Vegas Rock Star: Hard Rock Hotel Glams it up with $750 Million Expansion

The extensive expansion of the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino to be completed this year includes two new hotel towers, an expanded pool area and additional convention and casino space.

By Tony Illia

The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino knows cool. Since 1995, the stylish Las Vegas hotspot at 4455 Paradise Road has hosted such live acts as the Rolling Stones, David Bowie and Snoop Dogg.

Now the 647-room Hard Rock is about to more than double its cool. The 16.7-acre complex is undergoing a $750 million addition and upgrade, designed by Klai Juba Architects, the Las Vegas firm responsible for Mandalay Bay and Four Seasons Hotel. New York City designer Mark Zeff is creating the interiors and 860 new guest rooms.

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Project plans also call for 75,885 sq ft of convention space and 46,600 sq ft of added casino area. There will be new restaurants and nightclubs, a spa and a >> larger concert venue. Upon completion, Hard Rock will have more than doubled in size with 1,506 hotel rooms and a 4.8-acre pool area.

M.J. Dean Construction, which expanded the Hard Rock in 1999, is returning as general contractor. The Las Vegas-based builder is working under a $600 million guaranteed-maximum-price contract.

Hard Rock Hotel and Casino is owned by Morgans Hotel Group of New York, which acquired the property for $770 million from Peter Morton in 2006. The purchase included the 23-acre, adjacent Paradise Bay Club apartment complex which was demolished to make room for the expansion. The added acreage enables Hard Rock to build on all four sides with minimal disruption to daily hotel and casino operations.

“This expansion move is more about culture, fashion and architecture,” says Yale Rowe, Hard Rock’s senior vice president and general manager of operations. “It will make Hard Rock more of a destination, with a slightly different vibe for a crossover audience.”

“The project entails extensive phasing,” says Mike Cherwin, M.J. Dean’s construction manager. “It’s a continual process communicating with the hotel in order to minimize any impact,” he adds. “We have four construction teams assigned to oversee specific project parts in addition to the overall supervision.”

Site work began in fall 2007 by addressing a natural wash that runs through the jobsite at the northwest corner of Harmon Avenue and Paradise Road. Clark County Flood Control District required the owner to install 1,100 lin ft of drainage channel as part of the project. Granite Construction Co., Watsonville, Calif., placed the double box culvert which measures 20 ft by 8 ft.

Construction will finish in phases from April through the end of 2009.

The two new glass hotel towers are configured in a horseshoe shape to provide guest rooms with maximum pool views. The project will open in phases throughout 2009. (Photo courtesy New Vista Enterprises)

Two concrete and glass hotel towers are being added in a horseshoe configuration that overlooks the pool area. M.J. Dean is self-performing its own concrete, carpentry, drywall and framing work and it has a team assigned to handle each tower.

The 198-ft-tall north or “Paradise Tower” is a 443,677-sq-ft, cast-in-place structure with a sky-blue glass curtain wall skin. The 17-story building rests atop a concrete mat foundation and has 35,000 sq ft average floor plates supported by a 30-ft grid of columns. Locsha Engineering, Las Vegas, is the project’s structural engineer. The Paradise Tower features 479 guest rooms and 11 suites.

The 15-story south or “HRH Tower” is an all-suite building with eight specialty themed suites at the top level. The 163-ft-tall, 447,997-sq-ft structure consists of 374 suites that average 700 sq ft in size. It, too, is a cast-in-place tower that uses the same sky-blue glazing exterior.

The building rests atop a concrete mat foundation placed over 60-ft-deep, 4-ft-diameter friction piles that were needed due to loose soil conditions. The HRH Tower also has eight, two-story poolside villas at its base followed by a second level spa and salon, club and club lounge.

“The architecture has a very clean modern look that still provides a proper backdrop for the existing property,” says John Wald, a principal with Klai Juba Architects, which designed the property’s 1999 expansion. “We looked at various blues for the glazing. We didn’t want it to be too reflective. So the building has some transparency to it. The one thing that is important is the pool view. Every room has a view of the pool area.”

The new 17-story north tower, named the Paradise Tower, is comprised of cast-in-place concrete with a sky-blue glass curtain wall skin. The tower houses 479 guest rooms and 11 suites. (Photo by Tony Illia)

The pool area, featured on the Travel Channel as one of the top 10 pools worldwide, will grow by 2.3 acres, nearly doubling in size. Four more pools are being added, including a swim-up gaming pool and a clear-bottom dish pool. There also will be 50 cabanas, a sandy beach, mature palm trees, bars and a restaurant. Plans additionally entail an outdoor stage area for poolside concerts with a 4,000-person capacity.

Other project work adds steel-framed, EIFS-clad space to the existing low-rise in order to house more meeting and casino space. Hard Rock’s world famous concert venue, The Joint, is being replaced with a new 82,000-sq-ft, column-free area with VIP skyboxes. It will boast 121-ft-wide clear spans and a 4,055-person capacity, making it more than twice the size of former venue.

The project will be serviced by a new three-story, 20,000-sq-ft central plant housing five, 1,600-ton centrifuge chillers, seven heating system boilers and four cooling towers. There is also a new eight-story, 1,440-space precast concrete garage with direct hotel access. The 92-ft-tall structure was built by Phoenix-based Coreslab Structures Inc.

The pool area, already rated by the Travel Channel as one of the best in the world, will nearly double in size. A large gazebo houses gaming tables, and even features several swim-up blackjack tables. (Photo courtesy Kirvin Doak Communications)

“Construction has had some unique challenges including night shifts and restricted work hours so as not to disrupt guests,” says Harry Kimbler, M.J. Dean’s project manager. “For example, we had a special shift on the north tower to make certain the tower crane didn’t swing over the pool area from noon on.”

Hard Rock rented adjacent acreage for construction employee parking and material staging. M.J. Dean averaged two concrete tower pours a week rising at a rate of one floor every seven days. Three hammerhead tower cranes were used to pick and place building materials onsite.

Key Players

Owner: Morgans Hotel Group Co.
General Contractor: M.J. Dean Construction
Architect: Klai Juba Architects
Interior Design: Zeff Design
Structural Engineer: Locsha Engineering
Subcontractors: Quality Mechanical Contractors; Hansen Mechanical Contractors Inc.; Dynaelectric; Sun City Electric; Fisk Electric Co.; Pacific Coast Steel; Enclos Corp.; Coreslab Structures; Dean Roofing Co.; TAB Contractors Inc.

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