Ka-BOOM!

This just in: The race to become the first Strip hotel to be demolished without ever having opened has been won by … The Harmon. Details are sketchy but MGM Resorts International‘s decision will surprise few. Allegedly culpable Perini Building Co. will oppose, of course. It wants to get paid. Perini claims it can do a little buttressing here, some spackling there and — Presto! — “Dubai’s Diminuendo” will be ready for occupancy. But no amount of ex post facto extra rebar can repair a fatally damaged public perception of The Harmon, which has long since been disowned by its architect, Sir Norman Foster. Besides, CityCenter has no foreseeable need for extra room capacity, so The Harmon’s future would logically be a combination of corporate office space and giant billboard for things like Cirque du Soleil™‘s VIVA soMEthing we’Re Doing nExt year®. Since the county has already voiced fears that The Harmon could self-implode in an earthquake, expect MGM’s preference to hold sway … so to speak.

So the LegoLand that is CityCenter will soon have no resident shows and one less skyscraper. This is becoming quite a chronicle of the folly inherent in trying to create an insta-Gotham.