Las Vegas Through “Glassy” Eyes

And I thought the helicopter tours of Hoover Dam sounded cool; I had no idea that Las Vegas offered a tour so exciting as the one I attended on Monday. As part of the Glass Fabrication and Glazing Educational Conference here in Las Vegas, the Glass Association of North America (GANA) offered a tour to its contract glazing session participants of some of the hottest spots (glass-wise, of course) in this city.

About 40 adventure-seekers climbed onto the tour bus. Greg “glass guru” Carney, technical director of GANA, led the tour.

The visit began with Mandalay Bay, the southernmost casino on the Strip and notable for its sparkling gold color. According to Greg, that bright gold color was created by a 10-carat gold—yes, real gold—coating applied over a clear glass substrate. Although this ritzy casino hotel may look like it features a curtainwall, it’s a regular floor-to-ceiling application, Greg says.

The bus next passed by New York, New York. Before Greg even spoke up attendees were commenting on the bright pink, green and purple glass surfaces on this striking building. When asked how those colors were made, one attendee had the answer: interlayers, not coatings.

A quick detour of the Strip drove us all to the Rio. For this stop, Greg asked his captive audience why we thought the bright building had never appeared in any advertisements, like nearly every other building in Las Vegas. Answer: two suppliers. Spectrum Glass Products started the job, but didn’t have the laminated capabilities necessary to finish, leaving Viracon to complete the task.

From bright purple it was back to gold, with a stop at Trump Tower. There Greg recounted a story about working on Trump International in New York. Mr. Trump had been looking for a gold “tribute” to New York City, and the glass fabricator was all ready to go—until architect Philip Johnson cautioned “consider your neighbors.” Johnson’s reason for that caution is obvious in the blinding glare partly captured in this photo.

Among those neighbors are the Wynn and the Encore, still under construction. The rich almost chocolate brown on those glass-clad buildings is unique to the strip—and, according to Ivan Zuniga of AGC, unique to Steve Wynn Co. It’s a proprietary color chosen by the company for this project, he explained.

As our tour went past the Circus Circus casino, the entire bus could tell what made the roof of the glass-domed big-top casino so pink—that interlayer once again.

Our next stop was to note some of the biggest trends going on in Las Vegas. First was one of the Sky Las Vegas condominiums. Condos are cropping up across the city. This one in particular had some exciting examples of glasswork. Versalux in deep blue covered the outer units, while PPG’s lighter Azuria was used on the units toward the middle of the building. Both products are spectrally selective, Greg noted, showing how more of the building in this city are taking advantage of glass products designed specifically for architectural applications rather than just for color.

Greg didn’t have details on the project next door, but it showed another trend. The lites going up appeared to be unitized (CLICK HERE for more information on that trend).

Our last stop was one most Vegas tourists are unlikely to make (I hope): the Las Vegas federal courthouse. As Greg noted, this GSA building was among the first to be produced to meet blast-resistant standards.

Just when I thought I was done playing tourist in Las Vegas, I have all sorts of new attractions to look out for!