Strip hotel designer Stern dies at 84

Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2001 | 9:55 a.m.

Martin Stern Jr., a visionary architectural designer whose conceptual drawings of resorts including the original MGM Grand and Las Vegas Hilton forever altered the Las Vegas skyline, has died. He was 84.

Stern, who in the 1950s also helped usher in the Los Angeles drive-in scene with his restaurant drawings, died Saturday in Los Angeles. Services were Tuesday in Hollywood. Stern long had residences in both Las Vegas and Los Angeles.

"From the details of external ornamentation of stair rails to the doodling of traffic patterns in parking lots, casino layouts ... pools, coffee shops, window frames, elevator doors ... there is much of the history of Las Vegas in the drawings of Martin Stern Jr.," Peter Michel, director of Special Collections at UNLV, wrote in a recent retrospective.

In 1964 Stern designed the old Sands' unique, round tower that was imploded to make room for the Venetian. When interviewed by Michel for a UNLV oral history, Stern mused, "Well, it wasn't much of a tower."

Stern was most closely associated with the Sahara in its early years, including his first local project, room additions in 1953, and a 14-story tower in 1959.

In 1968 hotel developer Kirk Kirkorian hired Stern to design the International hotel that today is the Las Vegas Hilton. In 1971 Stern drew the concepts for the original MGM Grand, now Bally's, also for Kerkorian.

Stern also drew designs for the Playboy casino in Atlantic City (1978), Bally's Park Place in Atlantic City (1982), Harrah's at Lake Tahoe (1977), the Kuilima hotel in Hawaii (1970), the Las Vegas Bank of America Building (1975), Beverly Hills Library (1963) and many others.

Even Stern's unbuilt projects are conceptual wonders, including the proposed Xanadu in 1975 for the site on the Strip where the Excalibur now stands.

Stern began his designing career as a sketch artist for the Hollywood movie industry in the 1930s, but moved on to designing houses, apartments, offices and bowling alleys, among other buildings, in the 1950s.

In 1996 Stern donated to UNLV more than 600 sets of drawings for more than 300 projects.

In recent years Stern and his wife, Chantal, owned Butterfly Square on East Sahara Avenue and maintained Las Vegas commercial property.

In addition to his wife, Stern is survived by three sons and a daughter.