Feature Stories - Apr 16th

CityCenter

Building A City Within A City

by Jennifer Rachel Baumer

Rome has its city within a city with the Vatican, now Las Vegas has its CityCenter, which will span 76 acres and 18 million-square-feet, with hotel towers, casinos, condominium units and a retail district bringing elegant, high-end retail with it.

“CityCenter is a tremendous experience for Perini and all our partners on the project,” said Dick Rizzo, vice chairman, Perini Building Company. “We are building a virtual city designed by eight eminent architects.”

CityCenter is the largest privately financed project in the United States. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither will CityCenter be, but it’s coming in on time and on target with the first phase expected to open December 2009.

Hotels, Condominiums, Gaming & Shopping…what else is there?

The CityCenter project, which consists of many different components, started with the relocation of the Bellagio employee parking area, which was destroyed and re-created as a 5,000-car garage that freed up ground space for building, allowing excavation to start on the Pelli Tower. Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects designed Pelli Tower, with 61 stories, a 3.8 million-square-foot hotel tower with 4,000 rooms, dining, retail, entertainment and spa services on the premises. Pelli Tower will top out in July, according to Shelton Grantham, vice president field operations at Perini Building Company.

Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects have designed some of the world’s largest private developments, including the World Financial Center in New York and projects in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, London and Hong Kong. The tower designs are so different from buildings that have come before on the Strip they’re expected to change the Las Vegas skyline and how Las Vegas resorts are designed.

That’s one of the nuances that makes CityCenter different: eight architectural firms with eight different styles have all been brought in from around the world to design the components of the project.

Mandarin Oriental and The Harmon are non-gaming hotels that provide the frame for the CityCenter project, located at either end. Kohn Pedersen Fox Architects out of New York created the Mandarin Oriental, and London’s Foster + Partners created The Harmon. Both hotels offer everything from high-tech conference facilities to salon and fitness centers. The Mandarin is currently 25 stories and going well, according to Grantham, and Harmon Hotel is up and out of the ground, with structural steel underway.

Vdara Condo Hotel climbs 57 stories and is located on the north side of the massive project. Vdara will offer 1,543 condo hotel units and was designed by RV Architects, LLC, led by Rafael Vinoly, whose designs can be seen from Cleveland to Uruguay. According to Grantham, Vdara has six to seven stories to complete until it tops out.

The Veer Towers feature two 37-story glass towers with approximately 337 condominium residences each. Residents living in the towers will be close to the heart of the city within a city, near the new retail going in, and will live in towers designed by Helmut Jahn, a firm whose designs have been seen in Brussels, Munich and Berlin. The two towers are both tilted at five degree angles making them appear to lean.

The retail component of the project, The Crystals at CityCenter, is designed by Studio Daniel Libeskind and features casual and fine dining under a crystalline canopy.

Manpower for a New City

With each component of CityCenter designed by a different architect, Gensler of Nevada was brought in to act as executive architect on behalf of MGM/Mirage, which usually keeps architectural design responsibilities in-house.

“When we began, we had a master plan design as a starting point for how the buildings would be organized on the site,” said J.F. Finn, managing principle of Gensler, “then it was figuring out the structure and breaking that down into component pieces and ascertaining the level of responsibility for each part and fitting each part with resources. Then we created standards and a common process across the board.” This means the executive architect had to find a common language, template, and master specifications for each of the subcontractors and architects working on the project so everyone was speaking the same language and on the same page as they went along.

It was somewhat chaotic, and that was okay. “You want a little chaos so it will look like a city,” said Finn. “We’re designing a city all at once. Normally a city evolves, part one, part two, part three – but this is all coming up at once so we were moving things around as [the design] became more refined. So there was a series of back and forth [between entities working together] to create structures as we went along. It took the first 12 months to get started and get a language established so everybody could work together,” Finn continued.

When considering the CityCenter project, no one was in the dark about the amount of manpower it was going to take. “We met with the unions before we ever started because we knew finding people could be a problem we needed to address,” said Grantham. “So we stepped up to the plate and put the word out ‘Vegas is building again and we will talk to anyone who wants to work.’” Developers went into high schools and looked for students who wanted to come in and be a part of the project. “We’re employing an unprecedented amount of crafts people on the project, approximately 7,000 people at the peak of construction,” said Rizzo. “In addition, Perini and MGM/Mirage have in place an aggressive, national outreach program to attract women-owned and minority firms to work on CityCenter.”

“It’s not just about tradesmen from other places and people here, it’s going out and spreading the word about diversity and all the people we’ve brought in because of the project,” said Grantham, “And of course the biggest piece of this, it goes without saying, is the craftsmen and –women, contractors and vendors supplying us with tools, equipment, machines and cranes. It’s been phenomenal. This town has always had a different, fast-paced way with projects on the Strip, so a major concern was having enough people to put together crews.”

The Emerald City

Is it exciting to work on a project this unusual and this huge? “What’s exciting is to be part of the country’s largest privately funded project and to be able to build a city within a city able to sustain life,” said Grantham. “It has its own life support if you will – from residential to hotel to a huge convention area. You’ll have people living in residences right on the strip and the unique strength of the retail – there’s nothing square on it, just a multi-faceted creation that will look fantastic. When it opens, it will be one of the biggest draws of retail stores and venues in Las Vegas. It will have a multitude of activities in and of itself and is an addition to the strip you’ll be able to see for miles around.”

And it’s not just the size and shape. “CityCenter is leading the country in sustainable design and diversity,” said Rizzo. “When complete, it will be the largest privately funded project to achieve LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.” Finn adds, “That’s quite a message to go out from an area known for consumption, that the second largest gaming enterprise in the world continues to be sustainable.”

Completion

The project is coming together thanks to the efforts of the individual players, from MGM/Mirage to Perini, Tishman Construction Corporation, Gensler of Nevada and many others.

Currently, CityCenter is moving into the final phases and is 60 percent complete, with 20 more months of work predicted. Finn says, “We’re two-thirds done, or 65 percent completed, with construction and everything else. It’s exciting to see it taking shape and see all the buildings that will be enclosed soon – and to see what a mark on the landscape it’s going to be.”

“CityCenter is definitely a challenge, but is probably the most rewarding project many of us have ever undertaken,” said Mark Caspers president and chief operating officer of Perini Building Company.”

“CityCenter is a lifetime opportunity for Perini and for everyone involved on the project,” said Rizzo.

“It’s been a very challenging project and between the concept and what we get at the end of the day, it will be something unique to Vegas,” said Grantham. “What [MGM/Mirage] was looking for was something out of the ordinary and anyone who sees this on the Strip is going to go ‘Wow’.”