It's a sign of the times. The brash boomtown of Las Vegas, long regarded as "recession-proof," has ended its lucky streak. Visitor volume is off; gaming revenue has dipped; construction languishes. Not that Sin City isn't gambling on a brighter future. Several major lavish resorts are debuting this year, and at the very close of 2008 Steve Wynn unveiled a $2.3 billion, 2,034-room sister property to his Wynn Las Vegas: Encore. "It's a very interesting time to be opening a hotel," admits Roger Thomas, Wynn's executive vice president of design. "But in Las Vegas, the advantage of the new is not to be underestimated. And the advantage of the Wynn reputation is that the product establishes itself as a must-see."
The product in this case represents a refinement, in many ways, of the legendary developer's previous products. Encore is as exuberant and splendorous as any Wynn resort, but the hotel is more intimate than its siblings. It displays, quite literally, a lighter touch. "We've found, even though there was established long ago in Las Vegas the tradition that you never expose a casino or gaming area to natural light, that's pretty much bunk," says Thomas. Instead of the dim immensity of the conventional casino floor, the heart of Encore is a sun-splashed space partitioned into nine columned and canopied gaming pavilions, each with vistas of a shimmering pool or a lush garden atrium.
The hotel itself, an all-suite facility, divides into two autonomous sections. While the primary gaming, dining and entertainment areas, plus 1,767 "resort suites," take up most of the building, its west side is devoted to 267 tower suites and apartments with their own porte cochere entrance (cue the Rolls-Royce limos), reception area and lounge, gaming rooms and restaurant (Sinatra, featuring modern Italian cooking by Patina's Theo Schoenegger). The most luxurious suites are larger than many homes. The grand duplex tower apartments, spanning two floors and 5,800 square feet, boast three bedrooms, a living room with a bar, a billiards room, a massage and exercise room, an elevator for those who aren't keen on climbing the staircase, and 18-foot floor-to-ceiling windows looking down on the entire glittering, struggling metropolis.
Todd-Avery Lenahan, of ABA Design Studio, was responsible for the interior design of the rooms (as well as for a soaring, 61,000-square-foot spa that just might be the most sybaritic health facility in the world). "The principle of all the suites was to do something classic yet with a modern line to it," he says, "like a Chanel suit. The tower suites are very much intended to be what I call the exhale in the Encore experience. The casino environments, the restaurants and the entertainment areas are all highly charged and dynamic. The suites were intended to provide a decompression." There are plenty of opulent touches—silk-moiré-upholstered walls, ceilings inlaid with mother-of-pearl, handblown Murano glass chandeliers—but a creamy palette and strictly edited furnishings take the rooms down a few notches.
The hotel's suites and apartments are tailored to a certain category of guest, namely the serious player. Encore's betting amenities include the Baccarat Pavilion (for baccarat, blackjack and roulette), the high-limit slots (where thousands can be risked with the pull of a lever) and, on the top floor of the hotel, the Sky Casino.
"The Sky Casino is meant to evoke a private club, which is what it is," explains Thomas. "We have five gaming salons, private dining rooms available, lounging facilities for entourages." Designed by HBA/Hirsch Bedner Associates in a relatively traditional vein, the Sky Casino is nevertheless as airy and upbeat as its name. Which is important when, as Thomas puts it, "the frisson of excitement you get from wagering is not satisfied by a bet of a hundred dollars."
And just who are the high rollers in these low-temper times? "They're known to everyone in the business," says Thomas. "A few years ago someone told me there were about 200 of them. I think, if anything, that number has increased. They are people who love gaming for its entertainment value and venture very substantial sums. It's not unusual to have someone engaged in play that totals into the millions during their visit." For them, as for Steve Wynn and the city he put back in the game, the stakes have never been higher.
