Wynn: ‘I’ve never had so much fun’

Gary Thompson

Wednesday, Oct. 14, 1998 | 11:15 a.m.

You aren't prepared for Bellagio, a fact that delights its designer.

Oh, sure, it's been sitting there for months, like a giant Christmas present wrapped in an elegant Italianate style just begging to be opened, while the speculation builds over what's waiting inside.

And if you've lived in Las Vegas long enough, you've seen enough new resorts open that you might think you know what Bellagio will be like.

You're expecting something similar to, though a little more upscale, a little more posh, even a little more overstated than the hotel-casinos that have come before.

But you really aren't ready for what will happen tomorrow night.

Bellagio is a feast for the senses.

Sights of achingly beautiful vistas and wonderfully intimate niches, scents of seasonal live flowers, sounds of great music, touches of lush furnishings and decor and tastes of the world's great cuisines all grace the resort Steve Wynn promised would be the best ever built.

Wynn and his colleagues at Mirage Resorts Inc. have delivered on that promise. And as he walked through Bellagio on Monday, Wynn couldn't conceal his delight.

"In my 26 years years in the business," says the Mirage chairman, "I've never had so much fun."

The fun began about six years ago, after Mirage Resorts bought the 166-acre site of the old Dunes hotel-casino and golf course for about $70 million -- a price just 4 percent of what it would cost to assemble a comparable parcel today.

"We suddenly found ourselves with a big piece of property in the most dynamic area of one of the five cities in the world -- New York, London, Paris, Orlando and Las Vegas -- that attracts 30 million visitors a year," Wynn says.

After splitting off a small chunk in exchange for a 50 percent stake in the Monte Carlo, Wynn announced his goal for the remaining acreage. "We're going to build the most ambitious and elegant resort ever built in any century on any continent," he told his staff.

"We were mindful that was a pretty unequivocal way of describing it, but that's what we intended to do," he recalls.

Wynn was less concerned about appearing boastful than being wrong. "It's one thing to be embarrassed, it's another thing to be broke," he says.

So a long and careful planning phase got under way.

"Every inch of this place was in design and development for 50 months," he says. "I loved every minute of it.

He describes the process as "the art of making art."

"It's a funky, staccato, irregular road. And you can't share the details with people while you're doing it, because it sounds like hyperbole. But if you do it right, you don't have to worry -- they'll come to see it.

"We weren't in any hurry," Wynn continues. "If you start rushing a project just to get cash flow, you're dead. You're just another guy."

Wynn has never been just another buy, and Bellagio couldn't be just another hotel. "We knew we were going to compete with -- and had to prevail over -- Paris, Rome, London, New York," he says. "So what we did had to be preemptive.

So preemptive, says Wynn, that Bellagio had to finish as an architectural symphony, filled with texture, variety and movements, each with its own personality and special moments.

"It would contain things that are good for the soul -- fine art, gardens, flowers and fashion," he says.

"It would exemplify quality and emphasize romance and elegance, and I mean romance in the literary sense -- a place of ideal beauty and comfort, the world we all hope for if everything were just right."

Being just right means being inviting, not intimidating. And the Bellagio strikes just the right balance, says Gary Dretska, a Hollywood-based entertainment writer for the Chicago Tribune who recently toured Bellagio.

"Put this property in any other city in the world, and it would frighten away all but the very rich," Dretska says. "Here, anyone can just walk right in and feel comfortable."

And even play slots for as little as a nickel, or blackjack at a $5 table. The limits available in Bellagio's casino range from meager to mind-boggling, another reason why such a resort fits perfectly in a city that so personifies economic democracy.

Whatever visionary talents Wynn might possess, he realized the dream couldn't be accomplished without a talented team.

"It needed a sophisticated organization that far surpassed the potential for one person to be obsessive enough to just go recklessly ahead," says Wynn, wryly acknowledging his reputation for obsessive attention to detail.

"You come to a point before you break ground where you have a sense of what the costs and revenues will be. And you consistently revisit the numbers, updating, revising, questioning your fundamental assumptions about every facet of the project."

While history has made many projections "almost dead certain," some things simply can't be controlled, he says. Yet even global economic upheaval and the capacity woes afflicting Las Vegas aren't seen as obstacles by Wynn.

"In a funny way," he says, gesturing at yet another exquisite scene on a stroll through the resort, "what we have is good test material.

"Some people are concerned about the number of rooms being built here, the economy, the survival of Las Vegas. No one can accuse us of stepping in during good times.

"So I particularly love this moment. If you build a house of bricks, a strong wind won't blow it down."

As the design process continued, the Mirage team turned to "the fundamental energies that underpin this place -- the elegance and grace that transcend cultural differences," Wynn says.

"You can't get too tricky. It has to appeal to the human spirit in broad, sweeping ways" -- some of them borrowed from other great resorts.

"Extended space is the key to beautiful architecture," he says. "A decorated box is a decorated box, but it can't compete with the vistas offered by the Alps, Vancouver Bay, Puerto Vallerta."

For Bellagio, such vistas would be provided by elevating the hotel on a massive plinth, or slab. "That allowed us to use one side of the building for extended space, which let us create vistas that run through special areas of the property," Wynn says.

Those areas include a conservatory between the main lobby and Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art, which houses a $300 million collection of 19th and 20th Century masterpieces.

Decorated now with a dazzling display of live orange, yellow, gold and brown flowers, meandering bodies of water and a floral-patterned glass-and-copper ceiling, the conservatory is an evolving work of art.

"The current decor celebrates the fall season," says Wynn. "Right after Thanksgiving, we'll put in poinsettias and pines, including two 35-foot Christmas trees that will be decorated by Martha Stewart.

"Right after New Year's, the Christmas decorations will changed to flowery dragons to celebrate the Chinese New Year. In the spring, we'll have full-size cherry blossom trees.

"How many hotels change their look and scents as the seasons do?" he asks.

The resort is filled with such touches, what Mirage Vice President Alan Feldman calls "moments of pleasure that occur unexpectedly," part of Bellagio's grand design.

"You can't have sensual stimulation without conflict," says Wynn. "Here, the conflict occurs when what you expect and what you see don't match.

"The soul-soothing placement of flowers and gardens isn't standard casino fare. But use them to provide oases of quiet in a high-energy environment, and you create exceptional moments of conflict."

Then there are the dynamics that propel groups of people, the entertainment, shopping and dining that are so integral a part of the Bellagio experience.

"Entertainment is a great energy force in the migration of people along the Strip," says Wynn. "It's a huge movement, particularly on swing shift, as people go to a show, have a meal, do a little gambling and a little shopping.

"It's part of the great carnival-like midway that makes Las Vegas so unique. We didn't want to deny the existence of the midway because there's a certain freedom about it that's so compelling."

So they catered to the midway mentality with elegant and graceful offerings.

The entertainment includes intimate lounges anchored by master musicians, as well as the signature show called "O." Produced by Cirque du Soleil, which also developed "Mystere" at Treasure Island, "O" is a water, light and sound spectacular featuring live performers in an incomparable setting.

Like Mystere, O can only be experienced, not explained. Pianist Van Cliburn, viewing a preview of with Wynn recently, sat back in the midst of the performance and sighed, recalls Feldman.

"This is like being in a Salvador Dali painting," Cliburn said. With music.

The resort's restaurants all border the 8-acre lake fronting the property, offering unparalleled views and meals created by "the most exceptional collection of award-winning chefs ever assembled under one roof," says Wynn.

And for shoppers, Bellagio offers another unique assemblage of high-end retailers and designers. You can spend anywhere from a few dollars on a knickknack up to $65 million or so for a Van Gogh.

Throughout, Bellagio is such an astounding assortment of sensory stimuli that it would be overwhelming unless paced to perfection. But, as Wynn notes, "it is layers of delightful surprises, with intimate beauties on a personal scale," designed to appeal to universal yearnings.

"The biggest danger comes from under-estimating folks," he says. "They know what they want and have a lot more taste and culture than some give them credit for."

Wynn knows he's built something Las Vegas -- in fact, the world -- has never seen.

"The other guys will have to deal with this," he says. "Bellagio represents a sea change, and if they don't come to grips with its basic appeal to human nature, they won't be able to compete.

"Sheldon Adelson" -- developer of The Venetian -- "has a very valid, value-oriented kind of pitch," says Wynn, referring to that resort's bid to capture the biggest share of the convention business in Las Vegas.

"It's a bedrock, no-kidding-around kind of statement. And it's a valid way of dealing with Bellagio, an alternative of the sort that will make Las Vegas a better city.

"These new resorts are what a Harvard professor called the 'cathedrals of tomorrow,' the architectural wonderments of the modern age that are unlike anything being built anywhere.

"The most wonderful thing about the hotel is not its individual elements but the way they come together to give you an experience that unfolds in such a lovely way."

But it takes more than a beautiful building to make Wynn's vision of Bellagio a reality.

"Ultimately it's in the hands of our staff," he says. "Put a wonderful group of people in a building like this and it can't miss.

"I've talked to them all and told them this: Relax and enjoy yourselves. We've given you the environment, and the rest is up to you."

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