Metal Accessories: ARIA Resort & Casino, Las Vegas Winner: Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, New Haven, Conn.
by Jonathan McGaha | June 30, 2010 12:00 am
Contemporary Elegance: Metal mesh creates a façade with an elegant shimmer
Located in the heart of the Las Vegas strip, CityCenter is a spectacle of modern and innovative architecture. Everything about it is large and lavish, and every building element is highly refined and ambitiously designed.
ARIA Resort & Casino, designed by New Haven, Conn.-based Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, is the centerpiece of the CityCenter urban resort development. Cambridge Architectural, Cambridge, Md., supplied elegantly curved stainless-steel metal fabric panels to provide a stylish, flowing façade between the convention center and spa, situated along Frank Sinatra Boulevard.
The project is visually stunning with the Cambridge Architectural façade smoothly undulating along the podium structure, dressing the exterior walls and screening the pool deck’s exit stairway. During the day the dramatically draped mesh exterior shines brightly, and at night it produces a rich luster from projected light.
“Beautiful detailing and inventive form for a parking garage,” according to one of the Design Awards judges.
“We chose Cambridge’s stainless-steel mesh system for the podium façade because of the unique shape it could produce, and because the material’s scrim-like properties created a beautiful and elegant shimmer,” said Peter Follett, senior associate with Pelli Clarke Pelli.
The façade also meets the functional issues and operational demands that the exterior of ARIA needed to meet, such as providing the right percentage of open space when screening the pool deck’s exit stairway, allowing it to veil the area without closing it off.
For this project, Cambridge specifically engineered a façade system for ARIA’s exterior that assured a streamlined installation and a look that complemented the overall design concept. Cambridge worked with Pelli Clarke Pelli to create a new mesh pattern named Pellican, in honor of the firm, just for this project. The metal mesh was installed using Cambridge’s Eclipse tension attachment hardware.
Cambridge also worked to modify the Eclipse attachment so that it would curve laterally, allowing the design team to create stunning and dynamic curved metal fabric panels, resulting in a first-of-its-kind façade that brings depth to ARIA’s exterior and gives the impression of movement.
“It was great working with Cambridge,” Follett said. “They were very willing to help us develop the right mesh pattern and the right density, adjusting their metal fabric system to facilitate the exact design we wanted.”
“It’s the little things that sometimes make all the difference, even in Las Vegas,” said another Design Awards judge. “The little things here nicely accompany the grand ARIA casino and give it a little something extra that helps it stand out among its many peers.”
ARIA Resort & Casino, Las Vegas
Completed: Fall 2009
Architect: Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, New Haven, Conn.
www.pcparch.com
General contractor: Perini Building Co., Henderson, Nev.
Metal mesh: Cambridge Architectural, Cambridge, Md., www.cambridgearchitectural.com
Source URL: https://www.metalarchitecture.com/projects/metal-accessories-aria-resort-casino-las-vegas-brwinner-pelli-clarke-pelli-architects-new-haven-conn/