Martin Stern‘s 1975 conceptualization of a Xanadu casino-hotel, as virtually reconstructed by Dr. David G. Schwartz, struck a familiar chord with one S&G reader. They quickly detected a resemblance between Welton Becket‘s 1971 Disney’s Contemporary Resort, built in modular fashion (hotel rooms were hoisted into place one at a time) for Disney World …
… and the Xanadu design …
How does it look to you? That pyramid look was certainly the “in” thing back when Stern was pitching Xanadu (which probably explains his choice of concept). Here’s another example, from Cancun, the Grand Oasis:
Of course, when Las Vegas did get around to a pyramid-shaped hotel, it was such a flub (Luxor) that it’s still being “fixed” to this day. Too bad we’ll never know if Stern’s concept would have worked because post-Luxor nobody’s going to try anything remotely like it in Vegas again.
In other news: What may soon become know as Juice Train 2 continues to make headlines, thanks to Sen. Harry Reid‘s (D-NV) sudden flip-flop.
