Aliante Station Casino & Hotel - Las Vegas

Station Casinos has expanded its luxury locals’ resort concept with Aliante Station, a US$662 million hotel that opened in a fledgling North Las Vegas residential community in November 2008. Catering firmly for local visitors while simultaneously offering an upscale product to entice tourists looking for something different, the property sits on a 40-acre plot and is a joint venture with the Greenspun Corporation.

Selected to masterplan the overall design and architecture, the award-winning Friedmutter Group has worked with Station Casinos for 14 years. Founder and CEO Brad Friedmutter, a gaming design luminary, explains that it was essential Aliante Station appeal both to travellers who visit Vegas once a year and to locals who drop in a couple of times per week. “The idea was for the resort to act as a community town centre, providing a regular meeting place, but it also had to be in a position to drive people here from Las Vegas Strip and the airport,” he comments. “For these reasons we wanted to follow a different philosophy to the Strip’s escapism.” The firm’s Director of Design Albie Colotto continues: “We have created a living room ambience that people can aspire to – it is warm and inviting rather than overpowering.”

In the unique position of being able to influence the infrastructure of the new community, the firm worked on the project while the neighbouring freeway was still under construction. But it was the organic beauty of the area’s surrounding landscape that became a central theme. “Take the nine-storey tower,” says Friedmutter. “We wanted to offer a sense of arrival on the horizon without it sticking out. Therefore we chose materials with a texture recalling clay in the desert and a colour to blend into the environment but then added contrast with reflective green glass.”

Mirroring modern Scottsdale architecture, Aliante Station is built from tactile elements, including Jerusalem stone, beige split-face stone from Indonesia and Inca Gold stone from Italy. Strong geometric shapes frame the entryways but are softened with natural materials including oxidised steel and copper trim. The hotel lobby achieves a sophisticated living room feel with light pouring in from floor-to-ceiling windows and a colour palette of organic tones such as amber, russet, orange and sable. Acting as the lobby’s centerpiece is an oversized white onyx library table offset overhead by a hand-blown orange Murano glass chandelier. An inviting lounge space has deep built-in benches, modern leather club chairs and petrified log tables complemented by a contemporary glass box table.

Evident throughout the property, the desert theme creates interest. “The carpets, colours and even the texture of the carved door handles are inspired by the area’s flora and fauna,” comments Colotto. Custom-designed artwork comprises large-scale murals, abstract canvases and photography depicting scenes of the prairie, desert and sea. The bold graphic print of the specially commissioned casino carpet, meanwhile, suggests desert plants with shades of citrus green, kiwi green and sky blue used as accent colours against a chocolate striated background. Art glass mosaics in camel and gold radiate against the beige stone columns on which they are set. Even the lighting fixtures, which vary from textured orange backlit boxes to rosewood chandeliers, give a nod to the outdoors. Designed to represent rippling water or sand, the patterned boxes float overhead in the casino for a sculptural effect that adds theatre and provides vertical interruption on the extensive gaming floor.

The Friedmutter Group’s experience has also been harnessed to ensure seamless navigation, with the casino and hotel each boasting their own entry points and parking. Hotel guests can avoid the casino altogether because rooms and the pool deck, complete with architectural planting, cabanas and double beds in a vivid orange colour scheme, can be accessed directly through reception. To keep circulation flowing around the casino, restaurants and entertainment facilities have been placed at the perimeter. “We deliberately went with open façades to all the restaurants to engage with people’s senses and allow them to window shop,” adds Friedmutter.

Appropriately the six on-site restaurants cater for all tastes and price pockets. Of particular note, though, is MRKT Sea & Land with its tasteful yet eye-catching design matched by top-quality steak and seafood dishes – and Camacho’s Cantina with its striking suspended bottle display over the bar. At the heart of the casino, ETA Bar stands out with a relatively industrial design that uses striated gunmetal, scorched ash wood, frosted fuchsia glass and grey metal and white linear marble for an edgy result.

Overall Aliante Station benefits from a harmonious design that never falls short on form or function while boasting facilities and cuisine that can compete with those found on the Strip.

Aliante Station Casino + Hotel
7300 Aliante Parkway
North Las Vegas, Nevada 89084
Tel: +1 702 692 7777
www.aliantecasinohotel.com

Rooms    202 rooms including nine suites
Dining    MRKT Sea & Land, Pips Cucina & Wine Bar, Feast Buffet, Camacho’s Cantina, TGI Friday’s, The Original Pancake House, The Food Court
Drinking    ETA Bar, Access Showroom
Leisure    Casino, Fitness Centre, Access Showroom for concerts and events, Regal Cinemas Aliante Stadium 16
Facilities    14,000ft2 of event and banquet space in nine ballrooms and 10 meeting rooms