Thursday, October 29, 2009

Wynn Las Vegas Design

One of the design highlights of my Vegas getaway (aside from my dear friend's wedding of course!) was my first look at the Wynn hotel and casino. Now, the structures are gorgeous as they are but i there were no expectations to prepare me for the whimsy inside the casino doors. My favorite treats were the room of floating parasols and the amazing lake of dreams.

Here's a tid bit from Roger Thomas, Executive of Wynn design about the Parasol installation:
“Very early on in the resort’s design and conception, Steve gave me an assignment: His initial inspiration was the 1932 Picasso painting Le Rêve, which is French for ‘the dream,’” Thomas remembers. “And so he asked me, ‘How do we convey the feeling of a dream?’ Parasols are among the images I find very dreamlike—I think of Chagall and of people floating in the sky, carrying mini parasols over their heads—so I liked the idea of this ballet of parasols that both turn slowly and move up and down slowly. I often think of guests sitting at Parasol Up; they look at the parasols, and when they look back a few minutes later, they think, Have they changed? Am I dreaming?”

“I came up with their design, the whimsical shapes and colors and embroideries, by closing myself up in a room and large sheets of paper, and I put on Vivaldi and just started drawing these fanciful shapes. They took more than a year to create, and we constructed them here, just outside of Las Vegas. Ultimately I’m thrilled that they’ve become such an iconic element of the resort; they were meant to be a heart of Wynn, with a sort of pulse and movement. One of my favorite things to do is to stand off to the side and watch the reactions of our guests—they always seem entranced, and that’s really fulfilling.”


Speaking of entranced, we took a peek at the Lake of Dreams but it was during the day. The glass body of what was still and tranquil, until a giant head sculpture emerged unexpectedly - we thought that was cool - but look what we missed!