City Center Las Vegas: Halo and Glacia by WET

WET, the water feature and fountain design firm, responsible for the Mirage Volcano and the Fountains of Bellagio, have created five installations for City Center. Lumia, Focus and Latisse are within the Aria Resort & Casino. This post covers Glacia and Halo, both located in Crystals, which I encountered again as I returned to the Cosmopolitan after touring City Center taking a route through the retail complex. There's always something interesting about water in a controlled environment manipulated in unusual ways.

Visit wetdesign.com for more information about the firm and to learn more about their water featrues.

HALO

Halo materializes as a series of water vortices held captive within clear cylinders that thrust up through the floor. Swirling water appears caught in constant motion. These colorful swirls of water is set as focal point of the Crystals atrium. Guest are free to walk through and touch the maze of spinning water while staying completely dry.

GLACIA
Near ground level entrance to the Crystals, Glacia is meant to cool guests with large pillars of carved ice that rise as tall as 15 feet. And "rise" is the operative word, as these columns emerge silently from a pristine pool, ascending slowly upward as immense monoliths of frozen water. Colored lighting combines with the varied clarity of the ice (sometimes crystal clear, sometimes frosty white) to produce a visual experience that never repeats itself.

Art-O-Mat at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas

Art-O-Mat machines are salvaged and refurbished cigarette dispensers.

Art-O-Mat vending machines at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.
(above photos: TheHopefulTraveler)

Many people have to stop, gaze and wonder at these vending machines that look like they should be dispensing cigarettes. One would expect as much from these Art-O-Mats, six of them to be exact, located at the Cosmopolitan at Las Vegas. But rather than cigarettes or candy or gum, these machines dispense artwork.

Art-O-Mat is a Winston-Salem company that revamps cigarette machines into dispensers of $5 mini works of art. The company has moved nearly 25,000 works annually vending in museums, galleries and coffee shops. This is the first resort to host the program that sells original miniature works from around the world. The boxes that are dispensed contain such objects as prints, paintings, sculptures and jewelry.

These machines, some of them salvaged from junkyards, are refurbished with a high-end finish for a classic and beautiful look, a look that relates directly to the unique surroundings of the Cosmopolitan.

These Art-O-Mats make art simple, accessible and fun for the average man. For struggling artists, they may sell their very first of art from these machines. For the uninitiated art lover, the machines in turn offer the opportunity for them to purchase their first piece of artwork.

Think of these machines like a miniature gallery of art. See something interesting, spend a few dollars and enjoy a custom-made and unique piece of art. I saw a couple of them near the Cosmopolitan's restaurants the Wicked Spoon and the Overlook Grill.

Visit artomat.org for more information on the program.

Choosing an artists work is guesswork. You're not sure
if you'll get a print, painting, sculpture, jewelry or another miniature
custom work of art.
(photo: TheHopefulTraveler) 

An example of an Art-O-Matic work of art: custom made earrings.
(photo: Mark's Las Vegas)

This box contained a mosaic whimsy.
 (photo: Mark's Las Vegas)

The Cosmopolitan Las Vegas: Reception Lobby & Video Pillars

(photo: Kiwi Collection)

(photo credit: Leila Navidi)

Note: Post updated on 5/19/12 with additional photos.

The modern design of the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas is immediately striking as guests enter the reception lobby. Video screens installed on each side of the lobby's pillars and the reflective polished black floors and ceilings give the feeling of walking through a work of art. Your eyes are immediately drawn to the fluid video works of art that changes every few minutes.

Like being displayed on a black canvas, the elements of the lobby's design pops: from the red Louis XIV resort registration desks which utilizes mirrors to give the optical illusion they are hollow beneath; white chandeliers; and video screens running the entire length of reception on which the video artwork of the lobby's pillars is also showcased.

Because of the sheer number of rooms (2,995), I can imagine that this reception lobby is not immune to the long lines during peak check-in hours that is common at other mega resorts on the Las Vegas Strip. But it's after midnight so there is only person ahead of me in line and three desks open.

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(photo credit: TheHopefulTraveler)

(photo credit: TheHopefulTraveler)

The red reception desks are clean and void of any clutter. Guests register by signing their name using a finger on an iPad. My check-in experience is not as simple or smooth however. Keep in my mind that I was already frustrated earlier in the day when my flight was delayed and I had to switch airlines causing me to arrive at midnight rather than at 7pm. In addition the taxi driver tried to pull that long-hauling trick.

I experienced something similar when I checked into the Paris Las Vegas last month where I had to spend one night in a room designated as smoking. But the hotel made it up by giving me a corner upgraded "Red Room" for the remainder of my stay.

When I knew I may be arriving after midnight, I called the hotel to note that I will be arriving much later than expected. This apparently did nothing to help. When I reached the front desk employee does something on the computer then steps into a side room. I am told that my room choice, a Wraparound Terrace Suite, is sold-out. Keep in mind that I also pre-paid for my hotel. The front desk says they can give me a Lanai Suite which would be fine except I'm told it will cost me an extra $200 a night. The front desk tries to promote the offer but saying it has immediate access to one of the hotel's pool. But here's the catch I told her: I don't swim. She doesn't say anything except to excuse herself to again step into that side room.

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(photo credit: TheHopefulTraveler)

(photo credit: TheHopefulTraveler)

She returns after a minute to let me know they do have a Wraparound Suite available. So I exclaim a little loudly "so you do have a room available." Rather than arguing the matter, I take my room keys and head to my room in the hotel's East Side Tower. The elevators that are adjacent to reception all lead to rooms in the West Side Tower. So it takes a trek through the casino with luggage in tow to head to the correct tower.

Now I can understand that Las Vegas properties would like to save their best rooms and keep rooms available to their high rollers and for this hotel in particularly, Gold and Platinum members of the Marriott Rewards Program. But the way I see it if you book a room and you pre-pay for it and you call to say you'll be arriving late, there should be a room available. And if they're sold out of that room, it shouldn't cost you anything to be upgraded to a more expensive room.

But the front desk employee kept a smile and was helpful in giving me a map of the hotel and explaining where layout of the casino and where some of the restaurants as well as the East Side Tower is located. And I have to admit I was still dazzled by the chic modern surroundings of the Cosmopolitan. I knew I probably had to eat something before heading to bed since my last meal was more than five hours ago on the plane during the flight from Honolulu to Vegas. The employee direct me to the hotel's 24-hour restaurant, The Henry, which is just a few steps away from the East Side Tower's elevator lobby.

(photo credit: TheHopefulTraveler)

(photo credit: TheHopefulTraveler)

(photo credit: Kelly Technologies)

(photo credit: TheBeatBox)

(photo credit: pixmule)

(photo credit: Leila Navidi)

"Sandworm" Rises on the Beach in Belgium

(photos: Nikita Wu)

It's environmental architectural art as attraction. Called "Sandworm," the organic structure on the dunes of the Wenduine coastline in Belgium, is 45 meters long and 10 meters wide and constructed entirely out of willow. Finnish artist Marco Casagrande and his team of architects and local experts took four weeks to create what he dubs as "weak architecture" (a human-made structure that wishes to become part of nature through flexibility and organic presence).

In news reports visitors are saying that Sandworm is like a willow cathedral and offers a spectacle of light of shadow. The inside space is used for picnics, relaxation and meditation. Visit archdaily.com for more photographs and information.

(photos: Nikita Wu)

Sculptures as Illusions Invade Park Avenue

(photos credit: nyclovesnyc/flickr)

Between now and June 30, nine-stainless steel sculptures designed by Venezuelan artist Rafael Barrios will be displayed along New York City's Park Avenue between 51st and 67th Streets. Each sculpture weighs about a ton and appear to be huge, three-dimensional perspective illusions.

The sculptures when seen from one angle appears to be thick and solid three-dimensional pieces. While from another perspective they appear paper thin. The technique which Barrios has been perfecting since the 1970s is called "virtualism" characterized by the sculptures look of floating metal.

The presentation is part of the art program along Park Avenue that has been running since 2000. Visit fundforparkavenue.org for more information about the project.

One pedestrian took this video of one of the sculptures on Park Avenue: