Why Do the Buildings across the Strip from Paris Seem To Be Falling?

I’m staying at Paris Casino, looking out my window, and the building next to the Cosmopolitan appears to be tipping over … What’s going on?

Actually, there are two "leaning towers of Vegas," known appropriately as Veer Towers.

They were completed in 2007 as part of the $9.2 billion CityCenter project.

This pair of high-rises is 37 stories (480 feet) tall and houses 670 condos total. Each leans in opposite directions at five-degree angles from vertical, which demanded a metric ton of sophisticated engineering, in particular concrete that was conventionally reinforced, but post-tensioned (a method of reinforcing concrete by pre-stressing it).

This, of course, was crucial for ensuring that the towers not succumb to the forces trying to push them over in the direction of their leans, a phenomenon known as the "P-delta effect."

The rest of the explanation involves even more complicated applications of: earthquake loading, differential axial shortening, PT-beam formwork, branch-column transfers, lateral-load resisting, and other "supreme applications of concrete construction in high-rise buildings," according to an article we found written by two of the engineers involved in designing the towers.

They are, as you could see from your room at Paris, a dramatic and unlikely addition to the Las Vegas skyline that, in our opinion, get far less attention then they deserve. That might be because they're entirely residential, the only 100% condo high-rises at center Strip. Thus, other than their five degrees off-center, they contain no attractions for the public.

You can get a good look inside some of the lower-floor condos from the Aria Express Tram on its way south to Park MGM.

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Kevin Lewis May-21-2023

Designed by Don Martin?

Those towers remind me of nothing so much as the skyscraper featured in "Fester and Karbunkle: The Safe Movers."

Tim Soldan May-21-2023

Photo

This is a QOD that certainly could have used a photo to accompany the question.

Dan McGlasson May-21-2023

easy fix about the pics

Here is a link to pictures.  Remember that QoD is free and I appreciate what they publish for us!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veer_Towers

Brent Peterson May-21-2023

Photos and Maps

Photos and maps would be a nice addition to some of the QOD's. It's nice to get a visual perspective with some of the answers. Like you don't put enough work into a free part of the website, I know.

Sandra Ritter May-21-2023

We get lazy

Sometimes there are questions here where I think 'why can't you just google for the answer.'  The same with pictures, usually we can google for the pictures if they aren't provided. No big deal.

gaattc2001 May-21-2023

QOD is free, but they've got the usual gang of commentators...

including especially Kevin, to research and embellish after the fact.

But back to the Veer Towers. Just browsing, I turned up several ads for Veer Condos; from just shy of 2 mil all the way down to 700K. According to Dan's Wiki reference above, a New York investment bank bought up most of the unsold units in a block in 2012 and began marketing them in 2013. Could probably turn up more details, but that sounds too much like work.

And for Kevin, here's a link to "The Safe Movers" on YouTube. I remember reading it first-run in 1962.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xe1av8m8sTk

CLIFFORD May-21-2023

QUIT

PICIN' ON KEVIN AND RANTER...THEY ARE PATRIOTS WHO WILL BRING BACK OUR BELOVED CITY TO WHAT IT WAS IT USED TO BE...GO DENVER

AL May-21-2023

Intriguing phrase

I am intrigued by this phrase in the response: "Each leans in opposite directions."  I wonder:  how can 1 building lean in 2 different directions (that are opposite from each other)?  I can only conceive of a building leaning in ONE direction.  So it's hard for me to imagine 2 buildings in which each one leans in 2 opposite directions.  Any chance that the response phrase should have been "The two buildings lean in opposite directions"?

gaattc2001 May-21-2023

Al: That just shows the limited nature of conventional macroscopic three-dimensional thinking....

Studying quantum mechanics for example, you learn that there are situations where conventional logic will take you only so far. At that point, the only thing to do is to follow the equations where they take you and accept the apparent inconsistencies.

I've also long believed that Las Vegas has some similarities to a Black Hole; and perhaps some recreational gamblers might agree. Stephen Hawking said that since light cannot escape from a Black Hole, neither can anything else--specifically information--so the inside of a Black hole is fundamentally unknowable and it could be completely different from the universe we're used to. And again, some long-time visitors might say the same about Las Vegas. 

Anyway inside a Black hole, or in Las Vegas, it might be perfectly possible for each of two buildings to lean in opposite directions; or even for one building to lean in opposite directions simultaneously. It's all just part of learning to think outside the box.

Carpe Diem.

Question of the Day - 21 May 2023

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