LAS VEGAS—The overriding challenge for Encore, Steve Wynn’s new 50-story, US$2.3-billion hotel casino next to Wynn Las Vegas was to outdo the original.
“We try not to copy ourselves, and we set a bar that we believe is very high, and our subsequent project has to surpass that,” said EVP of architecture for Wynn Design and Development, DeRuyter Butler, who joined the company in 2000. “We sort of do one-upmanship on ourselves. It’s a product of Mr. Wynn’s drive.”
Butler should know. He’s worked on Wynn’s projects from the Golden Nugget redo to the Mirage to the Bellagio.
|
| Encore by Wynn Las Vegas |
Encore, which opened in December 2008 after two and a half years of construction, is even more upscale than Wynn but is still an extension of the family, Butler said. A lot of the same basic concepts and aesthetics were used, but Encore is its own destination.
“This was a fast-track project. It was very complex because of integrating this facility on a relatively small site,” he said.
Small definitely is relative: The 4.7-million-square-foot Encore is just 10 percent smaller than Wynn, but built on 20 acres, it occupies only 40 percent of the land Wynn does.
“There was a lot of coordination effort, and we really had to understand every functional aspect of a project this complex,” Butler said. “Encore is a more compressed design, and the back of house had to be much more integrated. How do you get food in and out of the kitchen? How do you move waste? We don’t allow any of those things, like material transport, to take place in public. There are a lot of challenges to integrate those functional components.”
When Wynn was built, the design team knew they had a very large property. The intent always was to expand or to develop something else. Butler planned in connection points that could be developed in the future. “As it turned out, where we built Encore we used some space in the garage that I had carved out for the promenade,” he said.
Although they are connected, Butler did not want Encore to look like an addition to Wynn. Encore has its own personality. “Some people like vanilla, some like chocolate,” Butler said of the properties.
The influence is evident in the way both hotels integrate indoors with outdoors. Wynn uses a flower motif throughout; for Encore it is a butterfly.
|
| The casino at Encore. (Barbara Kraft) |
“(Designer) Roger Thomas was responsible for the concept of the butterflies. We were looking for something sympathetic to the flowers in Wynn. Butterflies are very interesting creatures: beautiful, fluttery—which ties into some of these indoor-outdoor themes, romantic and also transitional.”
Encore also came under the influence of Wynn Macau. Red, a very important color in Chinese culture, is used throughout Encore. The layout of the 72,000-square-foot casino (vs. Wynn’s 111,000) was compartmentalized (rather than having one large, open floor) because the Chinese like intimacy and are used to being in dense places, Butler said. Also unusual for a casino is the use of natural light.
Like Wynn, Encore is not themed. “We had developed Bellagio based on the town on Lake Cuomo, and (there’s) Treasure Island, and as we pioneered the theme-ing effort, a lot of our competitors jumped on the themed approach. We decided enough of that. We wanted to create something elegant and romantic but not modeled after any sort of design style,” Butler said.
|
| XS nightclub with illuminated pool. (Barbara Kraft) |
Inside out
Some of the theme-ing is around integrating the outdoors. The public promenade and casino have exterior views. When visitors arrive by car and park themselves, they see the pool deck. At the resort entrance, all the areas are glazed and exposed to the pool deck. One of the great challenges of the project was finding a highly clear glass, and the architects found one made in Germany that is chemically coated and has almost no reflection to it. “Since the pool deck plays such an important role, we wanted to make sure you could see it, especially at night,” Butler said. “Usually when you look out at night, it’s like a black mirror.”
|
| Encore's Atrium greets guests with natural light. (Russell MacMasters) |
Atrium
Butler used the pool deck and atrium to emphasize the feeling of a resort. The atrium is about 300 feet by 90 feet and houses Switch restaurant. “It’s one of the primary elements you experience when you enter the building. It’s important that when you enter, you don’t walk into gaming. We wanted to establish the resort environment instead of gaming,” Butler said.
The natural light from the Atrium and other large windows throughout the hotel were important design elements. A fabric in the atrium helps control heat and glare from the summer sun, but allows enough light to support the plant life.
Guestrooms
Encore’s 2,034 guestrooms, starting at 745 square feet, are about 20 percent larger than Wynn’s. A partition between the living space and bedroom gives all the rooms the feel of suites. A 42-inch TV in the partition swivels 180 degrees to serve both spaces. Crèmes and blacks
|
|
A resort king suite. (Russell MacMasters) |
A panoramic view in a king suite. |
give the rooms a more contemporary feel than Wynn. Polished ebony and white sycamore cabinetry contrasts with simulated grasscloth wallcoverings in a black-and-white houndstooth pattern. The rooms are big on natural light with floor-to-ceiling windows. Encore also boasts 17 two-story suites.
Destination restaurants
The dining attractions include Switch, Sinatra, Botero and Wazuzu.
Switch was conceived as experiential architecture. The walls don’t stay static, evoking three different personalities for the restaurant while guests have dinner. The building transforms itself as a portion of the ceiling opens and one wall slides into the ceiling while another recedes into the floor, revealing the casino. “We wanted it to be the talk of the town,” Butler said.
|
|
|
| Sinatra steakhouse (Barbara Kraft) | Botero restaurant's bar area (Russell MacMasters) | Wazuzu Asian bistro (Barbara Kraft) |
Sinatra steakhouse plays tribute to the singer with photos and memorabilia. “Wynn has a longstanding relationship with the Sinatras,” Butler said. “They have been reluctant to let his name be used, but because of their friendship, the Sinatra Foundation allowed it.”
Botero, which features art by Columbian artist Fernando Botero, is high energy, and is surrounded in glass walls that can open out to the pool. The whimsical overhead bar looks like something out of “Alice in Wonderland.”
Wazuzu is a modern Asian bistro that features a 27-foot lighted Swarovski crystal dragon.
The spa
The 61,000-square-foot spa soothes with a palette of cream, champagne, golds and greens accented with butterflies. The grand hallway to the 51 treatment rooms is lined with massive gold lanterns.
|
|
| Spa lobby (Russell MacMasters) | Spa treatment hall |