Tucson Meets Tuscany
New Casino Raises the Bar in Arizona Gaming
By K. Robert Wendel

Tucson is the new home to a little bit of Tuscany after the recent opening of the expanded Casino del Sol in west Tucson, where designers and contractors recreated a little bit of Italy for the Pascua Yaqui Indian tribe, which owns the elaborately themed casino.

Taking a cue from other themed casinos, such as Caesar's Palace, designers from the Phoenix office of Leo A Daly teamed with Tempe's McCarthy Building Companies on the $70 million project that features high end finishes and features that will raise the bar for Native American gambling.

"We are expecting a lot of ohhs and ahhs," said Phillip Peeples, CEO of the management company that is running the casino for the tribe. "The tribe wanted to go in a different direction and this casino brings a new level to Arizona and to gaming."

Architects conducted extensive design meetings to develop and fine tune the theming concept, taking into account the tribe's sensitivity, desires and needs.

The casino is also the largest casino in Arizona, with more than 210,000 sq. ft. The recently completed project houses 1,000 slot machines set in a "town square," surrounded by a recreated Tuscan village under 41,000 sq. ft. of simulated sky, 46 ft. above the gaming floor. Kitchell Contractors completed the building's shell in September, while McCarthy picked up the interior portion in October.

"The Venetian plaster and the sky mural really sets the project off," said Phillip Cherne, senior vice president of theming contractor KHS and S of Anaheim, Calif.

"I really like those spaces with the Venetian plaster because it looks rich and warm and really adds a high end feel to the project."

To keep the casino flexible, an extensive network of walkers allows the owners to reconfigure the gaming floor as the demands and technology change. Nearly 70 branch electrical panels were needed to provide electricity to the slot machines and other amenities, including 3,500 lighting fixtures.

"For the slot machines, we have quite an extensive amount of walker duct, and we have quite a bit for the future," said David Campbell of Tucson-based Rosendin Electric. "They want to add as many slot machines as they can legally put in there."

Along with the slot machines, the casino also features a 4,650- seat amphitheater, 46 blackjack tables, 12 poker tables and a 600-seat bingo hall. But the amenities - and the theming don't end there. The new casino is home to an elaborately themed "tequila" factory, with local craftsman creating the adobe brick and a reproduction of a tequila distillery. A high-end restaurant with an Italian theme is also planned, as is a sports bar that replicates an old gym locker room.

"There's no fake material in this project,' said McCarthy project manager Gong Liu.
"The building uses all real material. There isn't any plastic here."

In a casino rich with theming, incorporating surveillance systems to monitor gaming proved to be an interesting challenge for both architects and builders. Not wanting to mar the sky mural with bulbous camera housings, the design team discreetly incorporated the surveillance systems into custom-made fixtures that blend in with the Tuscan theming.

"We didn't want to destroy the sky mural aspect of the property, so finding alternative ways to cover the gaming floor and meet all the regulator's requirements for surveillance was a challenge," said Kristina Robinson, project director for Architect Leo A Daly. "The ceiling is usually where you put the cameras, but we were able to discreetly integrate the security systems into the design motif."

While the building's interior stands out in a distinct way, the exterior is also designed to please. A massive portacachere greets casino visitors in a style reminiscent of a Las Vegas casino, and three copper domes perched on towers beckon potential players.

Constructed by Tucson-based T.A. Caid, each between 26-ft. and 28-ft. dia., $300,000 dome was custom-fabricated using ¼-in. plate steel panels sliced into 16 sections and welded together in two halves, which were separately trucked to the site, where they were assembled and placed.

"The domes are very special," said architect Amy Clark of Leo A Daly. "The domes are really quite fabulous. When you are looking up in the dome, you are looking at steel painted with automotive paint, with a real copper standing seam roof on the outside.
You don't see many like this."

While the casino is elaborately themed, designers chose an economical building system that Clark called "lean and mean." Constructed on a slab-on-grade pad with a steel frame clad in EIFS, the project relies on repetitive steel elements to create an efficient design that was quick to erect.

A central mechanical system provides heating and cooling while utilizing a 100 percent outside air circulation system to cut down on smoke in the casino.

"One of the tribe's charges to us was to create a high quality of air to help dispel some of the myths of a smoky casino," Robinson said. "Patrons are demanding a higher quality of air, and with 100 percent outside air, we are providing a positive displacement of the smoke."

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