I’m at a military graduation ceremony last night and look around at the dozens of men in the room. I realize that I have more hair on my head than practically all the rest of the men put together. They all have about 1/8″ hair length. As my Dad would say: I felt like a bastard at a family reunion. The senior officers noticed me and came over to talk. I thoroughly enjoyed talking to the brass, the conversation flowed easily.

The major I was sitting next to, who is Chris’s Commanding Officer, asked me if I wanted to ride into the Las Vegas strip with him to have a look around. Generally up for an adventure, we drove in. I wanted to see the City Center project, that $8B US development that I’ve posted about a few times. It completed right after the US financial melt down with a poor probability for success.

We were amazed to see how full the sidewalks were on a Monday night. People were everywhere. The last time I saw the City Center, the cranes were threading members into the structural steel skeleton. Now, the completed project was there in front of me. The exterior was impressive, but not compared to the interiors.

I really loved the interior design. It wasn’t the over the top opulence of some casinos. Mostly it was beautiful, simple and creative. I particularly liked the sculptural wall that separated the Men’s and Women’s toilet room entrances, shown below.

The terrazzo tile flooring was gorgeous but appropriate, as shown below.

One of the features that most captivated me was the elevator video. The next three photos show some of the video, but really don’t quite communicate the feeling. The images shown below were constantly moving up or down, as if they were on an elevator. The technology was stunning, some of the best use of flat screen video I’ve ever seen. As we wandered into the elevator area, we simply didn’t know what we were looking at. It was fun and entertaining, while still clearly getting across the concept that this was the elevator area.

In the retail store section, I saw this low wall built from bicycle wheels that was wonderful.

The red elevator niche photo also was just so pretty.

The swirly tubes just mesmerized me. The water cyclones swirled around as the colors changed. Each of the many tubes in the area had a different type of tornado going up. I just stood and stared in wonder.

Finally, the stairs shown below had solid treads but opaque risers that were back lit. The effect was stunning.

Sorry for all the superlatives, but I really was moved by the designs. Good work, executed well. It motivates me to try to do the same in my little corner of the universe.