Las Vegas—a marketplace for high fashion and cutting-edge architectural design, or one kitschy, tasteless replica of what was once-good fashion after another? True, by the time you’ve stepped inside any of the big name casinos in Las Vegas, Macau, or any other gambling destination, you’ve entered one of the most meticulously designed and fashioned structures in the world, be it walkways that guide you to gambling areas or all of the sights and sounds that have been engineered to make you feel like staying to gamble for a while. It’s got the exuberance, the high paid consultants and a cash flow larger than some small countries, not to mention the live shows, the nightclubs and an insatiable modeling industry. But most of the behemoth structures that typify today’s casinos resist the avant-garde, with designers and entertainers relying heavily upon classic notions of luxury, décor and architectural design.

Before the buffets, before the roller coasters and the showgirls, gambling—casino revenue—was king. It’s what drove the construction of bigger casinos, and bigger hotels and entertainment to attract gamblers. When Bill Friedman started working as a dealer in 1965 in Reno, Nevada, casinos were small, much smaller than the giant game houses we know today and not nearly as ornate. It was basically a big barn turned into a casino, Friedman said. Today Friedman is an expert casino design consultant. His book, Designing Casinos to Dominate the Competition, was published by the Institute for the Study of Gambling and Commercial Gaming at the University of Nevada, Reno.

The casinos themselves have been neglected. After working his way up the ranks of the casino floor for decades, Friedman took over control of two Las Vegas casinos, and began pinpointing design elements that could make or break a casino’s bottom line. And throughout his career, he has found one major design theme among large developers—an obsessed competition to see who can build the “biggest barn.”

Despite the huge chandeliers and other classically luxurious design elements of the casino floor, these large casinos are essentially warehouses for gambling equipment, with slot machines stacked door to door, most of which have been designed by a third party elsewhere in the world, operating with sounds and colors that bear little coordination with the décor. According to Friedman, the likelihood that a visitor off the street will stay in a casino and spend is directly related to the number of steps it takes to get from the door of a casino to a gambling outlet. So casino operators have learned to segment these huge warehouse spaces, breaking them down into smaller spaces, with maze-like passageways that guide the flow of foot traffic from the doorways directly past slots and tables alike.

And for the better part of Vegas’ history, that design paradigm stayed relatively static. Big gaming houses projected gambling as a male-dominated, seller’s market with tables and corridors pushed underground and into the dark. One need only notice at the scantily-clothed cocktail waitresses in any casino to see the surviving emphasis on male gamblers. But, the barn casino design mindset is changing.

Aside from the five-star restaurants, chic fashion retailers and plush hotel rooms, the basic design of the casino—the once heart and soul of a Vegas establishment—floor has gone unchanged for decades. But casinos are increasingly riding shotgun to the shows, restaurants and nightclubs that supplement the once-mighty casinos. According to casino design expert David Kranes, hotel-casinos are taking notice of success enjoyed by the more the dual-gendered buyer’s market of retail, fashion, restaurants and entertainment venues. Old casinos abused their customers making it too dark, too loud, too confusing, with too much ‘furniture’ and too little space, Kranes said. “The mantra seemed to be: Go ahead. Try to have fun! Try to overcome all the designed abuse.”

And a lot of that abuse, especially the noise, is still present. Kranes points out that far too many big name casinos are not catching on to the paradigm shift. Take for instance the large parking lots that seem to be more maze-like and confusing than the casinos themselves. This is one of the most lasting problems for big casinos, emblematic of the last-century, non-cutting-edge design that so many of them suffer from, according to Friedman. These lots perpetuate the abuse, lessening the likelihood that customers will stay, or come back.

But now, casinos have started to see the light—the natural light. Water, live flowers and other open and green spaces have found their way into some newer casino and hotel designs. Gaming floors have more curved lines and walls inside than they used to, and gaming floors a slightly less dedicatedly gaming. Even the air is changing. It’s not so much about pumping in oxygen or other smells, Friedman said, but rather about breaking away the old, perpetual assault on our senses to achieve a general feeling of comfort. And as such, many casinos now have non-smoking gambling areas mixed in with their classic casinos.

Kranes points to casino designer Steve Wynn as someone who has seen the light of the next era of casino design. Wynn, with new properties in both Las Vegas and Macau, hires architects and designers that commingle the successful classical designs of the past, while pushing edge of style and quality. Five-star dining and amenities of all sorts invite people to spend their entire vacation at one place—and hopefully in their casino, which exhibits many of the curves and green spaces mentioned above. And while Steve Wynn’s cutting-edge hotel-casino design—to maximize profits—is the exception and not the rule, other casinos have embarked on smaller design endeavors to try and alter their image to attract more gambling adults. The hotel once known as Treasure Island, replete with family entertainment, is now called simple “T.I.” The interior has been outfitted with sheik nightclubs and expensive sushi bars—obviously geared towards an older crowd than when it still went by its storybook name.

Bill Friedman pointed to the model that Disneyland employed building its theme parks as a design method that might prove useful in the future. Build a space that guides people easily around a large property to strategic spending points while inspiring a sense of curiosity. “First you want them to be curious, using curves walls and plants to obscure full view of the casino as a barn,” according to Friedman. “And once they’re where you want’ em, you want them to feel comfortable. So in the future, we can expect the hotel-casino to become a stylized reinvention of retail, entertainment, and classic casino style. Don’t get rid of the smoky male rooms with chandeliers yet, but get ready for more airy, entertaining retail-like venues with a more feminine touch to lead the market.

Written by d/visible contributor Avraham Karshmer.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 18th, 2008 at 1:14 pm and is filed under Business, Industrial, Culture, Architecture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.