A grand vision in miniature

By Kristen Peterson

Thursday, Aug. 28, 2008 | 2 a.m.

We’re enjoying the view from the third row of the fifth-floor balcony at the Smith Center for the Performing Arts.

Though still unpainted, the theater seems opulent, more grand than anything Las Vegas has seen. A red curtain opens and closes. We meander into the lobby, distinguished by its art deco-style chandeliers and curving staircases.

This tour is merely virtual — an animated video, a computer rendering of what some are considering Las Vegas’ future cultural living room.

The video and its accompanying scale models offer the most detailed glimpses yet of what the Smith Center will look like. Myron Martin, president of the Las Vegas Performing Arts Center Foundation, can hardly wait for everyone to see them.

Groundbreaking for the Smith Center, which will sit on five acres at the 61-acre Union Park downtown, is scheduled for January and construction isn’t expected to be completed until the end of 2011. For now, the models provide the only tangible experience for the general public, dignitaries and would-be theater patrons.

The foundation’s offices at the Holsum Design Center at 241 W. Charleston Blvd. will double as a preview center that will showcase interior and exterior models, as well as a life-size replica of a box seat, a row of which will fill a tier of the main hall. The exterior model of the three-building Smith campus, designed by the neoeclectic Washington, D.C., architect David M. Schwarz, was unveiled in October.

“This is a way for people to start to relate to what the building actually is,” Martin says. “They’ll get a sense of what it’s like to sit in those mohair seats, and to connect with them.”

The preview center is sure to inspire donors who are still considering where to put their money.

The $475 million Smith Center project is feeling the hit from the economy, even though it has commitments of just more than $400 million. Naming rights for the 21 exclusive box seats go for $2.5 million to $5 million.

“When it comes to fundraising, the better we can paint the picture of how extraordinary this building is, the more people will want to get involved,” Martin says. “It’s great for donors to be able to see a box and be able to touch it.”

Shawn Buckley, president of Pentagon Studios, says this is the most detailed model interior his company has built. It’s a work in progress. Pentagon craftsmen are affixing ornate railings to staircases, assembling ceilings and creating theater seats the size of sugar cubes. The details include crown molding, recessed wall panels, fiber-optics for light, miniature wheelchairs to designate handicapped seating, art deco interior columns and wall decor. Tiny plastic theatergoers are being painted in an array of fashion colors. Sean Feely, who creates the three-dimensional, computer-animated renderings, will lay virtual flooring and add virtual paint to the lobbies and hall.

Scale models cost on average about $40,000 but can approach $100,000, says Buckley, who moved to Las Vegas in 1987 to work for Steve Wynn and Mirage Resorts and contributed to the building of scale models for the Bellagio, Treasure Island, high-end condos and out-of-town resorts.

Martin won’t say how much the foundation is paying for the elaborate Smith Center models.

Meanwhile, sound technicians in Connecticut are testing the acoustics of the Smith Center using a scale model of the main hall, and architect Schwarz is sampling paint in his East Coast offices.

The preview center is expected to open to the public in two months, likely in conjunction with the downtown First Friday event.

By then, the models should be completed.

“We have to have the full package, all the bells and whistles,” Buckley says. “It’s all about the details.”