As the north end of the Vegas strip goes mad with multi-billion dollar developments, one thing has become increasingly clear - these new Vegas hotels and casinos are monsters! As if the existing hotels weren’t big enough, the new hotels currently under development are dwarfing their older neighbours.
As you can see from this shot, the Wynn already dominates the older Mirage, while the new Palazzo and Wynn Encore will be bigger still. Add Echelon Place and the 63-storey Fontainebleau to the mix, and the older hotels are in danger of disappearing beneath their shadows!
The Stardust Hotel was a legendary hotel in Las Vegas, with an iconic sign, distinctive building, and playing host to scores of famous acts down the ages. Until, that is, it was demolished in March 2007. Now, it’s just a heap of smouldering rubble, waiting for the new $4 billion Echelon Place to be constructed over its ruins.
This photo set, and others in our new Changing Vegas gallery, shows just how quickly the landscape of Vegas changes. The photo on the left was taken in April 2006, and shows The Stardust in all its glory, standing proudly beneath a glorious blue sky. Fast forward a year, and all that’s left is a smouldering heap of rubble - even the sky’s turned grey! The Stardust is no more, but from its ashes will rise the huge new Echelon Place. Another Vegas icon bites the dust, only to be resurrected as another Vegas mega-resort.
More pictures of the changing face of Vegas after the jump.
Vegas hotels used to be a thing of, well, gaudy cheesiness! Circus Circus, Excalibur, and even, to some degree, the huge black pyramid that is the Luxor, all scream novelty at you, and don’t exactly make the place look upmarket.
All that’s changing now, though, and fast. The more recent hotels, from the Bellagio onwards, have all gone progressively upmarket, and newer ones, such as The Wynn and the new hotels under construction, are all top-class 5 star establishments with stunning designs.
This sense of upmarketness is brought dramatically home by these stunning pics I managed to take in April from my room at Circus Circus. The day itself was cold and windy, and there was even rain (it felt just like home in the UK, in fact!), but the payback was the glorious sunset gleaming off the Wynn, with dramatic rolling clouds lending an almost mystical quality to the construction work going on at The Palazzo, Wynn Encore and Echelon Place.
In Vegas, it seems, even the construction sites are glorious!
Check out the much larger photos in the Vegas Construction gallery.
