What they're saying about CityCenter

What they're saying about CityCenter

From East Coast to West Coast, from syndicated columnists to bloggers, from the national networks to local TV affiliates, the news media were buzzing this week about the Strip's newest visitor attraction, CityCenter. The reviews were mixed, with some keying on entertainment and the shopping, while some critics dug a little deeper into the architecture and the wisdom of it opening in a recession. Here are a few, gleaned from Web sites.

"With its crescent of intersecting wings and oval glass tower, the Aria casino hotel is the crown jewel of CityCenter, the Dubai-scale, $8.5 billion, celebrity-architect mega-development by MGM Mirage that's dumping a casino and 6,000 unwanted hotel rooms on Las Vegas. Locals hope it will save their foreclosure-hobbled city. × Bloomberg's architecture critic James S. Russell in that wire service's story. Russell went on to say he liked Aria, but the design for the Harmon was "phoned in and the Mandarin Hotel is "stiff. But, he said, the Crystals shopping area "is a fun antidote to the smothering fairy-tale pomp that has become the Las Vegas norm.

" 'If you build it, they will come,' is a famous line from the movie 'Field of Dreams.' In CityCenter's case, that's not guaranteed. And this is no cornfield in Iowa. × National Public Radio's Ted Robbins, questioning whether CityCenter's unofficial themes of urbanism, architecture and art, and the work of architects Pelli, Rafael Vinoly, Daniel Libeskind, Norman Foster and Helmut Jahn, and artists Maya Lin, Frank Stella and Henry Moore, will draw tourists.

"CityCenter's true theme is leverage. Ranking as the largest private development in American history, big enough to fill the tallest building in Los Angeles, the U.S. Bank Tower, roughly a dozen times over, the complex is a palace × a series of connected palaces, actually × for the age of towering debt and easy credit. They should have put Alan Greenspan's face on the poker chips. × Los Angeles Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne.

Despite problems, CityCenter "is opening, something many didn't think was possible a few months ago after Wall Street stopped lending and MGM Mirage was sued by its partner in the project, Dubai World, amid debt troubles. × Forbes.com, in a story that shouted "CityCenter Lives! in its headline.

"I do not believe we should be held accountable, or that the success of CityCenter should be measured, by the numbers we put up in the first week or month. × MGM Mirage CEO Jim Murren's explanation to Forbes about his desire for the early measures of CityCenter to be based on the experience it provides.

"MGM Mirage's CityCenter is possibly the biggest bet in Las Vegas' history. With four towering hotels, a casino, a high-end shopping complex and 42 restaurants and bars, it's an $8.5 billion, 18-million-square-foot behemoth and the crown jewel of the Strip. × ABC's "Nightline, as part of a Wednesday night report showing the flagship hotel Aria as it was readied for its grand opening.

"Its soaring glass towers and world-class sculptures are eye-popping centerpieces. But for Maria Gaines (a new CityCenter employee), it represents a life preserver, a job that saved her from drowning in debt. × Dan Simons' video report on CNN.

"Skeptics say it could be tough to get recession-battered consumers to pay up for the new resort. × Reuters' writer Deena Beasley.

"The market is breathing a sigh of relief about CityCenter opening. I think (MGM) management is very competent. If they can manage nine Strip properties, why can't they manage yet another one? × Gabelli & Co. analyst Amit Kapoor in Beasley's Reuters story.

"The good thing for the stock is that expectations are reasonably low. × Sterne Agee analyst David Bain in Beasley's Reuters story.

"I'm at market (value) and I'm very happy about it. For the price and the quality and what I'm getting, I'm very content. × David Tuttleman, a local restaurant owner, in a CNBC video report about his purchase of a Veer penthouse, the price of which dropped 30 percent to $1.8 million.

"This is really 21st-century Las Vegas. This is really setting up very high standards that will be very hard to match × but I hope they will try. × Architect Cesar Pelli, whose team designed Aria, in a national Associated Press story.

× Compiled by

Sun reporter Dave Toplikar