EHRENKRANTZ ECKSTUT & KUHN ARCHITECTS REDEFINES THE MODERN URBAN ENVIRONMENT FOR NEW MGM MIRAGE “PROJECT CITYCENTER” IN LAS VEGAS
World’s Largest Private Development Heralds New Innovations in City Design: Rooftop Park System, Auto Pedestrian Compatibility and Invisible Parking
EE&K Architects Design Vision for MGM MIRAGE’s
Project CityCenter
New York, NY; Tuesday, February 22, 2005 -- Internationally acclaimed
Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn Architects (EE&K) has created an unprecedented
architectural paradigm for the ideal modern city that has the potential to
redefine contemporary urban design in cities throughout the world. MGM MIRAGE’S
Project CityCenter, to be built along the famous Las Vegas Strip, confirms a
cultural and lifestyle revival of city living. The groundbreaking design
introduces a dazzling vertical city to the heart of Las Vegas’ sprawling
horizontal grid – a stimulating, pedestrian-oriented urban environment coupled
with automobile convenience, hidden parking structures and, suspended in the
sky, a one-of-a-kind complex of rooftop garden oases that combine to form a
contiguous park system.
”Cities ordinarily grow intrinsically over time, but with the vision of MGM
MIRAGE, an entire city neighborhood is being developed at once as an integrated
work of architecture,” said Stanton Eckstut, Principal-in-Charge at EE&K. “Our
design challenge was to combine ultra contemporary needs of technology,
demographics and lifestyle with tried and true urban traditions to create a real
city of high-density, mixed use buildings and public places that is inherently
walkable, easy to drive in and out of, and with a diversity of choices to bring
people back again and again.”
Elegant, grand and surprise-filled, Project CityCenter’s design grew out of Las
Vegas’ entertainment factor – a place of fun, excitement and chance set in a
stunning desert landscape. The $4.7 billion project, the largest in the country,
will comprise 66 prime acres of chic cafés, signature retailers, boutique hotels
and elegant residential buildings lining streets, public squares, covered
passageways and the frontage along the Strip. Casino Square, the lively nucleus
of the complex which will include a casino topped by a shimmering 4000-room
hotel tower, is reached by three distinctive streets: a grand European-styled
boulevard, a bustling pedestrian district of shopping arcades and a whimsical
walkway pulsing with non-stop activity.
The skyline of Project CityCenter is designed as a complete composition creating
many unusual visual effects from different vantage points. With the mountains in
the background, vistas and views are everywhere. Carried throughout are changing
light shows projected against building facades and super-sized graphics a la
Times Square.
“In Las Vegas the demographic trend is an extraordinary confluence of people and
money,” said Peter Cavaluzzi, EE&K Design Principal. “This forced us to push the
envelope to create architecture where people live, work and play amidst the best
that city life can offer – restaurants, shopping, entertainment and recreation.
We believe this design offers a real, viable and forward-thinking model for
cities everywhere.”
“Like other great metropolitan centers – Paris and New York for example – we
commissioned a complete architectural design that utilizes every square inch to
its maximum potential and is in harmony with the natural landscape,” said Jim
Murren, President and Chief Financial Officer, MGM MIRAGE.
Bobby Baldwin, President and CEO of Mirage Resorts, will lead Project CityCenter
in its entirety for MGM MIRAGE.
Founded in 1959, Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn Architects is an internationally
acclaimed architectural firm that continues to set the standard for architecture
as the means of making great cities. EE&K projects include Battery Park City in
New York; Los Angeles' Gateway Center, America's state-of-the-art intermodal,
transportation/business center; Hollywood and Highland, the most recently built
urban entertainment destination; and Circle Center, the centerpiece of downtown
Indianapolis' revitalization and a major preservation success story for
integrating major new development into a historic district.
More about the
Las Vegas City Center
project
January 2006 update on MGM City Center
February 10, 2006 article on Las Vegas Project City
Center
June 2, 2006 article on the MGM City
Center
June 29 article City Center
Breaks Ground
