That's an interesting question and we figured it would be addressed somewhere amidst all the PR blurb, but not so.
As far as the whole concept of CityCenter is concerned, here's the original grandiose vision, courtesy of the complex's official website:
"When completed in 2009, CityCenter will be one of the great urban places of the world, a reflection of the best of the life that we’re living today and tomorrow. It will be a place of continual evolution, richness and diversity—a place people from around the world will desire to visit and experience.
"Across the country and throughout the world, people are rediscovering the excitement of the city. The city is where the people are, where the action is, and where all that’s thrilling and new comes together—whoever you are. Las Vegas will soon have its own urban core— a 67-acre city-within-a-city that’s destined to redefine the skyline. It will be an urban setting unlike any other in the United States. Or, really, anywhere. CityCenter."
MGM Mirage is described as the only developer in the world with "the depth of talent and resources to mastermind a project of comparable scale—a project that will literally reshape the Las Vegas skyline and create a new international destination for entertainment, dining, nightlife, retail, art and design."
However, while there are also pages profiling the "visionary architects" who designed the various components of CityCenter (no one mention Sir Richard Rogers...), nothing in any of the blurbs we read hinted at as to whence came Vdara's unusual name.
Next, we tried the architecture firm behind the mixed-use project, New York’s RV Architecture, LLC, a critically acclaimed international practice led by Rafael Viñoly. Their challenge? To "create a design that fit into CityCenter’s whole, yet still retained its own distinctive identity, while interpreting the concept in a way that differentiated it from the existing Las Vegas skyline.
The site goes on to describe how the solution they came up with "incorporates an overlapping crescent design that resonates with the circular themes established by Harmon Circle and ARIA ... [while] the unique silhouette creates one of the most striking design statements in all of Las Vegas."
That sounds as if they feel they fulfilled the brief pretty well, but this evidently did not, as had assumed, include that they come up with a name for the architectural vision being realized.
So, one last call was placed to the PR deparment at what is now MRI, and after a couple of days we received the following response, which may or may not answer your question. (Well, it does answer the "who" part, but we're not so sure about the "why"):
"Our creative marketing team suggested the name Vdara because it is a unique and exotic word that stands out prominently among its competitors. The word radiates a sense of luxury and exclusivity, and epitomizes the property's exceptional service and surroundings."
While we agree that there can be a lot in a name and that certain words like "organza" or "Zanzibar" do indeed convey a sense of luxury and exoticism, we must confess that when we apply the concept of onomatopoeia to "Vdara," it tends rather to conjure up images of intergalactic warfare and unfortunately worked only too well with the "Death Ray" suffix coined to describe the supercharged sunbeam problem in the pool area. Nice building, though.
