Notice the scale of CityCenter, the most expensive privately funded construction project in American history. Completed in December 2009 at a cost of $8.5 billion, this 67-acre urban complex was conceived by MGM Resorts and Dubai World as a city within a city — hotels, condominiums, retail, restaurants, and entertainment clustered together in an architectural statement about Las Vegas's ambitions.
The timing could not have been worse. CityCenter broke ground in 2006 at the peak of the real estate bubble and opened in the depths of the worst recession since the Great Depression. Dubai World, battered by the global financial crisis, nearly pulled out of the partnership. The project was completed only through emergency refinancing and last-minute deals. Several of the residential towers sold below cost.
And yet what was built is genuinely remarkable. The complex features public art installations by some of the most important artists of the late twentieth century — Claes Oldenburg, Nancy Rubins, Maya Lin, Frank Stella — integrated into the architecture as a condition of the development. CityCenter is, among other things, an outdoor museum that happens to have a casino in it. The LEED Silver certification, rare for a Las Vegas property, reflects an earnest attempt to reconcile the conspicuous consumption of resort development with environmental responsibility. It is an uneasy reconciliation, but an honest one.