Two Way Hard Three | Las Vegas Casino & Design Blog

Posted by detroit1051

I still say the Venetian in Macau is similar to Stalin-era architecture in Moscow. It sure doesn't look like the Vegas Venetian. It's not pleasant to look at.

Heh... Well, you won't hear me defending that building either. I'm not a fan of the Las Vegas version either but they did correct one thing I really hate about the Venetian in Las Vegas and that is the front/walk-up area. The Vegas version looks like a parking lot to me - way too much paved area and not in a good way that reminds me of Venice.

At least with the Venetian Macau they have emphasized the outdoor canals quite a bit more and there's more landscaping and water features, visible to a certain degree in this rendering:

http://www.venetianmacao.com/eng/vision_main.html

If you look at the Wynn / MGM photo, there is a 7 tower residential development called "One Central" + new Mandarin Oriental hotel under construction all along the right hand side of the MGM site, which is going to eat up all westerly views. I still can't quite conceive how they are going to cram that slither of land with so many towers (its basically the same size as the Wynn site but is being sliced down one side to create two rectangles, the thin small one of which will be for the residential development) but here's an image from the development's website:
http://www.onecentral.com.mo/en/design/index.htm

They are also reclaiming a bunch of land across the road from the MGM site (ie, where the "waterfront" would have otherwise been). In fact, they have reclaimed land all along that street right up to the Sands' end. I wonder if they intend to put that land up for sale and development, or whether they are creating additional waterfront parkland / relaxation areas (I suspect the former).

Chris> Great photos. So that reddish glass thingy is to be the MGM? I could not find much on that development before I left for my trip a month ago.

Wish I had more time to get to the other views, thanks for the photos.

Hunter> You ever get the bigger versions of my photos?

George - answer is yes - MGM is a 3-tone structure of (I believe) bronze at the bottm, silver in the middle and gold at the top. The best place to find concept pictures is MGM's website - they have some investor presentations with some decent exterior and interior pictures.

One other place I passed last Wednesday but didn't photograph was Crown - the external glass cladding is basically completed now (except for taking off the protective wrapping) so at least as far as the exterior is concerned the building looks close to complete. Crown's location (on Taipa facing back towards Macau) should give its rooms perhaps the best views of all of the new venues, although if I'm not mistaken the large unused plot of land situated between Crown and the stretch of water separating Taipa from Macau was acquired in 2005 by Henderson Land (a HK-listed property developer) which intends to develop luxury residential apartments, so Crown's views may not last more than a few years.

A Happy New Year to you all!

I agree that the Venetian looks like a monster in the middle of nowhere! It is already difficult to get transport to the Cotai Strip and I can't imagine especially when the Grand Lisboa and Wynn Phase opens around February 15, 2007 why people would want to go to the Cotai Strip as they can hang around the Lisboa Casino with 7-8 casinos within 5 minute walking distance nearby.

I think Stanley Ho made a smart move to sell his land to Galaxy, MGM and Wynn. He in fact created a small inner city strip, which is good for him as he has a piece of the pie in all of them. I am sure he has shares in Galaxy and Wynn casinos, whilst he owns the others, either directly or through Pansey Ho!