IS IT GREEN?: Las Vegas CityCenter
by Evelyn Lee, 01/07/10
The CityCenter mega-resort opened last month to fanfare, press, and a fireworks display fitting of a 67-acre 8.7 billion dollar gamble sitting on the Las Vegas Strip. The project surpassed its original sustainability goal of LEED Silver to score an impressive six LEED Gold Certifications (with another one on its way), and it was the recipient of the US Forest Stewardship Council’s best commercial project of 2009. However Las Vegas is a desert, and in this resource-constrained site we couldn’t help but pull back a bit of the star-crossed blinds and ask how deep does the green really go?
Quite frankly we wouldn’t expect anything less than LEED certification from the project’s star-studded architectural design team, which includes Pelli Clark Pelli, Kohn Pederson Fox, Helmut Jahn, RV Architecture LLC led by Rafael Vinoly, Foster + Partners, Studio Daniel Libeskind, David Rockwell and Rockwell Group, and Gensler.
We were mesmerized by the organic spa treatments and the non-toxin filled air in a relatively odorless casino floor, but couldn’t help but question why such a huge desert development doesn’t have a single solar panel on it. And while we ran our fingers over recycled glass block and eyed bamboo-sheathed columns we couldn’t help but notice the luxurious addition of some rare and not necessarily sustainable materials. And although we would continue to help ourselves to the in-room Aveda products, we have to ask if it’s necessary to replace once used toiletries and towels that were neatly hung back on the rack and still have self-branded water bottles?
Looks fantastic…my one concern..where will the water come from in the future?
At present all the water serving Las Vegas comes from nearby Lake Mead. For the past 10 years the levels of this lake has been declining. If it contines to decline at present rate, then in less than 12 years Lake Mead will be a dust bowl!