$2.7 billion Las Vegas hotel-casino finally opens doors

LAS VEGAS -- For five years, casino developer Steve Wynn has labored over his latest creation, the $2.7 billion Wynn Las Vegas, forbidding photographs of the interior and keeping most of its design aspects a secret.\nThe wait to see Wynn's much-hyped design was ending early Thursday as the towering, bronze glass hotel-casino with 2,700 rooms made its official debut, perhaps bringing with it a new era of architecture that could reshape the city.\n"I think this redefines what a large-scale luxury resort can be," said Ron Kramer, president of Wynn Resorts Ltd., the properties' parent company. "Whatever the future of Las Vegas is, it starts April 28, 2005."\nUltimately, the public will pass judgment on Wynn's curvy property, but a tour of Wynn Las Vegas reveals an intriguing design that differs in many ways from his previous hotel-casinos such as the Bellagio, The Mirage and Treasure Island.\nWhile the days of dark, smoky casinos have long passed, Wynn has finally taken full advantage of the sun that illuminates this desert valley. Light pours into many of its spaces, providing a sense of openness.\nVibrant and distinct colors are everywhere from the powerful red carpets with purple and green to the chocolate-brown ceilings.\nWynn Las Vegas, located on the northern end of the Las Vegas Strip, also embraces nature. He has built an atrium that connects the property's two main entrances filled with an array of mums and orchids. His restaurant, Okada, boasts an authentic Japanese garden with a pond teeming with vegetation found traditionally in Asia.\nOther restaurants have patios facing a "Lake of Dreams," a watery area hidden behind a mountain of evergreen trees.\nWynn is counting on the restaurants to help generate a quarter of a billion dollars in revenue. He has landed top-notch chefs to work behind the stove instead of courting celebrity chefs more interested in television shows and cookbook signings than their cuisine.\nElizabeth Blau, Wynn's executive vice president of restaurant marketing and development, said the food will live up to the hype, surpassing anything she and Wynn did at the Bellagio.\nThe restaurants, she said, will make a "giant statement."\nTwo years ago, Wynn changed the casino's name from Le Rêve to Wynn Las Vegas, believing the latter was more marketable. But Le Rêve didn't totally disappear: It's the title of his impressive art collection that the property will house, including its former namesake by Picasso, Le Rêve.\nPerhaps most striking about Wynn Las Vegas is that the traditional casino layout has been scuttled. The casino is no longer centerstage, dominating a visitor's attention and wallet. Many of the high-end restaurants and upscale shops like Louis Vuitton and a Ferrari-Maserati dealership can be reached without traversing the casino floor.\nThe place also feels deceptively small. Getting from one end to the other isn't like trekking across Caesars Palace or MGM Grand. But this isn't a boutique hotel, either. People clutching maps still had to ask for directions.\nBut the real switch for Wynn this time around, more than 15 years after he opened The Mirage, is what he has done with his name.\n"This is the launching of a brand," Kramer said.\nWynn is omnipresent. His name is on the casino's parapet, the two marquees and slot machines. He has a slew of stores, carrying Wynn clothes, Wynn china and Wynn home furnishings.\nEven before the doors opened at 12:01 a.m. PDT Thursday, people had begun to line the streets in anticipation. Wynn, who has become a household name, had everyone wondering whether he could top the Bellagio and what lay hidden inside.\n"I heard that it's going to be nothing like anybody has ever seen in Vegas," Philadelphia-area resident David Raymond, 40, said standing outside the hotel. "He wouldn't have his name on it if it wasn't"