The 90’s saw an unprecedented boom in Las Vegas. A boom that our firm was fortunate to be at the center of. This decade saw Vegas experience a transformation from a city known solely for its gaming to a global tourism destination. Whereas the city’s revenue source was generated primarily by gaming up to this point, the 90’s were about transitioning to an international resort destination. Our firm was involved in the transition, procuring some fabulous projects during this time – hotel rooms, luxury suites, restaurants, meeting and convention space, casinos and high roller salons.
In 1992, prior to the Las Vegas boom, we had designed The Palace of the Lost City, the grand luxe hotel within the Sun City Resort Development in northwest South Africa. While involved in that ambitious undertaking, we simultaneously designed various projects for the Sun City Casinos. Two years later we had the opportunity to design the Atlantis Paradise Island Resort in the Bahamas, another remarkable Sol Kerzner project. As I have mentioned before, Sol Kerzner was a client who had a dramatic and lasting effect on our firm. Sol was known as the “Sun King” and the “Gaming Czar” of South Africa. Little did I know at that time that our work for Sol in South Africa would parlay into future opportunities in the Bahamas, Las Vegas, Macau and beyond.
My relationship with Sol is further evidence of my “networking is the key” mantra. Sol’s office originally contacted me via our London office, which was our first international post and had opened in the late 80’s. Our work with Sol in South Africa, and then at the Atlantis Paradise Island Resort in the Bahamas subsequently led to additional “big gamer” introductions such as Steve Wynn, Sheldon Adelson and others.
A good portion of our “eye candy” work in the 90’s was produced for Las Vegas, the perfect venue for such projects. Our Los Angeles office designed spectacular high roller suites at Caesar’s Palace as well as the sumptuous private Mansion at MGM Grand.
The Mansion at MGM Grand, Las Vegas. 
The Mansion at MGM Grand, Las Vegas.
Our EVP and Design Director, Jim Rimelspach, headed up the design for two momentous projects, The Venetian Resort and The Palazzo at The Venetian. A piece of advice for architecture and interior design students: Get yourself to Las Vegas to study these properties. You can see firsthand what scale and architectural detailing are all about. The European architectural history and details are better than you will find in any textbook. Jim’s work was so well received, that he and his team were tasked with creating the 3000 room Venetian Resort in Macau which opened in 2007.
Here are a few fab throwback photos of Jim and myself at a Gala at The Venetian Las Vegas.
The 90’s and early 2000’s were true “go go” days for our firm – we grew exponentially, adding new offices in Las Vegas and Shanghai to those we already had in Dallas, New York, Los Angeles, London, Singapore and Johannesburg. We eventually added offices in Cochin, India and Dubai/Abu Dhabi. The Dubai office supported our work on the Presidential Palace in Abu Dhabi – but I’ll save that story for another blog post!
We rose to the top of Interior Design magazine’s annual listing of “Global Design Giants”. Lady Luck smiled on us, and my executive team was willing to work hard, travel constantly, and make hay while the sun shined!
