The Hard Rock by Oppenheim

Project: The Hard Rock
Designed by Oppenheim in association with RTKL, Architect of Record
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Estimated time of completion: 2010
Scope: 2,700,000
Type: condominium hotel and casino project compromising 5 towers and 32 bungalows.
Website: www.oppenoffice.com
The Bungalows Residences Flats at the Hard Rock are conceived by Peter Morton,the visionary founder of the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino as an opportuniy to bring high architecture to the aesthetic desert of Las Vegas. Our response to this grand proposition was to establish moments of sincerity derived from experiential impetus rather than archaic and irreverent symbolism. More info and images after the jump:

The powerful, minimalist, yet romantic architecture serves as a dramatic backdrop to the decadent and hedonistic Hard Rock Hotel,Vegas lifestyle. Spanning over 24 acres the expansion complex is comprised of divers components organized around the existing Hard Rock Hotel in a poetic response to both function and fantasy.

Tower One is conceived of as continuation of the serpentine form set forth by the existing hotel. The structure gracefully maximizes the openness of the central garden and pool area while establishing dynamic views of the surrounding context. Strip and Mountains. Maximizing the vastness of the garden/pool experience.

Tower Two was created as concise cylindrical volume diagonally on axis with the circular space of the existing Hard Rock Hotel Casino. The pure uni-directional form, unusual in its scale by Vegas terms, is polygonated and rotated in plan as it rises creating a hyper-dynamic tension at this transitional moment of the overall project. The Three luxury towers to the far West of the project are tall and thin crystalline in materiality. The facade of glass is a pure articulation of the internal unit composition expressing the unique arrangements of the sky homes. As flow-through units, running front to back, the building simultaneously orients towards the Vegas Strip and large central pleasure garden providing maximum viewing potential. The podium/base of Towers One/Two and the bungalows incorporates various commercial and service programs at strategic locations along its girth. Glass and ventilated metallic screens composed of various sized and angled elements express the extruded nature of the elevated landscape above in dynamic and sincere methodology allowing for the expression of individual components and clarity in way finding.