Posted on: August 7, 2024, 11:24h.
Last updated on: August 7, 2024, 11:28h.
Demolition has begun on the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas, which closed on July 17 and is destined to reopen as one of a chain of Hard Rock casino resorts in 2027. While the guts of the casino and towers will remain, as will the villas, among the elements that won’t survive the $4-$5 billion transformation is the atrium.
As the main entrance to The Mirage, the atrium is the cherished memory all guests have of entering the game-changing Las Vegas Strip property for the first time. And, as visionary Steve Wynn intended, it was an indelible one.
The atrium was a passageway through a lush rainforest, complete with a cascading waterfall, towering palm trees, 100 varieties of exotic plants and flowers, and a 60-foot high domed skylight providing natural sunshine.
With the atrium, Wynn successfully imparted into his guests the feeling of entering a Polynesian paradise smack in the middle of the Mojave Desert — a resort so crammed with luxury, entertainment, and surprises, it would be a destination in itself.
Too Successful
Destroying the atrium feels to many Las Vegas regulars like felling an actual rainforest.
Why do it when the space could still serve as a perfectly functional and beautiful way to enter the second Hard Rock Las Vegas? (The first reopened as Virgin Hotels Las Vegas in 2021.)
“That is a hurtful image,” commented @UnckelMike beneath the main photo in this story as shared by Vital Vegas on X/Twitter.
“The atrium should have been a UNESCO Herirage Site,” added @jasonbeahm.
“Sad to see — especially for what they are replacing it with that isn’t unique or Vegas,” noted @bobby_wells.
However, when you consider Hard Rock’s perspective, there really was no other choice. And that’s precisely because Wynn’s plan to indelibly implant an atrium memory in all first-time Mirage visitors succeeded so wildly.
Preserving the atrium would serve only as an active and constant reminder of what used to occupy the space, stoking feelings of nostalgia instead of wonder about whatever casino resort took its place.
