EE&K goes for glory with $6b Las Vegas city center.

Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn Architects (EE&K) has created an unprecedented architectural paradigm for the ideal modern city that has the potential to redefine contemporary urban design in cities throughout the world.

MGM MIRAGE'S Project CityCenter, to be built along the famous Las Vegas Strip, confirms a cultural and lifestyle revival of city living.

The groundbreaking design introduces a dazzling vertical city to the heart of Las Vegas' sprawling horizontal grid--a stimulating, pedestrian-oriented urban environment coupled with automobile convenience, hidden parking structures and, suspended in the sky, a one-of-a-kind complex of rooftop garden oases that combine to form a contiguous park system.

"Cities ordinarily grow intrinsically over time, but with the vision of MGM MIRAGE, an entire city neighborhood is being developed at once as an integrated work of architecture," said Stanton Eckstut, Principal-in-Charge at EE&K.

"Our design challenge was to combine ultra contemporary needs of technology, demographics and lifestyle with tried and true urban traditions to create a real city of high-density, mixed use buildings and public places that is inherently walkable, easy to drive in and out of, and with a diversity of choices to bring people back again and again."

Elegant, grand and surprise-filled, Project CityCenter's design grew out of Las Vegas' entertainment factor--a place of fun, excitement and chance set in a stunning desert landscape.

The $6 billion project, the largest in the country, will comprise 66 prime acres of chic cafes, signature retailers, boutique hotels and elegant residential buildings lining streets, public squares, covered passageways and the frontage along the Strip.

Casino Square, the lively nucleus of the complex topped by a shimmering 3000-room hotel tower, is reached by three distinctive streets: a grand European-styled boulevard, a bustling pedestrian district of shopping arcades and a whimsical walkway pulsing with non-stop activity.

The skyline of Project CityCenter is designed as a complete composition creating many unusual visual effects from different vantage points. With the mountains in the background, vistas and views are everywhere.

Carried throughout are changing light shows projected against building facades and super-sized graphics a la Times Square.

"In Las Vegas the demographic trend is an extraordinary confluence of people and money," said Peter Cavaluzzi, EE&K Design Principal. "This forced us to push the envelope to create architecture where people live, work and play amidst the best that city life can offer--restaurants, shopping, entertainment and recreation. We believe this design offers a real, viable and forward-thinking model for cities everywhere."

"Like other great metropolitan centers--Paris and New York for example--we commissioned a complete architectural design that utilizes every square inch to its maximum potential and is in harmony with the natural landscape," said Jim Murren, President and Chief Financial Officer, MGM MIRAGE.

Bobby Baldwin, President and CEO of Mirage Resorts, will lead Project CityCenter in its entirety for MGM MIRAGE.