Frontage road
A frontage road is a local road running parallel to a higher-speed, limited-access road. A frontage road is used to provide access to private driveways, houses, industries or farms. Where parallel high-speed roads are provided as part of a major highway, these are known as local-express lanes. A frontage lane is a paved path, used for the transportation and travel from one street to another. Frontage lanes related to a frontage road, are common in metropolitan areas and in small rural towns. Frontage lanes are technically not classified as roads due to their purpose as a bridge from one road to another, due to the architectural standards that they are not as wide as a standard road, or used as as a standard road, street, or avenue. Frontage roads provide access to homes and businesses which would otherwise be cut off by a limited-access road and connect these locations with roads which have direct access to the main roadway. Frontage roads give indirect access to abutting property along a freeway, either preventing the commercial disruption of an urban area that the freeway traverses or allowing commercial development of abutting property.
At times, they add to the cost of building an expressway due to costs of land acquisition and the costs of paving and maintenance. However, the benefits of developing nearby real estate can more than offset the cost of building the frontage roads. Furthermore, a frontage road may be a part of an older highway, so the expense of building a frontage road may be slight, and the cost to purchase access rights from adjacent property may exceed the costs to build frontage roads. Conversely, the existence of a frontage road can increase traffic on the main road and be a catalyst for development. A backage road is a similar concept, but lies on the back side of the land parcels that abut the controlled access's right of way. Like the frontage road, it serves to provide access to those parcels as an alternative to a frontage road. There are several advantages to using frontage roads. One advantage is to separate local traffic from through traffic; when frontage roads are lacking in an urban area, the highway is used as a local road, reducing speeds and increasing congestion.
Another advantage occurs when the highway is just obstructed. This pushes traffic off the highway. Where an urban area has frontage roads, the traffic can bypass the obstruction or closure on the frontage road. Where an urban area has no frontage road, traffic is diverted onto and congests local roads, since there is no formal alternative. There are some disadvantages to using frontage roads; when frontage roads are used without controlling the access to the primary road, at every intersection where an intersecting road runs across the primary, the number of conflict points increases one fold for each frontage road, since each frontage road is itself another intersection. A highway with frontage roads can be difficult for pedestrians to cross, for a variety of reasons including, but not limited to when neither the primary road nor the crossing is elevated, or gaps in traffic are few and the intervals between those gaps is long; such examples include: US 190 in Louisiana. S. Route 69 in McAlester, Oklahoma.
A complex example is US 77/Commerce in Ardmore, Oklahoma at the Fourth Avenue intersection. Right turns from the central carriageways. Only can a vehicle make a right turn from the signal on the frontage road; the successor to the concept of service/frontage roads in urban freeways is the collector-express system, designed to handle spaced interchange ramps without disrupting through traffic. Unlike service roads, the collector lanes are high-speed full controlled-access lanes, conforming to freeway requirements; the collector lanes may be known as a collector/distributor road and slip ramps provide access to and from the express/mainline lanes. Frontage roads may feed from collector/distributor roads near some interchanges. In Argentina around Buenos Aires, frontage roads known as colectoras can be found next to freeways. Examples include Avenida General Paz, Ruta 8, Ruta 9 coming into Buenos Aires. Ontario: A freeway with a significant remaining network of service roads is the Queen Elizabeth Way.
However, most of the slip ramps between St. Catharines and Mississauga were removed during major reconstruction in the 1970s and 1990s. Service roads are no longer able to directly access the QEW. Nonetheless, the service roads are positioned too close to the QEW to widen the freeway unless all the private properties along the service road are bought out; this would be unlikely in the current political environment. The only remaining slip ramps connecting to service roads are on the QEW running through St. Catharines; these dangerous low-standard ramps are due to be replaced in a planned extensive reconstruction of the QEW, underway. Similar service roads and slip ramps exist along Highway 401 through Oshawa, but like through St. Catharines, these are in the process of being replaced with modern ramps. Highway 427 had its service roads repl
O'Sheas Casino
O'Sheas Casino is a casino located within The Linq, a hotel-casino and shopping promenade on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. O'Sheas opened in 1989 and operated in between the Imperial Palace Hotel and Casino and the Flamingo Las Vegas. Owner Caesars Entertainment Corporation announced in 2011 that O'Sheas would close and be relocated to become part of the company's new shopping promenade nearby, known as The Linq. O'Sheas reopened in its new location in December 2013; the revitalized O'Sheas has three bars - the main Dublin Up Bar, the Lucky Bar and the exterior-facing Blarney Bar. The casino includes beer pong tables, a stage, a dance floor and a pit with games including blackjack and craps. Hilton Nevada Corporation broke ground for the Irish-themed O'Sheas casino on September 7, 1988, with an opening planned for June 1, 1989; the project was built on the Las Vegas Strip, north of the company's Flamingo Hilton hotel-casino. The five-story building included three floors for parking space.
The $22 million casino, with 30,000 sq ft, would increase Hilton Nevada's casino space on the Strip by 30 percent. Its target clientele was middle-income tourists. R. Duell & Associates of Los Angeles was the designer, Rissman & Rissman of Las Vegas was the architect. O'Sheas was designed to resemble an Irish pub, would include hardwood floors, Irish artifacts, detailed wall designs; the casino would include 650 slot machines, 19 table games, a sportsbook, as well as a lounge, snack bar, restaurant. Construction was still underway in May 1989, O'Sheas opened that year, it was operated in conjunction with the Flamingo Hilton. Unlike most of the casinos on the Las Vegas Strip, prior to this date O'Sheas was not part of a resort and had no hotel. O'Sheas was featured in the 1997 movie Vegas Vacation, when character, Rusty Griswold, won a car through a slot machine sitting outside the casino. On February 26, 2000, O'Sheas made the 2001 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records by having 220 patrons contribute to the largest crowd to participate in a nationwide toast.
The Great Guinness Toast, as it is called, was tallied nationwide as having 320,470 participants. That broke the previous year's record of 197,846 participants. In 2006, Vince Neil, lead singer of the band Mötley Crüe, opened Vince Neil Ink, a tattoo parlor inside of O'Sheas, it featured a room called "The Stage", visible from the Las Vegas Strip, so visitors could watch the tattoo artists work from outside. Owner Caesars Entertainment Corporation announced in August 2011 that as part of The Linq shopping project nearby, O'Sheas would close and be relocated there. O'Sheas closed on April 30, 2012. On May 1, 2012, the 7 story parking structure for O'Sheas was imploded as part of The Linq project. O'Sheas reopened on December 27, 2013, located in The Linq shopping promenade; the new location contains 5,000 sq ft. It is connected to the casino floor at The Linq hotel-casino. O'Sheas targets, attracts, younger crowds in their 20s and early 30s; the casino offered low minimums on table games, a poker room, a World Series of Beer Pong branded beer pong area.
Before being purchased by Caesars Entertainment, O'Sheas branded itself as having low minimums and liberal rules on table games, thus attempting to draw "locals" and savvy, low-minimum gamblers. After being acquired by Harrah's, O'Sheas offered the least advantageous table games in Nevada on Blackjack, had branded itself as a "party" casino; the casino offers five beer pong tables in addition to the other games. Official website
Casino
A casino is a facility which houses and accommodates certain types of gambling activities. The industry that deals in casinos is called the gaming industry. Casinos are most built near or combined with hotels, retail shopping, cruise ships or other tourist attractions. There is much debate over whether the social and economic consequences of casino gambling outweigh the initial revenue that may be generated; some casinos are known for hosting live entertainment events, such as stand-up comedy and sporting events. The term "casino" is a confusing linguistic false friend for translators. Casino is of Italian origin; the term casino may mean summerhouse, or social club. During the 19th century, the term casino came to include other public buildings where pleasurable activities took place. In modern-day Italian a casino is either a brothel, a mess, or a noisy environment, while a gaming house is spelt casinò, with an accent. Not all casinos were used for gaming; the Catalina Casino, a famous landmark overlooking Avalon Harbor on Santa Catalina Island, has never been used for traditional games of chance, which were outlawed in California by the time it was built.
The Copenhagen Casino was a theatre, known for the mass public meetings held in its hall during the 1848 Revolution, which made Denmark a constitutional monarchy. Until 1937, it was a well-known Danish theatre; the Hanko Casino in Hanko, Finland—one of that town's most conspicuous landmarks—was never used for gambling. Rather, it was a banquet hall for the Russian nobility which frequented this spa resort in the late 19th century and is now used as a restaurant. In military and non-military usage in German and Spanish, a casino or kasino is an officers' mess; the precise origin of gambling is unknown. It is believed that gambling in some form or another has been seen in every society in history. From the Ancient Greeks and Romans to Napoleon's France and Elizabethan England, much of history is filled with stories of entertainment based on games of chance; the first known European gambling house, not called a casino although meeting the modern definition, was the Ridotto, established in Venice, Italy in 1638 by the Great Council of Venice to provide controlled gambling during the carnival season.
It was closed in 1774. In American history, early gambling establishments were known as saloons; the creation and importance of saloons was influenced by four major cities: New Orleans, St. Louis and San Francisco, it was in the saloons that travelers could find people to talk to, drink with, gamble with. During the early 20th century in America, gambling became outlawed and banned by state legislation and social reformers of the time. However, in 1931, gambling was legalized throughout the state of Nevada. America's first legalized casinos were set up in those places. In 1976 New Jersey allowed gambling in Atlantic City, now America's second largest gambling city. Most jurisdictions worldwide have a minimum gambling age. Customers gamble by playing games of chance, in some cases with an element of skill, such as craps, baccarat and video poker. Most games played have mathematically determined odds that ensure the house has at all times an overall advantage over the players; this can be expressed more by the notion of expected value, uniformly negative.
This advantage is called the house edge. In games such as poker where players play against each other, the house takes a commission called the rake. Casinos sometimes give out complimentary comps to gamblers. Payout is the percentage of funds returned to players. Casinos in the United States say that a player staking money won from the casino is playing with the house's money. Video Lottery Machines have become one of the most popular forms of gambling in casinos; as of 2011 investigative reports have started calling into question whether the modern-day slot-machine is addictive. Casino design—regarded as a psychological exercise—is an intricate process that involves optimising floor plan, décor and atmospherics to encourage gambling. Factors influencing gambling tendencies include sound and lighting. Natasha Dow Schüll, an anthropologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, highlights the decision of the audio directors at Silicon Gaming to make its slot machines resonate in "the universally pleasant tone of C, sampling existing casino soundscapes to create a sound that would please but not clash".
Dr Alan Hirsch, founder of the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago, studied the impact of certain scents on gamblers, discerning that a pleasant albeit unidentifiable odour released by Las Vegas slot machines generated about 50% more in daily revenue. He suggested. Casino designer Roger Thomas is credited with implementing a successful, disruptive design for the Las Vegas Wynn Resorts casinos in 2008, he broke casino design convention by introducing natural sunlight and flora to appeal to women. Thomas put in skylights and antique clocks, defying the commonplace notion that a casino should be a timeless space; the following li
The Cromwell Las Vegas
The Cromwell Las Vegas is a luxury boutique hotel and casino on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. It is operated by Caesars Entertainment Corporation; the property was the site of Empey's Desert Villa from 1952. In 1979, it became Barbary Coast; the casino was opened on March 2, 1979 at a cost of $11.5 million. Over time, this property, along with others owned by Gaughan would become Coast Casinos Inc. Gaughan shared partnership in the Barbary Coast with Kenny Epstein, Tito Tiberti, Frank Toti and Jerry Herbst. In July 2005, Boyd Gaming purchased the Barbary Coast Hotel. In September 2005, Boyd purchased the 4.3 acres of land. The hotel had been leasing the land. In 2007, Boyd gave the Barbary Coast to Harrah's Entertainment in exchange for the 11-acre site of the demolished Westward Ho, to be used for the Echelon Place project; the Barbary Coast closed at 2:00 a.m. on February 27 and reopened on March 1 as the newly rebranded Bill's Gamblin' Hall and Saloon, in honor of company founder Bill Harrah.
After nearly six years of continuous operations, Bill's closed on February 4, 2013, for complete renovation into a luxury boutique hotel. Plans called for complete renovation of the entire property, the guest rooms and casino floor, a new restaurant, construction of a 65,000 square foot rooftop pool and dayclub/nightclub. Caesars announced in March 2013 that the hotel would be renovated at a cost of $185 million and converted to an outpost of the New York-based Gansevoort Hotels chain of boutique luxury hotels, with 188 rooms, a 40,000 square foot casino, a 65,000 square foot indoor/outdoor beach club/nightclub overseen by Victor Drai. In October 2013, Caesars terminated its agreement with Gansevoort and said that it would continue the redevelopment of Bill's without the Gansevoort name; the move came after Massachusetts gambling regulators recommended denying Caesars a license for a proposed casino at the Suffolk Downs racetrack, due to alleged connections between one of the Gansevoort's investors and the Russian mafia.
Plans announced in late 2013 indicated that Giada De Laurentiis would open her first restaurant in the new hotel and that Caesars would run the hotel. Caesars confirmed on January 2014, that the hotel would be named The Cromwell, it marked its soft opening to guests on April 21, 2014. The hotel rooms were available starting May 21, 2014. In July 2014, Giada De Laurentiis opened her first restaurant, called GIADA, inside the resort; the restaurant offers seating in the dining room, lounge, or outdoor patio with views of the Bellagio fountains and Caesars Palace. The GIADA menu includes Italian cuisine with Californian influences, including "lemon spaghetti, chicken cacciatore, marsala herb chicken meatballs, rosemary focaccia and lemon flatbread and vegetable Bolognese rigatoni". Family-style and gluten-free options are available, as well as an antipasto station. Restaurant guests can watch chefs prepare food from the open kitchen. In 1997, Victor Drai opened Drai’s restaurant on the Las Vegas Strip.
Two years Drai added a nightclub to the restaurant, re-branding it Drai’s After Hours. In Vegas Seven's 2012 Nightclub Awards, Drai's After Hours won "Best Place to Disappear". Drai opened his latest Las Vegas club project, Drai’s Beach Club & Nightclub, on Memorial Day Weekend 2014, at the resort; this 65,000-square-foot venue has a party pool and an indoor/outdoor club spread out over two levels on top of the new Cromwell Hotel. List of Caesars Entertainment properties List of casinos in Nevada Official website Media related to The Cromwell Las Vegas at Wikimedia Commons
U.S. Route 95
U. S. Route 95 is a north–south U. S. highway in the western United States. Unlike many other US highways, it has not seen deletion or replacement on most of its length by an encroaching Interstate highway corridor, due to its rural course; because of this, it still travels from border to border and is a primary north–south highway in both Nevada and Idaho. This is one of the only US Interstate highways to cross from Mexico to Canada; as of 2010, the highway's southern terminus is in San Luis, Arizona, on the Mexico–US border, where Calle 1, a short spur leads to Mexican Federal Highway 2 in San Luis Río Colorado, Sonora. Its northern terminus is in Boundary County, Idaho, at the Canada–US border in Eastport, where it continues north as British Columbia Highway 95. US 95 begins in the United States at the border with Mexico at Mexico's Federal Route 2, it follows the Colorado River northward to San Luis and on to Yuma, where it goes through town and crosses I-8. As it leaves Yuma, US 95 is an undivided two-lane highway which passes through the U.
S. Army's Yuma Proving Ground, it travels northward between the proving ground to the west and the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge to the east until Quartzsite. Here it merges with I-10 and runs concurrent, heading westward for 17 miles until the Colorado River, where it enters California, just shy of Blythe. In all, US 95 spends 123.16 miles in Arizona. U. S. 95 enters California at Blythe through a concurrency with Interstate 10. It travels parallel to the west bank of the Colorado River until it joins Interstate 40 in Needles; the route travels north from Goffs to the Nevada line. The total distance in California is about 130 miles, it is the only U. S. highway to enter California but not terminate there. US 95 in Nevada is a divided highway between Cal-Nev-Ari and Boulder City, it joins US 93 near Railroad Pass. Upon entering the Las Vegas Valley, it becomes a multi-lane divided freeway and is concurrent with I-515 between Henderson and Downtown Las Vegas, it crosses I-15 at the Spaghetti Bowl, where US 93 continues on I-15.
The highway continues as a freeway for several miles until again becoming a divided highway outside the Las Vegas urban area. Shortly after entering Nye County, US 95 becomes an undivided two-lane highway, as it meanders northwestward through the state paralleling the California border. Along this route it runs through the Amargosa Valley serving Beatty before heading north into Goldfield and Tonopah; the highway is concurrent with US 6 for several miles north of Tonopah before it heads north towards Hawthorne and Fallon. North of Fallon it meets and runs concurrently with I-80 for 93 miles, from Exit 83 west of Lovelock to Exit 176 at Winnemucca, it heads north to the border with Oregon at McDermitt, a distance of 73 miles. In Oregon, US 95 is an undivided two-lane highway in the sparsely populated high desert in the southeastern corner of the state, running in rural Malheur County. From the Nevada state line at McDermitt, the highway heads north and climbs to its crest at Blue Mountain Pass, at an elevation of 5293 feet above sea level.
US 95 descends to Basque Station and Burns Junction at 3960 feet eastward down to Rome and up to Jordan Valley. The highway heads north-northeastward to the Idaho state line, entering southwest of Marsing in Owyhee County; the speed limit on US 95 in Oregon was 55 miles per hour until March 2016, when it was raised to 70 miles per hour in order to match the limits set by Nevada and Idaho. US 95 is designated the I. O. N. Highway No. 456, with the I. O. N. for Idaho-Oregon-Nevada. This section of highway is a primary commercial route between Boise and northern California, connecting to Interstate 80 at Winnemucca, Nevada. US 95 crosses into the Mountain Time Zone 35 miles north of Nevada. US 95 is an undivided two-lane highway during most of its length in Idaho, over 538 miles. US 95 enters Idaho from Oregon in Owyhee County, about 50 miles southwest of Boise, it passes through Homedale and crosses the Snake River before a junction with concurrent US 20 and US 26, which run together for eight miles. As it proceeds north, US 95 crosses US 30 before going through the Payette National Forest.
After Riggins, the highway re-enters the Pacific Time Zone as it crosses the Salmon River. US 95 follows the descending river climbs over White Bird Hill to the Camas Prairie descends the Lapwai Canyon to the Clearwater River. In August 2015, milepost 420 was replaced with one reading 419.9, to prevent the sign being stolen by marijuana enthusiasts. US 95 becomes a four-lane divided highway after crossing the river east of Lewiston; the highways split as US 12 continues west to Lewiston, US 95 turns northwest and climbs a steep grade up to the rolling Palouse. At a junction with US 195, US 95 proceeds north to Moscow as a completed divided highway, it becomes an undivided highway in Moscow and continues north to Coeur d'Alene, crossing I-90. US 95 goes north to Sandpoint, where it joins with US 2, after which the highways run concurrent until after Bonners Ferry, where US 2 heads east to Montana and US 95 continues north to Canada, meeting BC 95 at the border. U. S. Route 95 was one of the original U.
S. highways proposed in the 1925 Bureau of Public Roads numbering plan. Under the original proposal, the highway would only exist in Idaho, from Payette to the Canada–US border north of Eastport; when the plan w
Encore Las Vegas
Encore Las Vegas is a luxury resort and hotel located on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. The resort is connected to Wynn Las Vegas. Wynn Plaza, a new 75,518 square feet retail space, is a uniquely designed complex that will augment the existing luxury retail collection showcased at Wynn Las Vegas and Encore as well as bring the shopping experience to the high traffic area bordering Las Vegas Boulevard. Encore has been awarded the AAA Five Diamond Award every year since opening; the Tower Suites at Encore and The Spa have both received the Forbes Travel Guide five-star award. Encore Las Vegas and its sister property, Wynn Las Vegas collectively hold more Forbes five-star awards than any other casino-resort in the world and it is considered to be one of the finest hotels in the world. Together with adjacent Wynn Las Vegas, the entire Wynn complex has a total of 4,750 rooms, making it the world's seventh-largest hotel. Wynn Paradise Park, a new $1.5 billion 20 acres lagoon and watersports area, is being built adjacent to Encore.
The project will open in 2019 and will add beach-front meeting space, a boardwalk, additional foodservice, other attractions. On April 28, 2006, Wynn Las Vegas celebrated its one-year anniversary by breaking ground on a second hotel tower. Named the Encore Suites at Wynn Las Vegas, the 2,034-room hotel project cost $2.3 billion and was sited adjacent to the existing resort and on the remaining frontage of Las Vegas Boulevard. Envisioned as an expansion of Wynn Las Vegas, Encore Las Vegas became a full-scale resort; the resort was estimated to add 5,300 jobs to the Las Vegas area. After 2½ years of construction, the resort formally opened to the public at 8:00 pm on December 22, 2008, to large crowds. Due to the period's economic downturn, the opening was designed to be more subdued than previous casino resort openings; the resort's jewelry shop featured the 231 carats, prune-sized Wynn Diamond, billed as "the largest cut pear-shaped diamond in the world". To open the betting, Steve Wynn gave high-rollers a few million dollars to make the initial bets and initiated the action by declaring over a microphone, "Let the games begin!".
The shopping complex moves the Wynn properties closer to Las Vegas Boulevard. The new Wynn Paradise Park is being built on the site of a golf course adjacent to Wynn Las Vegas and Encore Las Vegas; the 20-acre lagoon, waterfront meeting space, other features are expected to draw additional traffic to the hotels. Construction is expected to start in late 2017 or early 2018 for completion in 2019. Steve Wynn called the “Disney-style” attraction the “most fun project in my 45 years." A new sportsbook was unveiled in August 2017. The resort features a 80,000-square-foot casino, 60,000 square feet of convention space, 27,000 sq ft of retail space in "The Esplanade", a spa and salon, five restaurants, seven bars, a nightclub; the building is 631 feet in height and 93 feet in width, has 63 floors, making it three floors higher than Wynn Las Vegas, though the building contains 48 floors since floor numbers 2, 3, 4, 13 and 40–49 were omitted: 13 has traditionally been an unlucky number in various Western cultures, various East Asian cultures are superstitious about the number 4 because it is a homonym for "death" in those languages.
The resort's interior public spaces feature a combination of European and Asian influences and whimsical designs, including strong reds and a butterfly motif, in its design. In addition, the hotel continues and expands on the original Wynn Resort's use of large scenic windows, dense greenery and filtered natural light to pervade more areas of the casino than had traditionally been done in Las Vegas; the pool area includes 29 rentable cabanas. In late November 2009, the casino was altered, removing drapery and palm trees in an effort to open up the space a bit more; the resort's nightclub, XS, was designed by Steve Wynn and Roger Thomas and opened on New Year's Eve 2008 with 40,000 sq ft and space for 3,000 guests. The restaurants include Sinatra, a tribute to Frank Sinatra with 152 seats in the dinner-only steakhouse, which includes Grammy and an Oscar award statuettes on loan from the Sinatra estate as well as a large photo of the singer and Steve Wynn from 1981; the Encore Beach Club opened in June 2010, replacing the Strip atrium space.
The Resort Suites contain 700–745 ft² of floor space. The hotel tower features two sections; the resort's permanent show was singer-comedian-impressionist Danny Gans, until his death on May 1, 2009. Gans, who had headlined at The Mirage casino resort, took over the space held by Broadway shows Avenue Q and Spamalot, both of which were unsuccessful in their Las Vegas runs; the performance space, built with Wynn Las Vegas and named the Broadway Theater and the Grail Theater, was renamed the Encore Theater to associate it with the new resort. Encore Beach Club is a 60,000 square feet venue featuring 40-foot palm trees surround
Aria Resort and Casino
Aria Resort and Casino is a luxury resort and casino, part of the CityCenter complex on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. Aria consists of two curved steel highrise towers adjoined at the center, it opened on December 16, 2009 as a joint venture between MGM Resorts International and Infinity World Development. At 4,000,000 sq ft and 600 ft in height, it is the tallest structure at CityCenter; the resort's 61 and 51-story towers contain an American Automobile Association five diamond hotel with 4,004 guest rooms and suites, 16 restaurants, 10 bars and nightclubs, a casino with 150,000 sq ft of gaming space. It has a 215,000 sq ft pool area with 34 cabanas, an 80,000 sq ft salon and spa, a 300,000 sq ft convention center and a 1,800-seat theater which hosted Zarkana by Cirque du Soleil, until closing April 30, 2016. Among the most notable aspects of Aria is its incorporation of technology in the exterior and interior design of the hotel for the reduction of energy consumption, it is the largest hotel in the world to have earned LEED Gold certification.
On account of its smart rooms which automatically adjust curtains, turn off unused lights and electronics, regulate the temperature when a guest enters or leaves a room, Aria was described in Popular Mechanics as "the most technologically advanced hotel built". Aria was conceived by MGM Mirage as part of the broader CityCenter development project, announced on November 10, 2004; the architectural design of Aria was conducted by Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, construction began in early 2006 on a plot of land located between the Bellagio and Monte Carlo. This site was occupied by the former Boardwalk Hotel and Casino, retail stores, a large parking lot, all of which were excavated beginning in April 2006. Following excavation, Aria's foundation was poured in June 2006. Vertical progression commenced in September 2007, at which point construction workers built upwards at a rate of one floor every seven days until reaching the final height of 61 floors. Amid ongoing construction in 2007, Infinity World Development, a subsidiary of Dubai World, invested about $2.7 billion to acquire a 50% stake in the CityCenter project.
From this point on, Aria was jointly owned by MGM Resorts International and Infinity World Development, with MGM responsible for operations and management. The economic downturn and its ripple effects – including litigation – threatened to halt construction of Aria at one point in early 2009, but an additional funding arrangement was made, allowing construction to continue on schedule; the resort opened on December 16, 2009, in the same month as several other CityCenter properties such as The Crystals, an attached retail shopping complex. The completed structure comprises two curvilinear glass towers. At the base of the connected high-rise towers is a casino and a three-story lobby that incorporates natural materials including foliage, glass and stone. Aria's design is described as not adhering to an overarching theme, in contrast to themed resorts prevalent on the Las Vegas Strip, it was named Aria due to its placement as the central feature of CityCenter, as arias are focal points in operas.
Artwork is incorporated throughout the interior of the building. The main entrance contains a lighted water feature called "Lumia" created by WET, which syncs water bursts to music. Maya Lin, designer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D. C. created an 87 ft reclaimed silver sculpture of the Colorado River called Silver River, suspended behind Aria's hotel registration desk. A result of its design, Aria is the largest hotel in the world to have received LEED Gold certification. Aria contains 4,004 hotel rooms within its 4,000,000 sq ft; the suites make up 568 of the rooms, a portion are referred to as Sky Suites, a AAA-5 Diamond and a Forbes Five Star hotel. Sky Suites are categorized separately since they are accessed via a private entrance and elevator, include transportation between the hotel and airport in limousines fueled by compressed natural gas. At the time of its opening in 2009, Aria was the 9th-largest hotel in the world as measured by the total number of rooms. All rooms have a touch-screen automation system which automatically adjusts curtains, turns off unused lights and electronics, regulates the temperature when a guest enters or leaves the room.
Room dimensions begin at 520 sq ft. The standard suites range in size from 1,050 to 2,060 sq ft; the two top floors of the hotel consist of a separately designated room category entitled Sky Villas, which range from 2,000 to 7,000 sq ft in size. All rooms outside the Sky Suite are non-smoking. A three-story, 300,000 sq ft convention center includes four ballrooms, 38 meeting rooms and a three-story 400 ft long window overlooking the pool; as of 2009, the window was the largest glass-curtain wall of its type constructed in a public building. An additional 900,000 sq ft is allocated for back-of-house areas, a subterranean parking garage. In December 2015, Aria announced an expansion of its convention center with construction to begin in May 2016 and completed in February 2018; the only casino within the CityCenter complex is located at Aria. Its 150,000 sq ft of gaming space includes slots, table games, a race and sports book; the gaming machines are controlled and monitored by a 3,000 sq ft data center and are changed to play the most popular games based on real-time data collected about the performance of e
