remodel includingthe “champagne tower”. The Rivierabecame Las Vegas’ first high rise in1955. At nine stories, many doubtedthe ability of desert soil to support thestructure. The Riviera’s design wastaken from the clean, almost art-decotheme prevalent in Miami buildings.The original building is still in usetoday among all the high riseexpansion towers. Almost no otherstructures from this era remain (OK,the low-rise rooms of the RoyalNevada, now part of the Stardust.)

Downtown the neon explosioncontinued with the addition of VegasVic at the Pioneer and the grandmarquee of the Golden Nugget.Combining sign and architecture wasnever better done than The Mint in1957.

Gambling Goes Mainstream 1958 - 1965

Remember Tony Cornero, builderof the prescient Meadows Club? Wellthe Meadows “burnt down” and“Admiral” Cornero then ran a fleet ofgambling ships off the Californiacoast until 1939 when his fleet was

The Mint (1957)

The Stardust (1958)

attacked by the US Coast Guard. In1944 he opened the SS Rex in theApache Hotel on Fremont Street butthat lasted only six months because oflicensing problems. He went back tohis offshore gambling boat business,this time further out from California’sjurisdiction but was put out ofbusiness in 1948 by a new Federallaw prohibiting gambling in UScoastal waters. Besides being onehell of an interesting guy, Tony was apioneer in realizing the potential ofthe low stakes gambler. His off-shoregambling ships were targeted atmiddle class folks looking for fun.Cornero’s ultimate creation was theStardust Hotel which opened in 1958.

Tony did not make the opening as hehad a fatal heart attack at the dicetables of the Desert Inn in 1955.Architecturally, the Stardust was agambling warehouse and beganVegas’ love affair with the low roller.It was also Vegas’ first 1000 roomhotel. The hotel part consisted of longrows of barrack-like buildings behindthe casino. The casino was anordinary building with its entirefacade covered with an extraordinary216-foot long neon sign. While theStardust was the last major strip hotelto be built until the mid-1960’s, itbegan a wave of expansion for theexisting hotels. Operators began torealize that the gambling businesswas a numbers game: so many roomsproduced so much profit. Severalcasinos including the Sahara, theRiviera, and the Desert Inn all addednondescript towers to their casinos toincrease business. Innovative architecture and design sophisticationwere of little use when the corestrategy is lots of low stake gamblerslured in by ultra low room rates.

The Strip was becoming a crowdedmixture of neon and building towers.To attract passing motorists in the

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The Dunes (1980)

The Landmark (1969)

1960’s several hotel built magnificentfreestanding signs. The Stardust andFrontier signs are still in use but theSahara sign is gone. The best wasThe Dunes.

Special mention has to go to theLandmark. Built in 1964, it finallyopened as a casino in 1969. Someoneobviously watched the Jetsons toooften. The wild architecture of LA carwashes and diners didn’t translatewell into hotel/casinos and representedan architectural dead-end.

Downtown continued to getbrighter. Fremont Street was a nearlyunbroken facade of neon.

We’re Not in Kansas Anymore!1966 – 1980

Jay Sarno built Caesars Palacewhich opened in 1966. Sarno wasquite a guy. He was heavily mob-con-nected, loved large quantities of foodand women and was a compulsivegambler who usually lost. Here’s aguy who owns a casino yet he keepslosing a good part of his net worth atthe craps table. Also, he was a devot-ed family man and another Las Vegasvisionary. Sarno had experimentedwith soft rounded architectural shapesand elaborate driveway landscapingin his nationwide Cabana motel chainand Caesars was to be the flagship.Caesars was the first major hotel builtin Las Vegas in eight years. Hotelslike the Dunes or the Sahara mighthave a desert design theme butCaesars was another world. Turningoff the Strip, you followed a longdriveway of fountains and statuaryinto imperial Rome. The conceptcontinued with the interior architec-ture, furnishings and employeecostumes. Las Vegas was in thedesert but reality was not as profitableas putting visitors in an exotic fantasyworld where you could be less

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inhibited. This has been a strongarchitectural trend that guides Vegasto the present.

Another milestone was CircusCircus which opened in 1968. Whilenot exactly the highest level ofarchitectural sophistication, it beganthe effort to attract the family touristdollar. Interestingly, the ultra-low-roller Circus Circus was conceivedand built by Jay Sarno.

This is the era of Howard Hughes.Hughes bought six hotels but neverbuilt one. His most lasting legacy wasthat he brought a sense of legitimacyto gambling as a business and beganthe current period of corporate owner-ship. However it was another individ-ual, Kirk Kerkorian, who built theInternational Hotel in 1969. Itsdesign included a central core withthree tower wings and no main facadeto face the highway. This design hasbeen repeated in many Vegas hotelsincluding the Mirage, Treasure Island,Monte Carlo, Mandalay Bay andVenetian. Interestingly, the Paris hasfour wings. The International had1500 rooms and was then the worldslargest hotel. Each wing has beenexpanded and is now the Las VegasHilton. Kerkorian’s next hotel, theMGM Grand (now Bally’s), wasalmost a standard urban high riseoffice building with a little extra glitz.

Existing hotels continued toexpand, mostly with towers thatdisplayed the tasteful, efficientfacades that public corporationswished to present to the public. Nolonger would casinos experiment witharchitectural expressions like the“Diamond of the Dunes” tower or theSands classic round tower. The samewas happening downtown with theMint tower and the Fremont hotel.

Circus Circus (1970’s)

Caesars Palace (Late 1970’s)

Corporate Las Vegas1981 – present

The architecture of the present erais dominated by two forces. The firstis corporate ownership. Decisions arenot made by individual entrepreneursbut by committee after extensive mar-ket research. The second is that Stripreal estate has become so valuablethat the car no longer has a dominantrole on the strip. Your car is quickly

sent to a multistory parking structurein the back of the hotel and out ofsight. The Mirage began the currentwave of the modern mega-casino in1989. Today, architecture is probablythe main method of providing a hotelwith its identity. The Luxor pyramid,the Stratosphere tower, and the Eiffeltower are among the most obviousexamples. New York New York is analmost unbelievable fusion of signand building . The Excalibur is

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probably the lamest attempt attriumphant architecture.

Downtown blocked all traffic andput a two million light canopy overFremont Street.

That takes us to today’s Las VegasStrip; an instantly recognizable worldicon. New hotels are careful blendsof over-the-top architectural presen-tation and cost control targeted at

specific psychographic and demo-graphic market segments. There’s anunmistakable Disneyland culture atwork. One interesting aspect has beenSteve Wynn, His Mirage, TreasureIsland, and Bellagio have all featuredgrand scale attractions designed forthe pedestrian. His track record maysuggest that the future strip doesaway with the car entirely.

CC&GTCC Library Videotapes

Thanks to Michael Ludwig forcontinuing to compile new videotapesof gaming-related programs. Thesevideos, along with others in ourlibrary, are available to clubmembers. The videos - #11 through#13 - contain the following programs.

Video #11• “Beyond Closed Doors with Joan

Lunden” - The Aladdin Implosion & Cirque du Soleils in LV (2000) - A&E - :30

• “Haunted History: Haunted Nevada” (2000) - The HistoryChannel - 1:00

• “Extreme Homes” featuring Dale Seymour's home (2000) - H G T V - :30

• “E! True Hollywood Story” featuringWayne Newton (2000) - E! - 2:00

• “E! True Hollywood Story” featuringFrank Sinatra (1998) - E! - 2:00

Video #12• “E! True Hollywood Story” featuring

Liberace (1998) - E! - 1:00• “E! True Hollywood Story” featuring

Dean Martin (1998) - E! - 2:00• “Best Of” - “Las Vegas” (2000) -

The Food Channel - :30• “E! True Hollywood Story” featuring

Donald Trump (2000) - E! - 1:00• “FBI: The Untold Story” - Harvey's

Casino bomb extortion case (1999) -The History Channel - :30

Video #13• “Vegas Nights” (2000) - The

Discovery Channel - 1:00• “Biography” featuring Wayne

Newton (1997) - A& E - 1:00• “Casino Diaries” - #1 “Cat &

Mouse” The Discovery Channel (2000) :30

• “Casino Diaries” - #2 “Executive Host” - The Discovery Channel(2000) :30

• “Travelers” - “Las Vegas” - The Travel Channel (1999) - 1:00

• “World's Best Places To Strike It Rich” - The Travel Channel (2000) -1:00

• “Las Vegas: Get Lucky” - The Travel Channel (2000) - 1:00

For complete contents of thelibrary, see the updated list posted onthe club website, or request a copy bymail. If you have a donation to offer,or have questions about the library,please see me at the convention orwrite to me at:

Robert PardueP.O. Box 2014

Laguna Hills, CA 92654pardue@home.com

Books&Videotapesfor the Club Library

by Robert Pardue

The evolution of Vegasarchitecture is an interesting story. Itis natural that Vegas change. Gaming(not gambling) is a business andevolves to follow the money. Walmartdoes not look like a Woolworth’s fiveand dime. All in all, I wish we stillhad the Dunes sign, the Landmark,the Sands…… �

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