Vdara ( ) is a condo-hotel within the CityCenter complex, located on the

Las Vegas Strip The Las Vegas Strip is a stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard in Clark County, Nevada, that is known for its concentration of resort hotels and casinos. The Strip, as it is known, is about long, and is immediately south of the Las Vegas city limits ...

Paradise, Nevada Paradise is an Unincorporated towns in Nevada, unincorporated town and census-designated place (CDP) in Clark County, Nevada, United States, adjacent to the city of Las Vegas. It was formed on December 8, 1950. Its population was 191,238 at the ...

. It was designed by

Rafael Viñoly Rafael Viñoly Beceiro (1 June 1944 – 2 March 2023) was an Uruguayan-born architect based in New York. He was the principal of Rafael Viñoly Architects, which he founded in 1983. The firm has offices in New York City, Palo Alto, London, Ma ...

, and is located across from CityCenter's Aria Resort & Casino. Vdara opened on December 2, 2009 as a joint venture between

MGM Resorts International MGM Resorts International is an American Multinational corporation, multinational hospitality, sports and entertainment company. It operates resorts in Las Vegas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Maryland, Ohio, New Jersey, Macau, Shanghai, ...

and

Dubai World Dubai World () is an investment company that manages and supervises a portfolio of businesses and projects for the Government of Dubai across a wide range of industry segments and projects that promote Dubai as a hub for commerce and trading. A ...

. In 2021, MGM bought out Dubai World and sold Vdara to

The Blackstone Group Blackstone Inc. is an American alternative investment management company based in New York City. It was founded in 1985 as a mergers and acquisitions firm by Peter G. Peterson, Peter Peterson and Stephen A. Schwarzman, Stephen Schwarzman, who h ...

, while remaining as operator. Vdara's 57-story tower houses 1,495 suites. The non-gaming property also includes a two-floor spa, meeting space, a pool deck, a market cafe, and a bar. A design flaw was discovered in 2008, when it was learned that the hotel's reflective surface and concave design can act as a parabolic reflector that creates conditions of extremely high temperature at the pool deck.

History

Vdara was announced in October 2006, as part of the CityCenter project by MGM. It was designed by

. The name "Vdara" is made up. It was coined by Rafael Viñoly Architects, taking its "V" from "Vegas" and "ara" from boutique hotels in California such as Park Hyatt Resort Aviara and Ritz-Carlton Bacara. On May 14, 2008, Vdara became the first of the CityCenter towers to be topped off. Vdara opened to invited guests and media on December 1, 2009. The public opening occurred the following day, making it the first component of CityCenter to open. For its environmentally friendly design, Vdara was designated as a LEED Gold building prior to its opening, and received a five-key rating from Green Key Global in 2010. In 2021, MGM bought out its CityCenter partner,

, gaining full ownership of the Vdara hotel and Aria. That same year, MGM sold both properties for $3.89 billion in cash to

, which leased them back to MGM for an annual rent of $215 million.

Features

Vdara is a non-gaming and non-smoking hotel. The crescent-shaped 57-story tower includes 1,495 suites, ranging in size from . The property originated as a

condo hotel A condo hotel, also known as a condotel, hotel condo, or a contel, is a building that is legally a condominium but operated as a hotel, offering short-term rentals, and which maintains a front desk. Condo hotels are typically high-rise buildin ...

, giving owners the option to participate in a rental program to lease their condos as hotel rooms when they are not residing there. However, due to poor economic conditions brought on by the

Great Recession The Great Recession was a period of market decline in economies around the world that occurred from late 2007 to mid-2009.

, MGM converted 1,350 units into regular hotel rooms, leaving approximately 150 as residential units. Condo closings began in March 2010. Artwork is incorporated into Vdara's interior and exterior design. Nancy Rubin's sculpture ''Big Edge'', made of various boats, is displayed outside the entrance of the hotel. It features approximately 200 canoes,

catamaran A catamaran () (informally, a "cat") is a watercraft with two parallel hull (watercraft), hulls of equal size. The wide distance between a catamaran's hulls imparts stability through resistance to rolling and overturning; no ballast is requi ...

s, kayaks, paddle boats, rowboats, and surfboards held together with stainless steel wire cable. The sculpture is meant to resemble a blooming flower. A large painting by

Frank Stella Frank Philip Stella (May 12, 1936 – May 4, 2024) was an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker, noted for his work in the areas of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction. He lived and worked in New York City for much of his career befor ...

hangs above the registration desk in the lobby. Vdara includes an two-story spa and salon, and a pool area. Abbey Beach, a dayclub pool event targeted at a gay clientele, operated during 2010. An interior walkway connects Vdara with the adjacent Bellagio and

Cosmopolitan Cosmopolitan may refer to: Internationalism * World citizen, one who eschews traditional geopolitical divisions derived from national citizenship * Cosmopolitanism, the idea that all of humanity belongs to a single moral community * Cosmopolitan ...

resorts. Vdara opened with of meeting space, and one full-service restaurant, Silk Road, which served Mediterranean food. It was designed by Karim Rashid. Market Cafe Vdara, a small grocery store also serving sandwiches and pastries, opened in March 2011. Silk Road closed simultaneously, due to lack of demand. In 2013, part of the former restaurant was converted into meeting and event space, with a

Starbucks Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational List of coffeehouse chains, chain of coffeehouses and Starbucks Reserve, roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 1971 by Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, and Gor ...

taking up the remainder. Two years later, Vdara opened a bar, Vice Versa, in its lobby. It serves food, and includes indoor and outdoor seating which overlooks CityCenter. In 2017, Vdara debuted autonomous robots capable of delivering certain room-service items.

Solar glare

In 2010, it was established that the tower's south side, with its reflective surface and concave design, can act as a collecting

mirror A mirror, also known as a looking glass, is an object that Reflection (physics), reflects an image. Light that bounces off a mirror forms an image of whatever is in front of it, which is then focused through the lens of the eye or a camera ...

. The reflected rays of the sun create dangerous conditions of extremely high temperature at the pool deck. Hotel employees and news outlets referred to the phenomenon as the "death ray", while management preferred the term "solar convergence". MGM and contractors became aware of the problem in 2008. Vdara management considered various solutions but the challenge in overcoming the structural design problem is that the sun and its reflection are targets that constantly move during the day and as every season progresses. Management installed large blue umbrellas over the pool deck to protect bathers,The 'death ray hotel' burning Las Vegas visitors came up with a simple fix
by Leanna Garfield, ''

Business Insider ''Business Insider'' (stylized in all caps: BUSINESS INSIDER; known from 2021 to 2023 as INSIDER) is a New York City–based multinational financial and business news website founded in 2007. Since 2015, a majority stake in ''Business Inside ...

'', 30 June 2016 while the hotel's glass exterior has been covered with non-reflective film."'

dara Dara is a given name in several languages. Dara, Daraa, or DARA may also refer to: Geography Africa * Dar'a, region in northern Ethiopia * Dara (woreda), region in southern Ethiopia Asia * Dara (Mesopotamia), an archeological site in Mard ...

was a completely different problem,' said Viñoly, insisting he was following a masterplan that specified arc-shaped towers. 'We pointed out that would be an issue too, but who cares if you fry somebody in Las Vegas, right?'" : from
Walkie Talkie architect 'didn't realise it was going to be so hot'
by Oliver Wainwright, ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', 6 September 2013 Viñoly also designed the "

Walkie-Talkie A walkie-talkie, more formally known as a handheld transceiver, HT, or handheld radio, is a hand-held, portable, two-way radio transceiver. Its development during the Second World War has been variously credited to Donald Hings, radio engineer A ...

" skyscraper in London, opened in 2014, which has been dubbed the "Walkie-Scorchie" and "Fryscraper" due to a similar, sun-reflecting and scorching problem.From the Walkie Talkie to the Death Ray Hotel: buildings turn up the heat
by Jon Henley, ''

'', 3 September 2013

Gallery

File:July-June07-CityCenter-SFS Vdara Condo Hotel Eiffel View.jpg, Construction in mid-2007 File:Las Vegas, Vdara (La Citta Vita) - Flickr.jpg, Outside Vdara's entrance File:Vdara Hotel (7978050207).jpg, Vdara at night File:DSC33344, Vdara Hotel and Spa, CityCenter, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA (5002682574).jpg, Lobby and bar area, 2010 File:Vdara Hotel (7980169108).jpg, Market Cafe Vdara

References

External links