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Leila Navidi
Guests enter the Aria hotel-casino for the first time Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2009.
Published Thursday, Dec. 17, 2009 | 1:37 a.m.
Updated Monday, Dec. 28, 2009 | 6:39 p.m.
The most-recited line of the night was, “It’s hard to get my head around this place.”
Not to mention your feet.
Aria opened tonight at CityCenter. It’s so grandiose, it practically prompts lightheadedness with its scope and size. Four thousand -- and four! -- rooms stretching to the night sky and 150,000 feet of casino space are not truly appreciated until you hoof it into the heart of the hotel. This resort is tall, sophisticated, dark, masculine, wooden, reflective and cool.
If you’ll like all that, and a good few-mile walk, you will love Aria.
It’s just that it might take a few visits to develop such an infatuation.
“I walked in, and I didn’t know which way to turn,” said Mark Martell, a 27-year-old Air Force serviceman who visited the casino shortly after it opened to the public around 11:30 p.m. following what was purported to be a grand fireworks show (I was pinned in City Bar at the time). “It’s nice, so far. It’s just going to take a while to walk around.”
His wife, 25-year-old Lindsey, who also is in the Air Force and thus not accustomed to such a ground assault, said, “I’m still figuring out which way to look.”
Chaz Lafferty, who coaches middle school girls’ basketball -- which is evident on his jacket, which reads “Coach Chaz” -- had never been to Las Vegas before tonight.
Welcome to the dinner show, Chaz.
“We’re staying at Mandalay Bay, which is beautiful,” said Lafferty, who is from South Jersey and has always visited the hotel-casinos in nearby Atlantic City. “But this place is incredible. I’m going to find some blackjack tables.”
Might want to hail a cab.
Xavier Reyes, who owns and operates a clothing retail outlet, is visiting with his parents, who are visiting from Israel. After taking a spin through the Elements gift shop and sundries store, he said he was skeptical about how Aria and the entire urban chic (you know it when you see it) CityCenter project would fit on the Strip.
“I was at the Encore opening last year, and I liked it better,” he said. “This is too Miami-ish, a little overwhelming for Las Vegas. It would work in New York or Miami, but it might be too much for Vegas.”
Reyes splits his time between Miami and New York, so he knows a lot about Miami and New York. And clothes, too.
One who knows Las Vegas really well is Vegas native Mark Brandenburg, co-owner of the city’s oldest hotel-casino, Golden Gate, who was impressed by the pure ambition of his surroundings.
“I remember in the 1950s and ’60s, everything in Las Vegas was a box,” he said. “This has a different sort of feel, a sophisticated feel. You feel energized, and I think the city will be energized, because this is how you grow. You don’t grow by standing still.”
Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at twitter.com/JohnnyKats.
look at the people you are interviewing air force personnel,middle school basketball coach.
what do these people possibly have to offer city center.no offense to them personally,but SERIOUSLY besides the novelty of wanting to check out the property,and partake in the opening night festivities,they have no right hanging out there.
city center will never have a problem with the hourdes of people window shopping,but as everyone knows that does not pay the bills
Seriously a coach,and servicemen/woman representing the city center visitors.hotel cost,crystals,overpriced,overhyped 500.00 fixed price menus,and you interview them.once the opening,and novelty wears off of this place,this will just be a phenomenal disaster
peace out
HA HA Yeah ! where were all the celebs ? HA HA !!
another mindless diversion not worth the price.
... and as usual the comments are from the "nattering nabobs of negativism, an effete corps of impudent snobs, hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history". If you don't appreciate this town, folks, just move! U-haul is open.
This is a unique moment in history, and I'm happy to be here when it happens. Mark Brandenburg, co-owner of Golden Gate, is, of course, right, "this is how you grow. You don't grow by standing still."
Viva Las Vegas!
Casino Chief Said to Own Rembrandt
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LinkedinDiggFacebookMixxMySpaceYahoo! BuzzPermalink By CAROL VOGEL
Published: December 18, 2009
The mysterious telephone bidder who paid $33.2 million for a Rembrandt portrait at Christie's in London last week was buying the painting on behalf of the Las Vegas casino owner Stephen A. Wynn, according to several experts familiar with the transaction.
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Christie's
Rembrandt's "Portrait of a Man, Half-Length, With His Arms Akimbo."
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Fred Prouser/Reuters
Stephen A. Wynn maintains a well-regarded art collection.
The price, an auction record for this artist, was nearly three times what Mr. Wynn paid for a Rembrandt self-portrait in 2003 at Sotheby's in London. When he bought that painting, for $11.3 million, Mr. Wynn set his alarm for 2 a.m., sneaked into the bathroom so he wouldn't wake his wife and bid on his own behalf by telephone. At the time he said he bought the work because he wanted "people to see Rembrandt in relation to the Impressionists, post-Impressionists and early Modernists" already in his collection.
This time around Mr. Wynn has gone quiet. Reached by telephone on Thursday, he said only, "I'm not discussing it, I'm not acknowledging my paintings anymore."
On Dec. 8, the day of the auction, though, Mr. Wynn called several old-master dealers and Rembrandt scholars to ask their opinion of the work, "Portrait of a Man, Half-Length, With His Arms Akimbo" (1658), experts said.
Now the painting is likely to be part of another celebrated collection. Over the years Mr. Wynn has been a high-profile buyer and seller at auction, acquiring trophy paintings by masters like Rubens, Cezanne, Picasso, Sargent, Vermeer and Turner.
I would love to visit Aria. Never been to Las Vegas maybe I'll get lucky someday!