The Blog Single

CITY CENTER

The face of Las Vegas is about to change with the opening of City Center.  Design, design, design…how City Center will affect the lifestyle of both Las Vegas Residences and Travelers alike….”To create a pedestrian-friendly urban core complete with residential condominiums, hotels, restaurants, shops, entertainment, gathering spots and space for business meetings” says Jennifer Robison from the Las Vegas Review Journal.

Take a look at a recent article along with a guide to city center link that is included toward the bottom:

CityCenter wow-inspiring

Walkability is watchword for MGM Mirage’s decidedly upscale CityCenter

By JENNIFER ROBISON
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

 
A piece by Nancy Rubins in front of Vdara is a composition of rowboats, kayaks, canoes, sailboats, surfboards, jet skis, paddle boats, catamarans and other small river and ocean vessels.
Photo by John Gurzinski.

Crystals

Pocket Park

Aria lobby

Lobby restaurants

Aria casino

VIP/International Gaming Area

Race and Sports Book

Aria hotel rooms

Maze and three restaurants

Convention Center

Buffet

Vdara’s Silk Road restaurant

Mileage from Aria’s north lobby: 0.12

Minutes: 2:07

Steps: 265

Calories burned: 7.5

First impression: Vivid in morning, sultry at night

12. To cross over to Vdara Hotel & Spa, we head back downstairs and take the pedestrian walkway over Harmon Avenue. We work our way past a massive, spikey boat sculpture, a colorful and fun Nancy Rubins piece that brings out everybody’s inner goofball (not that ours hides away much). Our photographer and graphics guy muse about the pigeons that might nest inside the boats, while a reporter asks if resort supervisors worry that some pickled patron might climb into one of the gently curved rowboats to nod off after tying one on. Because we ask — for, um, our wild friends from Wichita who party hard when they visit — our MGM Mirage tour guide assures us the sculpture is “structurally sound.” But security will be on hand to monitor the boats.

Our first experience with Silk Road is a fat, purple amoeba of a plastic sign emerging from the window to announce the eatery’s presence to guests approaching Vdara’s entrance. Inside, Silk Road’s front door is at the end of a walkway from Bellagio, which is 90 seconds down the hall.

MGM Mirage describes Silk Road as a “trans-ethnic” eatery, which means it will carry dishes from around the world. The interior is bright, colorful and open in the daytime, with purple banquettes and gold-colored walls. We can easily picture some mussy-haired, puffy-eyed Hollywood celebutante sitting in the morning light, enjoying bacon and eggs. Or watching her friends enjoy bacon and eggs while she diets.

Silk Road also boasts a private dining room that, at 14 seats, mirrors the capacity of the boardrooms in the conference area. The idea is to allow serious business meetings to transform quickly into meal-time socializing.

Vdara Health & Beauty

Mileage from Vdara lobby: 0.07

Minutes: 1:05

Steps: 140

Calories burned: 3.8

First impression: Tranquil and secluded

13. Vdara’s 18,000-square-foot spa is one of only two CityCenter spas open to people not staying overnight at the megaresort (the other is in Mandarin Oriental). MGM Mirage officials expect high demand for Aria’s 80,000-square-foot spa, so they plan to reserve it for hotel guests.

Rich woods, cool marbles, river stones set in concrete and a two-story waterfall greet us; additional waterfalls pour into hot tubs in the men’s and women’s areas. A meditation room with yet another water feature can hold four to five guests. The spa has 11 treatment rooms, and its operators won’t use beauty products tested on animals.

We’re about two-thirds of the way through our tour. Though CityCenter is highly walkable, with little distance between major points of interest, we’ve been on site and on foot for roughly three hours, stopping and talking about points of interest in fair detail. So we can’t help but daydream about grabbing a quick foot massage. And would one of those Segwayscooters be out of the question inside CityCenter? (Yes.)

Outside Vdara Health & Beauty, we stop by the pool deck and check out a row of six private cabanas reserved for spa guests. The spa has banned cell phones and smoking in the cabanas, thus reducing exponentially the possibility of any Lindsay Lohan or Britney Spears sightings.

Vdara suites

Mileage to guest elevators from lobby: 0.01

Minutes: 22 seconds

Steps: 45

Calories burned: 1

First impression: Clean, simple design, interior decor

14. The finishes in Vdara’s 1,495 condo-hotel suites are even earthier than the details in Aria’s rooms, if that’s possible. Dining tables have deep brown wood and glass blocks, leather seats, furniture and window coverings with neutral tones and stainless-steel appliances. The only real color in the suites we visit comes in the vivid artwork hanging on the walls. It’s either soothing or bland, depending on your take (we vote for soothing).

The 500-square-foot deluxe suite, Vdara’s smallest, features a kitchen with a small refrigerator and a dining nook that seats two. It has a dividing wall down its middle to separate a cozy living room from the bedroom.

But the panoramic suite is the room we’re BEGGING our boss to rent for the department. We walk into the entrance hall of the end unit, and as we go down the long entrance corridor, windows surround our left and front. The windows continued throughout the unit, on almost every wall, giving us 270-degree views of Las Vegas. The suite also has a full-size fridge and dishwasher, a dining table for four and opaque glass doors to hide the master bath and bedroom when guests or residents entertain.

Mandarin Oriental

Mileage from Aria lobby: 0.2

Minutes: 3:40

Steps: 480

Calories burned: 13.5

First impression: Sultry and luxurious, yet subtle

15. The high-end finishes inside this stunning combination hotel-condominium tower don’t quit, from the giant wood-and-gold-leaf “kimono” feature in the ground-floor hotel lobby to the upholstered walls to the leather-lined counter inside Mandarin Bar. Everywhere we turn, there is a new texture or color scheme for our eyes to feast on. This is the CityCenter component we reach out and touch the most — running our hands down the walls to feel wallpapers, paints, fabrics and even gold-painted bricks. How luxe is this hotel? Even service landings at the back of the house have million-dollar Strip views.

Though the 392-unit Mandarin Oriental fronts the Strip and serves as a welcome point into CityCenter, it is decidedly targeted at the guests and residents who stay there. It’s not that you’re unwelcome if you’re not staying; it’s just that the escorts who roam the property will want to know what destination you had in mind when you stepped inside. We recommend heading straight for the 23rd floor, where the check-in lobby, the Mandarin Bar, the Tea Lounge and French fusion restaurant Twist all reside, with their jaw-dropping Strip views.