It was some anniversary present.
When the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community’s Mystic Lake Casino Hotel opened the Mystic Lake Center in 2018, it celebrated the property’s first 25 years of operations.
Welcome to the encore. Two years later, the project is a big hit, drawing visitors in the greater Minneapolis-St. Paul region to visual splendor.
Developed during WORTHGROUP Architects & Designers’ master plan of the entire 1.5-million-square-foot resort, the new Events Center and Hotel elevates the guest experience to a new level of sophistication. Guests are greeted in a three-story, 400-foot-long glass atrium leading to 70,000 square feet of versatile, tech-centric meeting space.
This first impression for patrons has been a lasting one, according to Bryan Hamlin, partner and chief design officer for the Denver, Colorado-based WORTHGROUP, which delivered the $104 million project.
“On opening night, we heard comments that this design is so compelling, and as guests descended into the pre-function space, they made the decision on the escalator to book the space for their upcoming events, even before viewing the actual ballrooms,” he says. “This has enabled the property to offer guests an unsurpassed meeting and event experience at Mystic Lake Casino within a versatile, functional design.”
Hamlin says Mystic Lake offerings are so diverse, the owner created a separate interactive website to showcase and market the product.
The entire project is pleasing to the eye, Hamlin asserts.
“Utilizing expansive areas of glazing, the overall design concept dissolves typical physical barriers between guests and nature,” he says. “It creates unexpected and continuous visual connectivity to beautiful panoramic views of the surrounding landscape and the property’s Meadows Golf Course.”
Hamlin also touts the transformative power of natural light. Guests within the entire 25,000-square-foot pre-function space enjoy natural light and continuous views of the changing seasons, while remaining comfortable through the use of 11,000 square feet of SageGlass electrochromic glass.
The sculptural design fuses architecture and interior design into a dynamic first expression of the future vision for the property as it begins its next 25 years of success, Hamlin says. “Sweeping forms of natural materials interweave with elegant illuminated chandeliers along the flowing lines of the ceiling 30 feet above the pre-function floor,” he indicates.
Cattails moving in the wind along the lake’s edge are translated into the motion of the building’s front façade. Raindrops on the lake’s surface and their rippling patterns of motion in the water are sculpted into circular forms of glass and light, floating within the pre-function space as chandeliers.
The guest’s entire journey, from the entry corridor to the pre-function space to the angled sun bay windows of the guest rooms, maximizes views of the earth and sky.
Owner: Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community
Size: 267,000 square feet
Cost: $104 million
Design and Architecture: WORTHGROUP Architects & Designers
