This week's LVW: Cut the wrap, Aria

Thanks much to Chuck at VegasTripping.Com for generously allowing the Weekly to use this illustration of the potential defacing of Aria's west side. Here's hoping we can shame them into averting this short-sighted idea. Here's this week's column. -sf

Cut the wrap, Aria!
Ads seriously undercut design
By STEVE FRIESS

MGM Resorts brass made many pre-opening claims about CityCenter that were, in retrospect, ridiculous. CEO Jim Murren predicted the super-expensive mall would become a communal gathering place for locals who otherwise avoid the Strip, that there was something akin to Central Park somewhere in that 67-acre, concrete-steel-glass landscape, that opening the complex would single-handedly increase Vegas visitation this year by 7 percent.

But one of Murren’s assertions rang true: They had built a collection of ambitious structures designed by the world’s great architects, proving a commitment to high-brow culture that would make a serious statement about Vegas’ maturation. These were special buildings, to be treated with great respect and honor, their exterior magnificence CityCenter’s calling card to prove the sea change promised to those who ventured inside.

Yet, now comes word that Murren’s crown jewel, the glittery and gorgeous Aria, could succumb to the modern Strip’s worst aesthetic trend, The Wrap.

Please, Mr. Murren. Anything but that. I beg of you. Don’t do it.

Read the rest at LasVegasWeekly.Com