In a city where the lines between marketing and entertainment have long been blurred, the Reserve Hotel Casino has taken it another step in removing the lines between traditional signage and entertainment theming.
The hotel's vivid African theme features a sequence of detailed sculptures, displays, murals and effects which bring the African bush to life as you drive onto the property and begin a journey into the heart of Africa.
The Reserve, Ameristar's first Southern Nevada casino, is an off-Strip property located in Henderson on the eastern rim of the Las Vegas valley. In spite of the odds in competing with the Strip giants, Ameristar has succeeded by hiring some of the best companies in the business to execute a strong African theme, making the $125 million, 190,000 sq. ft. Reserve a uniquely distinguished property, even in Las Vegas.
Craig H. Nelson, Ameristar's CEO, says that people have become immune to the ordinary and have grown to expect spectacular themed experiences. This concept is reinforced by Tony Seiniger, CEO of Seiniger Advertising, says the lines between gaming and entertainment have been blurred in recent years and considers it very natural for an entertainment marketing agency (like us) to move into the gaming industry as gaming evolves to a broader, entertainment-based experience. The medium certainly is the message.
Located in Henderson, Nevada, on the southeast rim of the Las Vegas valley, the Reserve welcomes visitors through a 120' tall arched pylon outrigged by two gigantic elephant tusks.
The casino's brown-textured main edifice is built along the lines of an ancient Moorish castle with towering minarets on each of its corners. It's exterior walls hold larger-than-life hand-painted murals of elephants, giraffes, lions and tigers roaming broad African plains, veldts and savannahs.
The Reserve's main porte cochere is a canvas-roofed structure stretched between fluted African columns, resembling the huge tents common to the nomadic oasis dwellers of Northern Africa.
Conceived and designed by Henry Conversano Designers of Oakland, California and carried out by Morris & Brown, architects and designers out of Reno, Nevada, the Reserve's main theme revolves around Congo Jack, a mythical adventurer, who crashes his twin-engine Beechcraft C45 "Expediter" into the jungle. He parachutes to safety and is found and nursed back to health by Monsoon Mary, an orphan separated from her family by a monsoon who was raised in the canebreak by a nameless nomadic African tribe.
Diners can eat at Congo Jack's Cafe in front of the remains of his plane and watch the engines smoke and sputter in their death throes as chimps cavort and gambol curiously amidst the wreckage. Jack hangs from a tree by his parachute shrouds at the Cafe's entrance, bidding guests welcome.
Down the trail from Jack's Cafe, Monsoon Mary, his savior and paramour, opened her famous watering hole where visitors can sit on the veranda drinking wild libations, gazing at the wild African jungle, adventurous slot machine players and exotic table games attended by scantily clad hostesses attired in the latest jungle wear.
A short walk past the gaming village brings you to the Wildfire Steaks and Seafood Restaurant, which you entered by passes through a Wall of Fire created by Robert Sibilia's award-winning True Identity out of Denver, Colorado.
Wasimba's lounge offers live entertainment in a lion's den amidst authentic-looking rock walls decorated with pictographs and petroglyphs which would impress the most skeptical archeologist. The artwork was created by Nigel Cooper of California.
Just around the bend is the Funky Monkey Bar, a libation station which is every bit what you'd expect in Africa. Vine-swinging monkeys help everyone get into the swing of things.
A spectacular bas relief sculpture of a herd of African elephants is the backdrop for Registration Desk. Arguably the most spectacular piece of work at the hotel, this relief sculpture, created by Robb Kramer, Tri-Star's leading artist, conveys a sense of grandeur and elegance. He also designed and created the sculpture on the giant Baobab tree in the center of the casino, and built the huge stone lions at Wasimba's, and the monkeys, torches and cauldrons sitting atop the hotel's towers.
Ranging high above this African landscape is a very exciting hand-painted sky by ReallyBigSkies of Hollywood, CA, depicting breath-taking African sunsets, brilliant sunrises, raging thunderstorms, monsoons and a panorama of wildlife hidden amidst the clouds.
To bring all this diverse talent together, Ameristar hired Tri-Star Theme Builders as general contractor for the Reserve project. Using the unique concept of on-site development and manufacturing, Tri-Star has achieved impressive cost-saving methods of achieving remarkable results.
Zac Henson, Tri-Star's president and CEO, says that one of the advantages of on-site production is the virtual elimination of the need for shop drawings due to the ease of access between the fabricators and the installers. Tri-Star achieved a 75% faster turn-around time to completion on all changes as a result of being so close at hand to the project.
YOUNG ELECTRIC SIGN CO. (Las Vegas, NV)
YESCO began working on the hotel/casino's African theme in the Spring of 1996. By fall of that year they gave the owners a full-scale demonstration of their design for the Reserve's huge pylon.
The largest part of YESCO's $1.75 million contract (brought in house by Gary Bunker and Dennis Harrison, YESCO account executives) centered on the elephant tusk pylon which points the way to the Reserve's main porte cochere and entrance.
YESCO designed and constructed all the hotel's exterior signage, including three sets of box channel letters filled with 25 watt lamp packs and bordered in turquoise neon.
However, the main pylon, without doubt, is YESCO's crowning achievement on this project. Taking approximately three months to build, the 120' tall curved arch structure was designed to resemble two gigantic elephant tusks curving inward to meet and form the arch.
The main box centered within the arch, displays the Reserve's name under a huge elephant's head. Beneath this box a state-of-the-art digital electronic message unit 45-ft. by 28-ft. offers continuing information and entertainment to visitors and passing drivers.
The pylon is an original concept designed and created by Art Director, Ron White, who has been with YESCO for more than fifteen years. When YESCO was invited into the project, the owners simply conveyed an idea they envisioned; a hotel/casino built on a theme of the lost city in Africa. They told Ron White to come up with some designs on that theme, and his creativity took off.
White said that one afternoon, while eating a solitary lunch and mentally doodling with the project theme, he was struck with the idea that elephants, more than other symbol, represented the huge vastness of Africa. Elephants, elephant tusks, he continued to muse as the final theme formed in his mind. Two huge elephant tusks curved inward to form an arch under which visitors could gaze upward at the immensity of the project. Ameristar loved the idea and the project was conceived and born.
YESCO's biggest challenge was to make the 120' tall tusks look as real as possible. They achieved this by designing the seams of the tusks, each of which were constructed in eight fiberglass sections joined to follow the natural cracking which appears in real elephant tusks. Additional cracking was carved into the tusks in relief and painted dark brown and black and then painted with a special gel coat to achieve an authentic weathered ivory look.
Ed Hassen, YESCO's project director for the Reserve, recalls Ameristar frequently asking how long it would take to build the pylon. His only answer was, "I don't know. We've never built 120-ft. elephant tusks before."
To construct this monolith and still achieve lightness, tensile strength, and a wind resistance of 75-mph, the tusks, made of reinforced fiberglass formed around wood molds, were then attached to a steel framework which rose 120-ft. from a concrete footing measuring 20-ft. by 27-ft. by 7.5-ft. thick.
Underlying that was an 8-ft. square by 1.5-ft. thick concrete foundation pad. Both pad and footing were interlaced with various sizes of rebar designed for maximum strength. The entire foundation design was based on an extensive soil report ordered by YESCO prior to placing any concrete.
Two 76-ft. sections of 1-in. thick steel pipe, 60-in. in diameter were set into the footing 56-ft. apart as the main structural support for the pylon.
At the 76-ft. level, two 4-ft. 1-in. by 6-ft. I-beam connecting plates were butt welded onto the 60-in. pipe providing connecting points for the main cross structural member, a 56-ft. section of 36-in. steel pipe.
Mid-point on the 36-in. cross-structural member, two additional 6-ft. 7-in. by 4-ft. framing plates were anchored to the pipe and a 36-ft. 9-in high riser made of 36-in. steel pipe was butt welded to the framing plates. This centered riser was integral to the placement and structural integrity of the top sign framing members and the overall stability of the pylon.
At heights of 46-ft. 7-in. and 64-ft. 11-in. two 45-ft. lengths of 20-in. steel pipe were welded onto the vertical 60-in. pipe to provide horizontal support for the electronic messaging unit, a 45-ft. by 28-ft. channel box which was bolted and butt welded to these cross members.
On top of the I-beam connecting plates located at 76-ft., two 32-ft. 10-in. lengths of standard pipe were butt welded into place on either side at an inward angle of approximately 27 degrees toward the center of the arch.
At exactly 100-ft. another cross member was butt welded to plates attached to these angled members to add further structural support as well as providing the top cross member for the top sign which included the Reserve logo and elephant head.
At the top of the first set of angled pipe another set of smaller, 8-in. standard pipe was butt welded at another slight angle inward toward the pylon's centerline. Another 4-in. by 11-ft. steel pipe was then sleeved and welded inside the 8-in. pipe to reach up to the tip of the tusk and the top of the arch. This entire structure acted as the main frame for placement of the tusks, digital messaging center and top sign.
The fiberglass tusks were formed on wood molds in huge half-round sections ranging from 16-ft. to 31-ft. in length. Being 5/8-in. thick fiberglass, these sections sometimes had minds of their own and required additional reinforcing to be added ad hoc during construction to assure structural stability. Each piece of the tusk, a jig-saw puzzle by any other name, was hand-fitted during installation and reinforced with cross-members tied into the main 60-in. steel tubing as needed.
The bases of the tusks are surrounded with molded fiberglass collars 15-ft. in diameter rising up the tusk slightly over 31-ft. from the foundation. Each collar was made in 12 pieces (3 stacks of quarter-circle sections) which break at the top of each roped collar.
These collars resemble roped stands into which the actual tusks are inset. Approximately 5-ft. down into the collar lies a table base which acts as a foundation to accommodate floodlights which illumine the tusks from below. The collars were then hand painted by Doug Crossen, a YESCO billboard painter.
At the top of the arch, right above the electronic messaging unit, is the Reserve's principal logo "The Reserve Hotel Casino."
The letters "THE RESERVE" are constructed of screw-channel lettering with 25 watt bulb packs outlined in turquoise neon. The letters "HOTEL CASINO" are also screw-channel lettering with neon fill. Both sets of letters are mounted onto the main top cabinet which measures 43-ft. tall, 40-ft. 6-in. wide and 8-ft thick. The cabinet tapers to a point to fit in the arch formed by the tusks and is outlined in yellow neon. The cabinet's center section is outlined in coved turquoise neon and the interior of the letters are lit by 25 watt bulb packs, also outlined in neon.
Positioned just above the logo and attached onto the main cabinet is a plant-on, single-faced cabinet 9-ft. 8-in. thick and 14-ft. 2-in. by 18-ft. 6-in. at its widest point in the shape of an African elephant head which was bolted to the main top cabinet.
The elephant head cabinet is primarily a steel frame over which YESCO stretched a computer-generated translucent Panaflex (3M) print of an African elephant's head. It took over 100 hours to produce the image, which is printed on both sides with a special ink to give it more intensity and color.
The printed Panaflex was then stretched around the cabinet frame and tightened with special clamps spaced every 6-in. The entire print is backlit with cool-white fluorescent lamps, giving the elephant head a three dimensional look.
Overall, the Reserve's pylon, an amazing design and construction feat on the part of the YESCO team, is one of the most spectacular parts of the entire project.
ROBB KRAMER (Tri-Star Theme Builders)
Robb Kramer, a sculptor from Redding, Pennsylvania, is the artistic genius responsible for the bas relief elephant sculpture behind the Reserve's Registration Desk and the huge Baobab tree in the center of the casino.
He also sculpted the lions which guard the entrance to Wasimba's, and the monkeys, torches and cauldrons of flame which sit atop the Reserve's hotel towers.
When the Reserve was in the planning stages, the owners knew they wanted a relief sculpture of some kind behind the Registration Desk, gave Kramer a rough drawing of a procession of elephants walking to a water hole and told him to produce a sculpture for the wall.
From this vague beginning Kramer sketched several original designs for the project, then made a scale model of the sculpture out of clay which was approved without hesitation.
The base wall was simply sheetrock which was overlaid with a lath base. Kramer then spray painted the full-size drawing on the sheetrock and lath as an outline and guide.
A lather then started building out the basic shape with a mud made of sand and cement following the painted design. This created a base upon which to build up the succeeding layers to the final shape.
As the basic shapes were being laid on and firmly set to the lath, the plasterers would continue to put up more mud as Kramer worked along wet-sculpting and putting up additional mud up as needed to build out the sculpture to its finished form.
When the primary layer of mud set, the base layer was repainted according to the original full-scale drawing with acrylic spray paint to maintain the design and was filled again with more mud as needed, coming closer to the final design with each layer. It took three rounds of laying mud, wet sculpting, and repainting the drawing to achieve the final sculpture.
Kramer worked as much as possible with wet mud since it was far easier to sculpt, but the fine details such as the elephants' wrinkles, the eyes, tusks, etc., were all done after the mud had set using a Mikita grinder with a 4" diamond blade and a small pneumatic chipping-gun, similar to a hand-held jack hammer, to carve the larger sections such as the elephant trunks, legs and tusks.
When the final layer had set Kramer cut in all the fine lines, such as the elephants' wrinkles, crinkles and rumples, toe nails, eyes and ears, with the Mikita grinder and diamond blade.
The finished sculpture was first painted with a deep chocolate brown latex paint as as base. Kramer then dry-brushed the entire sculpture with a lighter color to accent the highlights, which was an easy way to pick up every wrinkle and score mark made by the grinder and also the reason why the sculpture has so much fine detail.
Kramer says the Mikita grinder left some very nice lines which accurately simulated the wrinkles and crinkles in an elephant's skin. He would actually drag the grinder across the surface, leaving real nice fine lines which couldn't be seen until he dry brushed the surface. This brought out the highlights and left the deeper ridges and lines darker, giving the work a texture of authentic elephant skin.
After dry brushing was completed, he painted the entire surface with a thin latex glaze of burnt sienna and raw umber. It was then sprayed with a watered-down raw umber latex wash, a common method to wet-age any facade. This final wash gathered in the cracks and lines, making them darker and gave the whole sculpture a look of realism.
To finish and preserve the work, the entire sculpture was then coated with a semi-gloss clear coat polyurethane finish. The finished sculpture measures 32-ft by 12-ft 10-in. and 32-in. in depth at its greatest relief.
Kramer and his crew of two plasterers worked on this sculpture for sixteen straight days, sometimes putting in 12 to 18 hours a day to keep up with the demands of the materials he was using.
The larger-than-life lion sculptures at Wasimba's were created from sand, cement and Alumalite laid on over a steel frame welded with pencil-rod and lath. As the mud layers were added, Kramer carved them to their basic shape with a hammer and chisel and, as with the elephants, finished the finer details with a Mikita grinder and diamond blade. Each lion took 2-3 weeks to complete. Since the project was nearing completion at this time, and he still had the Baobab tree to sculpt, the same crew that painted all interior rock painted the lions.
Kramer's other premier sculpture is the Baobab tree, which is the centerpiece for the entire casino area. The Baobab tree, native to Northern Africa, is a thick-trunked tree which produces an edible, gourd-like fruit.
After his original designs were approved, Kramer made a 1-in. scale model of the tree from clay, which received final approval.
Construction of the Baobab tree and the bas relief animals which circle its huge trunk was achieved using a steel and iron-pipe armature-frame built on site by the welding crew.
Kramer then spray painted his design on the tree, laying on sand and cement (mud) in the general shape of the relief sculpture. The process was much the same as that used on the bas relief elephant sculpture, again using layers of mud worked up wet, then carved with the Mikita grinder and diamond blade, painted, dry-brushed, glazed and coated with a clear coat of polyurethane finish.
The entire Baobab tree sculpture was accomplished in the final moments before the Reserve opened. Kramer said he was rushing to finish the sculpture as the cocktail waitress worked around him getting ready for the opening.
The exterior sculptures created by Kramer include monkeys holding torches, four of which guard the casino from the corners of each of the Reserve's hotel three towers, were made from an original model designed and sculpted of a thick polystyrate foam. A chain saw and Sawzaw were used to carve the foam. The finished sculpture was then shipped off to a sub-contractor who used it as a mold to make the full compliment of twelve monkeys. Each of the torches the monkey's held was lit by fiber optics from within.
The cauldrons of flame, similar to the Olympic torch, which are centered above the four monkeys on each of three towers were originally planed to be real gas flames, but this proved impractical, so Kramer was commissioned to create the flames in sculpture.
The cauldrons are steel frames built by the welding crew on site. Kramer carved the flames out of hollow polystyrate foam in three sections, with each section being attached to a central frame by lath and mud. Each sculpted flame was coated with a cement and sand mud, painted and set atop each tower. The flames are illuminated from within.
Both YESCO and Robb Kramer (Tri-Star) have created works that make the Reserve a hotel-casino property in Las Vegas that, while being a bit off the beaten Strip, is well-worth the time to see.
Part II (August, 1998 ST) will feature more artistic wonders especially created for the Reserve Hotel Casino. You will discover how The Effects Network (T.E.N.) created very some exceptional wall panels, sconces, finials and other interior architectural details, and Mikohn will detail work on the gaming signage they created.
ReallyBigSkies of Hollywood explains how they painted some very difficult African skies, including sunsets, thunderstorms and hidden native animals on the Reserve ceiling.
Robert Sibilia's True Identity will detail their work on all the restaurant signage and the Wall of Flame, and Nigel Cooper will describe how he created realistic pictographs, petroglyphs and wall murals. Cooper also designed and created all the Reserve's themed way-finding signage.