Article Tag: has_thumbnail

H ow many times have you visited a theme park like Disneyland or Universal City? Do you remember what the place was like the first time you went? And how it has changed over time? Over the years attractions have been added and some have been closed, but the essence of the park has remained. Disneyland is still Disneyland.

It’s important for the theme parks to maintain that essence of what they are. Parents, who first arrived as children themselves, now bring their own children and find the experience is still thrilling, still exciting—although much of the park has changed since they were there as children.

That same sort of experience also holds to gaming properties. People come to a particular property, have a good time, and return many more times. They like the rooms, the restaurants, the entertainment, the gaming experience, and were treated well by the staff—in short, they had a good time and would like to have it again. But there is also a lesson to be learned from the theme parks, and that is leaving everything untouched, unchanged, unimproved, will soon have your guests bored and looking to go elsewhere.

There are additional challenges to a gaming property beyond just becoming stale. Brett Ewing of the Cuningham Group points out that gaming properties face challenges from new competition, from capital improvements in other existing properties, in addition to the pressure to refresh one’s own facilities.

That leaves the property managers with a difficult riddle to solve—how do we keep the property fresh and new while still retaining the look and feel that so many people already like and want to continue enjoying? How do you do what the theme parks have so successfully done, continually reinventing themselves while holding on to the essence of what made them successful in the first place?

Paul Steelman, CEO of Steelman Partners, notes, “Throughout history, significant entertainment buildings have been redesigned to enhance the experience—not change it.”

Take what your property has and what people enjoy, and enhance that. It’s also an opportunity to work out a few problem areas as well. Scott P. Celella, principal at JCJ Architecture, points out, “When undertaking renovation/improvement projects at existing facilities, it’s important to position change as an opportunity to address issues, bring a greater level of service, and enhance the existing experience.”

To illustrate his point, Steelman points to a number of famous hospitality venues around the world. “These design techniques have been developed in many of the beloved European hotels like the Plaza Athene in Paris, the Connaught in London or the Plaza in New York,” he says. “These have recently completed major renovations, and they are more beautiful and functional than ever before, yet they feel the same.”

And the results? “Our results are dramatic,” says Steelman. “Before-and-after pictures really show how much so even a simple renovation can be. Keeping track of the financial results, many of the casinos we have renovated have experienced a casino win increase of 35 percent. After all, people want to spend more time in a space they love.”

Seeing the Larger Picture

It’s often useful to begin by taking an overall look at the property and defining what its essence is. What is the property known for? Has it defined its own brand? Does it have an overriding theme, as many properties do?

Answering these questions helps define where the changes should occur and in what direction they should go. Hnedak Bobo Group started with this approach with its work at the WinStar World Casino and Resort.

“The Chickasaw Nation has terrific foresight about where they want to take their brand,” states Rob Jurbergs, principal and designer at HBG. “WinStar World is already a very profitable casino, and their property is ultimately successful because the nation is driven to reach out to new clientele by expanding the amenity offerings and quality, while also accommodating the needs of their tried-and-true patrons.”

The fact that WinStar World was a themed property also helped define the direction of the updates, so that the new would blend in well with the existing. “The travel-themed motif at the casino is very closely tied into the WinStar World Casino and Resort brand, so we naturally embraced and enhanced the concept,” says Jurbergs.

Most properties grow over time, starting with a casino, dining venues and a hotel. Future development will depend upon the customer base and their interests, and could include showrooms, convention spaces, bowling alleys, movie theaters, etc.

Seeing the larger picture means planning ahead, as Ewing of the Cuningham Group relates: “One of the properties we’re currently working with is Little River Casino Resort in Manistee, Michigan for the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians. Their resort opened in 1999 and since then has undergone multiple expansions to get to its current size, which includes a 292-room luxury hotel and 1,600-seat event center. They have a desire to continue to grow and change, and have a new general manager in place who understands the need to plan property-wide. They are looking at where the future opportunities are and how they can balance growth with funds as they become available. And they want to know what their guests want so there is buy-in to the process and decision-making.”

Similar but Different

Sometimes an expansion is so large and extensive that it can be considered a separate property in its own right. Think of Wynn Las Vegas and Wynn Encore, or the Venetian Las Vegas and the Palazzo. Crown Limited faced that same question for its Crown Towers Perth, in Western Australia.

“Crown Limited wanted to expand its existing hospitality offering in Perth to keep up with market demand and maintain its position as a leading resorts operator in Australia,” says Brandon Y.K. Maldonado of YWS Architects. “In order to capture the emerging luxury market, but not wanting to alienate their existing market, they decided to maintain their existing hospitality offerings and add a five-star hotel, VIP gaming and world-class retail, dining and meeting space. The addition was seamlessly integrated with the existing hotel towers and created a property ideally designed to capture a broad range of market segments.”

There are times when a number of changes can add a new theme to an existing property. Consider the Resorts Casino Hotel in Atlantic City. In 2011, Resorts Casino converted the property to a Roaring Twenties theme. The rebranding capitalized on the success of the HBO series Boardwalk Empire. The resort adopted this rebranding celebrating the Prohibition period of the 1920s and 1930s by accentuating the resort’s Art Deco design as well as presenting 1920s-era uniforms for employees and music from this time period.

More recently, Resorts Casino Hotel hired SOSH Architects and interiors firm McBride Design to recharge the Atlantic City property with a series of Jimmy Buffett-themed attractions. This complex project contains three main parts: Margaritaville Casino and 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar; Margaritaville Café, retail store, and coffee shop; and Landshark Bar & Grill Pier.

Paying close attention to the particulars of Resorts’ oceanfront site and the peculiarities of its existing Art Deco architecture, SOSH and McBride set out to bring a new level of energy and activity to Resorts and the adjacent Boardwalk. The completed design blends the dignity of the historic building with the light-hearted island lifestyle, refashioning Resorts into a dynamic entertainment destination.

“We were sensitive to design and create a synergy between the historic relevance and proud history that Resorts has established while at the same time infusing the fun factor of the Margaritaville brand to the property, bringing in a new demographic to the to the property,” says Michael Mangini, director of interior design at SOSH Architects. “I can’t image any other celebrity (Buffett) who transcends generations by uniting people through his music, culture and food. By introducing gaming to the equation, this is an elevated party experience.”

Enhancing the Experience

In years past, people would go out for an evening and come home smelling of cigarette smoke. No one thought much of it then, but today most jurisdictions have laws that limit where people can smoke. Casino properties are one of the few holdouts where smoking inside a building is still permitted, at least in some areas. Guests, however, have become used to non-smoking environments and find the old smoke-filled rooms unacceptable. Clearing the indoor air, then, has become one of the best ways to enhance a guest’s enjoyment of a property.

Greg Peterson of AE Associates, an MEP firm, relates the impact that new HVAC equipment made in the Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio, California. “The dated casino floor was in serious need of an interior face lift,” he says. “New gaming machines, new carpeting, new wall covering and improvements to the existing ceiling, including a complete lighting retrofit project, were performed. The existing casino had an even bigger problem—it was extremely smoky, and the indoor air quality (IAQ) was the biggest guest complaint. The aging mechanical system could not adequately remove cigarette smoke from the casino floor. Additionally, the HVAC system could not properly cool portions of the casino.”

As JCJ Architecture’s Scott Celella notes, a renovation is an excellent opportunity to address various issues at a property to enhance the guest experience.

Peterson continues, “As ownership had a limited capital budget, an indoor air quality improvement was performed for approximately one third of the casino floor. The aging rooftop units serving this area of the casino were in need of replacement; however, there was no additional structural capacity to accommodate heavier units. A like-for-like unit replacement would not achieve the IAQ goals for the property, and ownership did not want to incur the cost or the guest disruption associated with increasing the structural capacity of the roof.

“AE proposed a solution to utilize new, custom air-handling units that were the same size and weight of the existing units, but would drastically improve the IAQ within this portion of the casino. The project was a huge success. The area of the casino where the IAQ improvement project was performed went from the worst IAQ on the casino floor to the best.”

Indoor air quality is very important to the guest experience, but so is lighting and sound. Recently, Illuminating Concepts had an opportunity to work on a renovation of the L’Auberge Casino Resort in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Working with Montgomery Roth Architecture and Interior Design and naval architect Lay Pitman, IC worked to help create an environment that maintained the ideal portions of the existing resort, streamlined the updates to blend, and filled in and refreshed where the property was lacking through use of new spaces, materials, light and sound.

In the casino floor gaming pits and cage areas, IC added lighting at table games for better visual acuity and to add dimension and accent the gaming pits. They were also able to bolster the existing audio systems and infill the dead zones to allow better transition between speakers and create supporting audio experience that blends into the environment. 

Throughout the gaming area, they were able to accent through the use of materials and lighting such as backlit alabaster, highlighted drapery, and architecturally integrated lighting to allow an easier way finding and navigating the property.

Illuminating Concepts’ Michael Shulman, executive director, design and business strategy, explains, “Through the use of lighting, audio and video, we are creating spaces that are important to gaming clientele, and help make the experience holistic at a casino resort. As an example, add a poker room with accent lighting on the tables, soft general lighting to accent the architecture, audio that can act as background sound, or as a paging system for tournaments; add TVs for players to keep track of games, poker tournaments, etc.”

Change is Gonna Come

Walt Disney was a genius, and the theme parks he and others created are still a marvel, many years later. We enjoy them not only for the rides and shows, but because the logistics have been worked out so well. We enjoy going back time after time, not only to revisit the attractions we enjoyed last time, but to also check out all the new attractions, which we confidently expect will match the level of enjoyment of all the existing attractions.

There is no reason a gaming property can’t do the same thing—create an enjoyable environment of attractions such as gaming, shows, dining venues, and retail—and keep it fresh year after year while holding to a consistent level of quality throughout.

When Richard “Dick” Rizzo was chosen as the recipient of the 2013 Sarno Lifetime Achievement Award for Casino Design, it marked the first time that someone from the construction end of the design process had been honored since the award originated in 2003.

Rizzo, the vice chairman of Tutor Perini Corp., says it’s an honor that reflects well on the construction trades.

“Having been brought up in this business, I always recognize that the contractor was not on an equal professional level with the others that we work with,” he explains. “It always bothered me that that wasn’t happening. I didn’t feel we were getting the respect that we deserved for what we add to the team. We worked very hard to build that level of professionalism up, to be respected on a par with an architect or an engineer, because we’re all engineers. We all get the same training; it’s just that we’re in a different part of the business.

“The fact that the design industry has recognized us as being at their level, makes me feel good.”

Convincing Start

Rizzo’s beginning in gaming dates back to the mid 1970s, when then-Perini Construction did a few public projects in Las Vegas.

“We had done some work at McCarran Airport and successfully bid for the Thomas & Mack arena and Cashman Field,” he explains. “I realized that there were lots of other opportunities in Las Vegas if we could just put it together.”

Rizzo proposed to the Perini board that the company bid for some of the upcoming casino projects in Vegas.

“They were very reticent to aggressively pursue it,” he says, “for a lot of reasons, but most prominently because the image of Las Vegas gaming, at that point in its history, was not as clean as it should have been for a public company like Perini to get involved.”

But Rizzo persisted and got the approval of the board to work on a project for another public company, Ramada, which had recently purchased the Tropicana, and was planning large-scale renovations.

“I called my friend Dick Snell, who headed up the company at that time, and asked if we could get involved,” says Rizzo. “He agreed, and a small kitchen remodel turned into a major $50 million-$60 million project.”

Another significant element of the Tropicana project was that it was a “design-build” effort, meaning design and construction occurred at virtually the same time.

“This was the first time anything like this had been done in Las Vegas, and it was immediately noticed,” says Rizzo. “The first full design-build project we did from the start was the Luxor, and Circus Circus (later Mandalay) Corporation immediately became one of our best clients.”

Perini’s success with these projects led to many others, including Paris Las Vegas, Green Valley Ranch and Wynn Resorts’ Encore.

Caesars Palace has also been good to Perini. The company was first awarded a project to renovate one of the casino towers 15 years ago.

“We never left,” he laughs. “We started in one corner, and went through the entire building; remodeled it all, the entire outside, added two towers, added the Colosseum theater, then built an addition to the Forum Shops. That really put us on the map as being a real player on the Strip.”

But it was CityCenter and Cosmopolitan that has truly made an impact on Tutor Perini. The adjacent projects were owned by different companies, but Tutor Perini built each of them simultaneously.

“These were the best and biggest kinds of things we had ever done, and both got huge recognition by everyone that comes to Las Vegas as being another iconic piece of the town,” he says.

These projects led to the contract to build New York’s Hudson Yards, which will be the largest construction project in the history of the U.S.

“CityCenter and Cosmopolitan gave us the credentials that we didn’t have before in doing very large projects,” he explains. “Between the two, it was more than a $10 billion investment.

“We would have never been qualified to do Hudson Yards, and never been invited to even go there, if it weren’t for our experiences in Las Vegas.”

Gaming as a category has often sustained Perini during difficult economic periods.

“In the last 10 years, up through ’08 at least when we had the slowdown, gaming represented probably close to 50 percent or 60 percent of the total revenue of the corporation. We’re now probably a third,” Rizzo says.

Tribal Tributes

The success of Perini in Las Vegas led to projects in gaming jurisdictions across the country. The company has been active in Atlantic City, Detroit, Biloxi, Tunica and many other regional markets. But the place where Rizzo is most pleased to participate is in Indian Country.

“The first big tribal project we did was Soaring Eagle in Michigan,” he says. “And at that point, very few people understood what it took to do work on native projects. There were unique challenges that had to be addressed.

“Because they’re sovereign,” he says, “you need to make sure you understand what rights you have, and which rights you should have, when dealing on sovereign land, no matter who it is. And we take pride in the fact that we figured that out. We developed what is now standard in the industry, a limited waiver on sovereign immunity for any significant construction, which most tribes are willing to sign.”

Other challenges include the need to get most of the tribal factions to agree on a design, budget and timetable, says Rizzo.

“As a result of that, the process becomes very burdensome,” he says. “It sometimes can drag out for endless months, for no real reason other than they just can’t reach a consensus. So understanding that, and being patient with them, and respecting that, is probably the most important part of understanding how to do business with them. And the other thing that we learned, overall, is that it’s all about trust. They don’t trust many people, and they have good reason not to, because they’ve been abused over the years, and as a result of that, we, as the outsiders coming in, are immediately a suspect.

“So the ability for us to prove that we could be trusted was the key in our growth in that industry.”

Because of that trust, Perini gets a majority of the business in states with multiple tribes, like California, where Rizzo says Perini gets 80 percent of the tribal construction business.

Big Wheels

In the process of becoming the major builder on the Las Vegas Strip and in all of gaming, Rizzo has had the opportunity to work with the major players in the industry. He says typically the involvement of the presidents and chairmen of the casino companies is more hands-on than in other industries.

“Any of the big, big guys—Caesars or MGM or Steve Wynn—they’re very into the process, personally, right from the very top. Steve Wynn is a classic example of that. Sheldon Adelson is another one. And we’ve done work for every one of them. And every one of them is uniquely successful because the attention to detail starts at the very top. We have to allow them the flexibility that they need, because many times they get into these projects and they really don’t know what they want. As you build it, they develop it, and they change their mind many times—all the time!”

Like with tribes, however, Rizzo says understanding and patience are all part of the game.

“Work with them and in concert with them, in that kind of a fast-track, change-your-mind, almost build-and-design atmosphere has made us uniquely qualified to do that, because most of our clients work that way. And other contractors that have tried to get into the market have a very difficult time understanding that part of it. Those are the kinds of owners that end up being the leaders in gaming. They are very creative individuals; they’re very trend-setting, and they’re also very competitive with each other. So they’re always trying to create the next big thing.”

Rizzo says, however, that Wynn is the standout example of a great owner and a great collaborator.

“He created Las Vegas,” he insists. “Everything that you see in Las Vegas today, somehow, Steve Wynn has touched in his history. He has created the trend toward fine dining, the trend toward stunning entertainment, the trend toward nightclubs. Everything that you see now that’s really matured in Las Vegas has really been touched by and ignited by Steve Wynn. He is the leader.”

Technology and People

When asked if there have been big changes in the construction industry since he started, Rizzo says there have not.

“The biggest change is in the technology we use to share the plans and changes as construction goes forward,” he says. “Everything that we design now is on BIM (building information modeling). If you and your subs are not integrated and they don’t have the ability to utilize BIM, they can’t play with you. So you educate your subcontractors. ‘These are the tools of the trade,’ you tell them, ‘and you need to understand what you need to do to help us with those tools, and utilizing those tools yourself to make the process work.’”

But building is still building, according to Rizzo.

“I just don’t think there’s anything else that we’re doing today that we didn’t do 20 years ago.”

One of the things that hasn’t changed over the years is the need for skilled workers.

“We believe in the quality of our workers,” he says. “We’re a union contractor, because we believe that they can produce the quality of worker and the training that’s necessary to do the kinds of things we’re being asked to do.”

Because the workload is so large and the schedule so tight, there isn’t much preparation of workers occurring.

“Training is lacking throughout our industry, and the union has really played a significant role in making sure that we are getting well-trained and well-educated plumbers, electricians, carpenters and so forth, because the kinds of things we’re being asked to do now are much more sophisticated,” he says.

Giving Back and Learning

Tutor Perini has a corporate philosophy of community involvement and charitable giving, Rizzo says. He has received numerous awards from charities and civic organizations for his participation in causes.

“This is built into our culture,” he says, “and if you look at our mission statement, it says part of our responsibilities as leaders is to give back to the communities in which we live and prosper. So I took that seriously.”

Rizzo says it’s not only the leaders that live by this philosophy.

“In any company, you set the trend from the top, and it’s amazing how many people follow,” he says. “And our company is very committed, from the very bottom to the top, in terms of giving back whenever they are given the opportunity to do so.”

Learning from other companies is also central to Tutor Perini’s culture, says Rizzo.

“I have to give credit to MGM at CityCenter for their efforts in inclusion and diversity, because they got us really focused on that,” he says. “As a result of that program and what we learned from that, we received national recognition for the accomplishments that we had achieved there. We have now incorporated that kind of philosophy in almost every project that we do. And I have to say MGM really got us focused on that.”

Another initiative MGM Resorts insisted upon at CityCenter was achieving an LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) Gold certificate for the project.

“Our corporation is ranked No. 2 in the country in terms of green right now,” he says. “And that was the biggest LEED Gold program in the history of the United States. So we took advantage of that as well, and learned a lot from that process. That has allowed us to look at a lot of other opportunities that have that same requirement, and be uniquely qualified for that work because it is a unique process you go through in getting LEED certification. And if you don’t understand the paperwork involved and the way it needs to happen, it can be very burdensome and costly.”

Rizzo has passed the day-to-day activities at Perini to Craig Shaw. The two have been working together from the start, but Rizzo believes Shaw’s talents have benefited the company.

“It has now made my life much more tolerable,” he says, “in terms of understanding what I can do to continue to add value here, without having the day-to-day burden or running the company.”

Gaming’s dilemma propels a lucrative era for the design world.

As casino operators crowd shrinking markets—Oklahoma alone sports about 100 properties—the need for separation intensifies. Special qualities become harder to demonstrate amid the constantly rising customer-demand bar.

Most casinos already display superb service, loyalty clubs and creative deal-structuring. Many add revenue-producing amenities like theaters and parking lots, or loss leaders like golf courses and spas, to keep customers on site. They seek a further edge by providing dinners, shows, rewards and discounts with the swipe of a card.

What is the next leg of in this customer-service race? And how does one stay on budget while looking cutting-edge?

Gaming looks to the hotel industry. Brand and boutique hotel concepts, the casino version of B&B, are much more than bed and breakfast.

In this emerging realm, casinos can be upscale yet subtle, personalized yet prosperous. More properties pin their separation hopes on hotel and convention space. They tap a resource once geared toward wealthy business travelers.

This philosophy originated in the 1980s. A classic boutique hotel meant themes and services in a stylish, intimate manner. As technology emerged, guest rooms became fitted with Wi-Fi internet, honesty bars, on-site dining facilities, bars and restaurants. This concept became popular in major cities, and targeted road warriors. Hence, the rise of Starwood and W Hotels.

It also attracted gaming interests, which brought a branding element into play. Branding denotes name recognition, as in Hard Rock. A certain service standard and amenities list surrounds a well-known property.

Branding and boutique. Both avenues are available to casinos, but dollars must be spent wisely.

This is where designers make a difference. They have large staffs and a presence in multimillion-dollar buildings, but can also stretch the expansion-project dollar. They can maximize space, select appropriate colors, utilize local artifacts and blend the right dash of history into a modern look. Their clients can swagger, even on a “shoestring” budget.

And that’s never been more important.

Find What’s Special

Tom Hoskens, principal and director of strategic design for Cuningham Group in Minneapolis, Minnesota, likes the roles boutique and branding play in the hotel-casino business.

“They are going together more and more,” Hoskens indicates. “The boutique hotel set out the parameters. It’s all about the service amenities, about making it unique. The boutique hotel takes the branded experience as a promise that you are going to have a certain type of experience time and again. It can be a great bar, terrific restaurant or a special spot for people to congregate.

“Gaming has taken that and said that no matter what size property you have, you can have that special experience, and it can be wonderful, especially if you can take advantage of your location.”

Cuningham’s influence on the Harrah’s Cherokee property in North Carolina bears out Hoskens’ point. His company won awards for its massive and tasteful $650 million renovation, which won a host of HOSPY Awards. They include the best buffet and best theatrical experience for 2012 and best lobby and suites for 2011.

While a property’s overall beauty is impressive, Hoskens believes it works by sparking human emotion. In his eye, every building tells a story, and one’s imagination can be unleashed within that context.

“Harrah’s has that great Smokey Mountains influence,” he says. “It has the rock and the stone. It has the wood. It has the twigs, the dappled light, all in the space of the lobby itself, and the rooms carry through.

“You have this brand promise for Harrah’s that says ‘I am in a special place.’ The hotel casino skyway is across a creek where people are fishing for trout. It is a special branded experience and that can only happen in this one place in this one time.”

Cuningham applies the concept of exclusivity differently with Bossier City, Louisiana’s Margaritaville. The property opened in July with a heavy design emphasis, naturally, on Jimmy Buffett, the performer for whom it is named.

“It’s a little bit about the cheeseburger, but mostly about the paradise,” Hoskens jokes, linking Buffett’s famed “Cheese-burger in Paradise” tune to the property’s branded message. The hotel projects a flamboyant party air onto its gaming premises.

 “From the hotel lobby, you are going through a bit of forest,” Hoskens says. “You are traveling through a green area and as you are going through this special place with plants, flowers and trees, what do you see in the distance but a Tiki bar? And that is just before you get to the room. This is a specialty experience, a boutique experience, and you know that this guy is coming back.”

Hoskens says smaller operators can obtain bang for their buck with precise planning about multi-use of space and a streamlined effort between construction and design. In mid October, Cuningham won a contract for the Valley River casino to be built about an hour away from Harrah’s Cherokee. Its budget is smaller than Margaritaville, but Hoskens believes it will maximize the dollars. Hoskens says his group and the construction company work closely together. This figures to produce a coordinated spending approach, with design ideas being implemented in the most cost-effective fashion.

“This will be 300 rooms, and is going to have a specialty boutique look and feel to it,” Hoskens says. “This ought to be interesting. We are just starting the project now. The Valley River actually exists in this area and is going to figure prominently in the design.”

Smaller properties need to hustle in unique ways. Hoskens says “they have to do something special in the room. All of them try to do that. Most of them play games with the bathroom and toilet room and the shower areas in an attempt to make a big impact. The second thing is, ‘How do you plug in your devices?’ What is your bed and sitting area like? How well do they work together? This is the low-hanging fruit, as it were.”

Cuningham has prospered with the rise of Indian gaming in the last quarter century.

Designing the Fun

Memphis-based Hnedak Bobo Group has a grip on large and small projects.

The company thinks big, but can fit those ideas into a smaller budget, if asked. Hnedak Bobo designed the Apache Casino Hotel, which opened in 2012, with that in mind. The Lawton, Oklahoma, property has been called “the most fun hotel from Oklahoma City to Dallas,” and is also one of the most luxurious lodging options in the southwest Oklahoma gaming market. And for a reasonable start-up cost.

 “This $24 million hotel is a great example of a design that has enhanced and solidified the unique character of the Ft. Sill Apaches’ gaming brand,” says Dike Bacon, principal at HBG. “The hotel’s bold, bright colors and contemporary design aesthetic add to the high-energy gaming experience at the casino, and is giving its customers something to talk about through unique offerings that elevate the tribe’s brand.”

“Our guests often tell us how surprised they are by the quality and appealing design of our new hotel,” says Jeff Haozous, chairman of the Ft. Sill Apache Tribe of Oklahoma. “The attention to detail separates our property from any hotel in our region and provides an experience that, until now, was not available here. The hotel design complements and supports our overall gaming business.”

It’s hard to miss the new five-story, 132-key, 74,541-square-foot hotel, which is positioned to capture attention from patrons arriving from the west.

“The building’s vibrant contemporary exterior colors visually tie in with the existing casino and enhance the cohesiveness of the entire property,” says Nathan Peak, senior associate and lead designer at HBG.

At night, a vivid play of color and light act as a dazzling beacon for patrons.

“The hotel is designed to look and feel different at night,” Peak asserts. “Linear LED light coves were placed around the hotel roof edge, and the columns at the porte cochere were articulated with custom metal enclosures with LED pin lights that illuminate the columns from within. At night, there is no mistaking the instant drama that is created by this light display.”

A 25,171-square-foot promenade connector link provides creative casino and hotel separation, and serves a greater purpose than a mere passageway to and from the casino. The connector structure was created as the nucleus of the property, even functioning as the main entry lobby for hotel guests from a new two-lane porte cochere.

“Our guests feel like they are in a bigger city when they first enter the hotel lobby,” Haozous says.

HBG Interior Designer Jennifer Smith, along with Peak and Interior Architect Aron Ramage, worked closely with Haozous to achieve this effect.

“Our client really wanted to maximize playful, contemporary design, using vibrant patterns and fresh, clean lines,” says Smith.

Designers animated the connector walkway with colorful, modern feature walls and activated the location with key amenities. They include the main hotel check-in desk, business center and retail shop, a cozy lobby lounge with fireplace, and the new 360 restaurant featuring 126-seat dining, a 24-seat bar and a 22-seat private dining room. Topping it off is a 2,500-square-foot ballroom that partitions into smaller meeting rooms with a banquet-sized kitchen and an escalator to the mezzanine-level casino floor.

The five-story hotel offers a mix of standard rooms and suites. It totals 84 kings, 44 double queens and four suites, some with special features such as wet bars, large glass showers, and first-floor patios that lead to the swimming pool.

“All guestrooms and suites offer custom carpet and casework, with nice-sized bathrooms. We pulled high quality through all aspects of the public spaces and into the guestrooms,” Smith indicates.

“By working closely with the Ft. Sill Apache Tribe, we have created the ideal hotel design for a casino that is continuously noted for its charismatic customer service and friendliness,” says Janet Smith-Haltom, principal and project manager for HBG. “And as the Ft. Sill Apache Casino Hotel property grows, the design will accommodate graceful future expansion for additional amenities.”

Building on Relationships

Ken Kulas and Ann Fleming opened Las Vegas-based Cleo Design in 2000 and carved a steady niche in the design world.

Cleo has parlayed strong relations with tribal casinos into a long-running business plan. They constantly upgrade and expand the Seminole Hard Rock casinos in Tampa and Hollywood, Florida. The company has been part of the design and planning process since the properties opened.

What does the branded hotel mean in this era?

“The boutique concept gives you that step up in personal attention,” Kulas says. “You feel you will get more individual catering, a relationship with the concierge, etc. While a brand lets you know that you can have option A, B or C, the boutique idea attempts to do things on a much more personal level.”

Tribal and non-tribal properties are consistent with this approach. While they differ in one respect—Kulas says owners and operators are more influential in casino design than tribal officials—both entities need to know their product and audience.

 “With the tribal projects, we find that many of the expansion projects they do are able to customize the different ideas to provide the guest a broader experience,” Kulas indicates. “This can be expressed in tower remodeling, and it can be reflected in the rooms with amenities like a return to themed experiences, which are becoming more popular. We had moved away from them, but they are coming back with rooms like the honeymoon suite or bachelor pad.

 “Their approach is that you want to provide as many options as possible,” Kulas says. “Around Hard Rock Hollywood, for example, they have a lot of retired people in their area, so in that case the casino caters to one group during the daytime, primarily by way of specialty gaming events along with slots, bingos, raffles and giveaways. And then in the evening it takes on almost a club atmosphere with entertainment and special events. There are a few different things that come out at night. The lighting changes and the music gradually changes.”

The Hollywood property showcases a pool area, spa and great restaurants. Tower and hotel remodeling and gaming-floor expansion has been a continual process here.

In Tampa, the Seminoles have added a restaurant, pool bar and expanded gaming floor.

Cleo has also worked extensively with the Choctaw Nation in Durant, Oklahoma. Its most-recent 18-month project set to conclude late in 2014 spans a number of areas. The tribe is thinking both locally and regionally. Durant is only about an hour from Dallas, which expects to obtain gaming in the near future. So, it gears up.

“There is a lot of competition nearby and with Dallas,” Kulas asserts. “They want to stay ahead of the curve. They are trying to service the Dallas crowd, so they will keep coming. Their recent project is a convention and exhibit hall along with a new tower. Within that tower, the majority of the facility is set to cater to a convention type of person. Also mixed into this tower is a new spa facility. They have guest rooms specifically designed and oriented toward a spa customer. The finishes and amenities have a resort spa-type look.”

Kulas predicts an arsenal of four different products for the Choctaw operators. They will have both a Vegas and a local theme in a casino and hotel. Cleo is working on the exhibit hall and convention area for one casino, and the bowling alley and movie theater for the more locally based facility. Future plans included changes to the Choctaw Inn, which is tied in to the locals concept.

Whether for locals or tourists, branding to create boutique experiences is the element that has not only brought success to these projects, but is a key to success for designers working on projects with footprints that are dwarfed by the mega-resorts. In this case, smaller is better.

In 2011, when developer Bart Blatstein bought the 18-story offices of the Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper and its tabloid sister, the Philadelphia Daily News, his plan to redevelop the property—as a casino complex, no less—was described in the media as “audacious,” “impudent” and even “an Icarus-like dream.” And rightly so.

The 87-year-old Beaux Arts-style building, with its distinctive clock tower and gold-tipped spire, is one block from Spring Garden Street, considered the border to North Philadelphia—arguably the most distressed neighborhood in town. For many urbanites, this onetime Brahmin bastion is now synonymous with decline and decay. Crime is such a concern that Temple University, in the heart of North Philadelphia, employs the largest university police force in the U.S. (and the third largest armed security force in the state).

What was Blatstein thinking? For answers, it’s helpful to look to another tough Philly neighborhood called Northern Liberties. Since 2000, Blatstein has invested some $100 million around a former Schmidt’s Brewery to create the Piazza, a mixed-use commercial-residential development that has turned “No-Libs” from a shooting gallery into what the Philadelphia Business Journal has called “a sought-after address and destination.”

Destination: Downtown

The idea once was unheard of—casinos as a path to urban renewal. But Philadelphia is just one of a score of U.S. cities turning to gaming halls as a way to revitalize depressed urban cores, add jobs, and not incidentally, stock municipal coffers with fresh tax revenues.

And because these properties are often built on highly developed city blocks, requiring smaller footprints and limiting amenities, they are doing what their Vegas-style predecessors never dreamed of doing: partnering with local restaurants, hotels, spas and the like to create full-scale entertainment cooperatives. In rejecting the monolithic model of old, the urban-casino concept has the potential to truly enliven city centers and prove the truth of the axiom, “A rising tide floats all boats.”

Few states have embraced gaming with as much enthusiasm—or speed—as Ohio. Since May 2012, when the Horseshoe Casino debuted in downtown Cleveland, three additional casinos have opened in the Buckeye State: Hollywood Toledo, Hollywood Columbus and Horseshoe Cincinnati. According to Rock Gaming, which partnered with Caesars Entertainment on the Horseshoe properties, in its first year the Cleveland casino has booked 61,000 room nights for its patrons at local hotels, boosting occupancy by 12.5 percent. And though the casino has several restaurants of its own—including the mandatory buffet—it also directs customers to a dozen eateries outside the casino where they can redeem reward-card points. The reward for restaurant owners: some $2.4 million in business. 

 “It’s not the mall that killed Main Street and chased all the retailers away,” says Rock CEO Matt Cullen. “It’s very collaborative.”

Unlike casinos of old—the gargantuan “mousetraps” designed to keep patrons inside—the Horseshoe Cleveland hosts summer concerts on an urban plaza, inviting patrons to step outdoors. At Detroit’s Greektown Casino, Rock Gaming—which recently bought a majority stake in the company from Caesars—has plans to occasionally “close down the road and make it a pedestrian mall with bands and activities, which would showcase the adjacent Greek restaurants,” Cullen says.

The approach is in keeping with the new profile of city dwellers, he adds. “If you look at the demographic of who wants to live downtown, it’s young folks and empty nesters. They want the opportunity to walk to a ballgame or a restaurant, take the streetcar to a show, and then go gaming for an hour or so afterward.”

Fitting into the Neighborhood

When planning a city-based casino, “It’s really necessary to be an urban planner of sorts, to try to connect a set of activities unrelated by ownership but related by use,” says architect Paul Steelman, of Steelman Partners in Las Vegas, which is part of Blatstein’s development team in Philadelphia. “We want the casino to become part of the urban structure, not something that sticks out in the urban structure.”

In other words, don’t plop down a mini-Mirage in Chicago, Portland or Podunk. “People say everyone wants the Vegas experience, but you’ve failed as an architect in an urban center if you build something that looks, feels and acts like Vegas,” says Steelman. “There are many ways to create beautiful entertainment-based architecture in almost any style, so wherever you go you can create something in keeping with the urban district that also says, ‘This is a casino.’”

The Empire Casino in London’s Leicester Square is one example: located at the site of the historic Empire Ballroom—once a Victorian music hall, later a lavish movie palace—the city’s largest casino “is a gorgeous piece of architecture done in a handsome, code-conforming way that is the center of entertainment in this district,” Steelman observes.

In fact, though the Empire has seen many additions, subtractions and adds-on over the years, its ornate baroque entryway is almost indistinguishable from the Empire of yore, which actually was mentioned in Oscar Wilde’s 1895 comedy The Importance of Being Earnest.

“The architectural challenge in urban areas is to stand out and fit in at the same time,” says Cullen. “You want to make a statement, you want to have something people look at and say, ‘Wow, very cool,’ but it has to fit in and incorporate a lot of cues from the community you’re in. When we were trying to get sites in Cleveland and Cincinnati, we promised not to give them a Treasure Island with boats shooting out of the water.”

Needless to say, the new “integrated resort”—a catchphrase that describes a property’s interdependence on local businesses—can dispense with many of the old rules for casino design, such as the day-for-night ambiance of dark rooms illuminated by gaudy neon. Design and architecture are “lighter, brighter, airier, with taller ceilings, with more brilliant carpets and more hardwood floors,” says Steelman. “It has a modern palatial effect, which is a key to bringing people back.”

The prairie-wide, contiguous first-level casino floor, once a staple of the casino designer, is now strictly optional, says Steelman.

“Look at the Solaire (in Manila). Technically it’s not one gaming floor, but broken into eight sections with pathways, some half-walls, some ceiling differentials and partial enclosures. That’s how it’s done in Macau, too, and it’s a trend that will be really apparent as we redesign and renovate.”

Retrofit, Recycle, Revive

By choice or necessity, urban casino development is often redevelopment. Blatstein plans to reconstruct and build around a historic newspaper office. The Horseshoe Cleveland was built inside the former Higbee’s department store, a Beaux Arts masterpiece first built in 1931 and later immortalized in Jean Shepherd’s A Christmas Story.

A sterling example of adaptive reuse is Detroit’s Motor City Casino, formerly the Wagner Baking Company, maker of Wonder Bread and Hostess cupcakes. The fortress-like brick structure was built in 1927 by Chicago architect Walter W. Ahlschlager, who also designed the Roxy and Pantages theatres and the famous Peabody Hotel (known for its resident ducks, which parade daily from the penthouse to an outdoor fountain). But by the early 1990s, the building was a warehouse for Goodwill Industries.

“It had been closed as a commercial building for decades, and it was a mess—water in the basement, and packed to the rafters with peoples’ hand-me-downs,” says Motor City CEO Gregg Solomon. “We could have started from scratch somewhere, but we’ve been here long enough to understand what it was that was iconic in the public mind about this building: there’s a big smokestack you can see for miles, and parapets, and the edifices on the corner of Grand River and Temple streets. There were a lot of terra cotta inserts that over the years had fallen off and broken, but we were fortunate enough to find the original blueprints for the building, because we wanted to be fully vested in what Detroit used to be about and what it could be in the future.”

The result, says Solomon, is a “future-retro concept” that took its cues from a line of concept cars designed in the Motor City during in the Post War World War II era of the late 1940s and early 1950s. For a hint of the design aesthetic, think Futurama, a GM-sponsored exhibit that was mounted at the 1939 World’s Fair; Disney’s Tomorrowland, which first opened in 1955; and the Jetsons cartoon series of the 1960s.

“The cars had bubble canopies and tailfins and looked like jet engines, because a moment before, these guys were building aircraft engines for the war effort; now they were working on cars again, and they had had a taste of what they called the aerospace movement,” says Solomon. That Atomic Age influence is evident in the Motor City, which includes futuristic elements like an undulating wave-shaped roofline and countless subtle, almost subliminal nods to Motown’s manufacturing history, such as hubcap-shaped silver upholstery buttons, repeated impressions of a ’57 Cadillac grill in the wallpaper, and bench seating inspired by a Ford Thunderbird. “You would have to be pretty observant to see it,” says Solomon. “Almost nobody ever figures it out.”

But traces of the old bread factory remain, and that’s by design. The brick bullnose of the original Wagner Bakery anchors one corner of the building, with the 17-story tower “paying homage to the grand era of Detroit,” Solomon says. 

The project was not without its challenges: the bakery façade had started to tilt out over the street, and “we used steel supports to tie back the whole building,” says Solomon. Lead-painted surfaces had to be removed, as well as underground fuel oil storage tanks. Another problem: asbestos, once used to insulate the hot ovens. “We would open a wall and the next thing you know, you had to clear the whole crew out and bring in the guys in the moon suits, testing to make sure it’s not something bad,” says Solomon. “An old building is a double-edged sword, but it saves a huge amount of energy if you reuse existing materials. We tried to make it as energy-efficient as possible.”

The Grand Victoria riverboat casino in Elgin, Illinois, an MGM Resorts property at the site of the former Elgin Watch Factory, is another example of “designing to the site.” The factory is long gone, but in fitting tribute to its past, the property’s land-based pavilion is characterized by a giant clock hanging from the atrium ceiling. The architecture was inspired by the Craftsman period and the work of Frank Lloyd Wright.
 
“If you’re going to be in Elgin, be in Elgin,” says Solomon, a veteran of the Las Vegas gaming scene. “If you’re going to be in Tunica, be in Tunica. But don’t try to run a Las Vegas game here. Hey, we’re from Las Vegas, so don’t show us how it’s done. You have to get your wrapped head around what’s cool to the people here, and what they want.”

Some Things Never Change

But not all the old rules are subject to change, says interior designer Floss Barber of Floss Barber Inc. “Gamblers and slot players like certain configurations that aren’t about aesthetics; there are component parts to a casino that a designer knows that direct the flow of the patron, such as an easy entrance with no barriers, the player’s club very close to the entrance so you can capture that person and sign them up, clustered table games so people can jump from one to the other, and a roulette table near the cashier,” so if someone wins big, they may try their luck one more time before cashing out.

The table game area should be intimate and foster camaraderie among players; the slots are more solitary, for players who like to choose a “lucky niche,” Barber says. “It’s the idiosyncrasies of the player that get communicated in the design.”

That said, Barber notes, there is a trend away from grandiosity and toward natural finishes and elements, particularly in the urban casino.

“As we become more digital, people are freaking out; they’re looking for the natural elements of air, space and light, be it in a restaurant, hotel or college space, and it would be natural for it to move into casinos,” she says. If an operator elects to install wood floors to replace the gaudy multicolored carpets that hide so much dirt, they would have to be super-durable to withstand 24-hour traffic with virtually no down time for thorough maintenance. 

A trend that may have seen its day, except possibly in Las Vegas, is outrageously themed décor. “I worked many years ago at a casino in Atlantic City where the high-roller suites were designed to look like something out of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra, Marco Polo—all these bizarre fantasies,” says Barber. “The traveling public in general has become much more sophisticated.”

Speaking of Atlantic City, Paul Steelman says casino operators who built there now wish they had never built insular buildings that “walled off the Boardwalk. Now they all say, ‘Why did we do that?’” Steelman says. “Why didn’t we worship the Boardwalk?”

Beyond the Obvious

Casinos have been held up as economic drivers for cities that have seen their downtowns empty out and residents flee to the suburbs. As more people consider returning to the city—those young working adults and older retired people—center-city gaming halls have benefits beyond increased tax revenues, says Rock Gaming’s Cullen.  

“Sure, the tax revenue is a big benefit to the community, but if that’s all you’re looking for, you’ve missed out on other opportunities” that may be even more enduring. “We have worked diligently to make sure we emphasize local and WBE and MBE projects,” he says. “We committed that 90 percent of the hires would be from within the metropolitan statistical area in those communities, and thousands of new jobs are being made available. We’re partnering with retailers, partnering with hotels.

“The tax revenue is very important and a huge revenue source in Detroit in and the state of Ohio, but we weren’t gaming guys interested in the revitalization of cities,” he says. “We’re business guys, entrepreneurs and urbanists that happen to be in gaming.”

The list is long of cities that now host the new urban brand of casino, and it is expected to grow. Next year, Rock Gaming and Caesars Entertainment will open the Horseshoe Casino near the Inner Harbor in Baltimore. And a casino could soon be in the works for the Greater Boston area. 

Steelman, who is the architect for Blatstein’s Philadelphia casino proposal, says the developer’s “Provence” resort project, if approved by legislators, could turn a couple of dismal city blocks into a Parisian-style thoroughfare and a former newspaper office “into a grand hotel like the Plaza in New York, the Georges V in Paris or the Connaught in London.”

“The whole idea is to take a magic wand, wave it over this area and crack it open,” says Steelman—essentially reconnecting the forsaken community to the lively Center City business district and extending it to Broad Street.

And Steelman, for one, thinks it can happen. Even in North Philly.