The conceptual tower would provide a casino, a hotel, a boxing ring and a concert hall with all the same amenities and luxuries as a casino on the Las Vegas strip. Located between the dam and the bypass bridge, the upside down skyscraper is accessible to both cars and pedestrians from the adjoining road. As told by Sobl, s graduate project was an exploration of “the interplay of opaque massive surfaces capable of incorporating poché and lightweighiht, fragile structure.”
Guests of the hotel and casino arrive via the cantilevered plynth, which holds the main programmatic areas like the lobby, casino, event space and boxing ring. The descending tower holds hotel rooms culminating in a dramatic area at the bottom of the tower for ceremonies and special occasions that also include a high end dining area with glass floors to see the Colorado River below.
The tower is composed of three elements: a massive concrete structure formin the cantilever for the hanging tower; a lightweight hanging tower, and a metal shell embracing the structure. This metal shell provides shading for the rooms inside and encourages natural ventilation throughout the tower. Parasitic in nature, the Vertical Strip latches onto the canyon right at the source of the power and water, closer than Las Vegas and thus reducing losses through distribution.
+ Stephan Sobl
Via Dezeen
Parasitic is right. I much prefer my natural world viewshed unimpeded by a self-indulgent design study.
Did anybody stop to examine the impact this meme might generate? A hotel stretched out over the grand canyon? How about Yellowstone? THINK about how diminished the grandeur of these spaces become when we stick a built opject into them. THe value of the space is forever lost.
If you’re going to design a parasitic structure, don’t grow it on a healthy host. Stick it (and I mean that in the nicest possible way,) on something that NEEDS improvement – NOT an inspiring natural viewshed.