Lighting Las Vegas, Las Vegas Sun, Aug. 2, 2000

Intricate planning goes into illuminating Vegas Lisa Ferguson Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2000 | 9:19 a.m. If you've lived in Las Vegas a while, you've probably stopped hearing -- at least consciously -- the clang, clang, clang of coins falling from slot machines some time ago. You might not pay the least bit of attention when someone carrying a tray walks through a crowded coffee shop crying, "Keno!" And do you even give costumed casino mascots a second look anymore? The same probably goes for the city's lights. While pulsing neon and seas of flashing bulbs may wow the millions of tourists who visit Las Vegas each year, it's generally par for the course for most people who call the valley home. And that's OK, says Dr. Hal Hendrick, a Colorado engineering psychologist. Las Vegas residents, he says, "probably do have, to some degree, a habituation to it, which is very common. If you're exposed to something for a while you, in a sense, begin to tune it out and so it loses its impact." Or does it? Just like certain scents and gases (such as oxygen) are reportedly pumped into casinos to keep gamblers awake, alert and playing, Las Vegas' lights also serve some very specific -- and psychological -- purposes. For starters, the lights work as giant magnets to attract people to visit one casino over another by attracting attention to the property. Hendrick, an emeritus professor of the University of Southern California who is now an independent consultant, explains, "In terms of what we know about the psychology of perception and attention, (the) use of bright illumination, use of color, use of dynamic lights -- that is, lighting that flashes or moves -- all of these things are known to attract attention. So certainly that would be one major feature of the lighting." Another, he says, is to lend "dramatic effect. The more dramatic you can make a place look through lighting ... obviously that's going to enhance the attractiveness of your particular place." It can also help in creating and maintaining a hotel-casino's mood and atmosphere. Then there are the functional uses to consider -- making sure lighting in a casino is bright enough to see and read by. But lighting, Henderick says, "can also help in terms of keeping people alert ... Generally speaking, by keeping things light you're likely to keep people alert longer, whereas a dimmed, subdued lighting actually has the opposite effect." Unless, of course, you're a slot player. Shine on Lee Cagley, vice president of interior design for Marnell Corrao Associates, along with his team has worked on the lighting designs for dozens of hotel-casinos, including the Rio. "On balance, over the years, we've found that a lot of slot players, depending on how much they're betting, tend to congregate in slightly darker areas," Cagley says. "They want light, they want to be able to see in the area down below where the change comes out and when they're making bets, but they don't necessarily want to be seen ... It's just that people are more comfortable, it's easier to relax in less-than-bright light." On the other hand, he says, "It's much easier to play card games in bright spaces, and in fact works better because you feel more included in the space. Slot players are isolated people and card players want to be included in the action." Casino lighting is also dictated by a property's marketing strategy, Cagley says. "What customer they want to attract, how those customers behave around slot machines, how they move through space, what entices a person to move from one area to another." The Rio, with its carnival theme, he says, "wanted to be perceived as a little jazzier." So, to make slot machines and casino signage "sparkle a little bit more, we kept the lighting level fairly low over spots," he says. "And over the (gaming) pits, in order to make it seem more welcoming and more inclusive to a local customer as well as to a Strip customer, the lighting level there is a little higher. That also makes it easier to read the cards." Still, the lighting level "does depend on what mood and what kind of ambiance you want to convey to a customer," Cagley says. Precisely the point of Ted Bogich, assistant general manager of Harrah's Las Vegas hotel-casino. Bogich wants his guests "to be able to come in and feel that they've kind of left wherever they're coming from and come into an environment that is alive with a lot of excitement, it's dynamic and it's one where they feel they can have a great time. "We get a lot of reactions from customers and others who come through" the casino, Bogich says, "that they feel it's just a very exciting experience with all the different types of lights that we have." The effects seemed lost on Larry Matzye, a retired guidance counselor from Campbell, Ohio, who visited the casino recently. He says he's "indifferent" about lighting. "Personally, I'm not attracted by lights and all that. But I would guess (for) most people (it) would have some kind of positive affect, get the adrenaline going. That's my guess." Harrah's Las Vegas achieves its look with 150 different types of lights used throughout the property and enough neon tubing to stretch from California and back, according to Mike Nasby, director of security and facilities for the property, which also boasts a carnival/Mardi Gras theme. What can't be found at Harrah's Las Vegas -- although many of its neighbors along the Strip have one -- is a massive, colorful sign. "This is our marquee," Nasby says, staring up at the towering, white hotel that, in the evening hours, is bathed in lights. "This is our sign wrapped all the way around the building." Trade secrets Exterior lighting was also important to Warwick Stone, senior creative director for the Hard Rock hotel-casino. He designed the giant neon guitar that sits atop the hotel-casino, as well as the one that beckons diners to the Hard Rock Cafe next door. "The growth of Las Vegas outgrew the giant pylon sign about 10 or 12 years ago, and the buildings became larger than the pylon," Stone says. The Hard Rock hotel-casino's white facade changes color nightly courtesy of computer-programmed colored flood lights (that cost about $6,000 each). Stone's creative touches are also evident inside the casino. He's responsible for the lighting designs and fixtures in all of the public spaces in the hotel, including the computer-controlled "ballet" of three-dozen robotic light projectors that takes place nightly on the domed ceiling above the casino's popular Center Bar; and the large blue and green globe lamps that dot the casino ceiling. (A massive globe, also above the Center Bar, is encircled by rings decorated with music notes that, when played, are the Beatles' song "Across the Universe.") Meanwhile, the Hard Rock casino is devoid of exposed neon. Instead, the tubes are concealed to help in up- and back-lighting signage and some of the place's famed rock 'n' roll memorabilia. "The color of the lighting is more important than the intensity," Stone says. "I think if your lighting level is too cool, you're not going to relax. You want to have warm tones. It can be very dim lighting but as long as it's oranges and warm yellows, you're going to feel like it's sunlight somewhere in the back of your head. It's going to give you a warm feeling." Tim Schmidt was impressed. The Tampa, Fla., resident relaxed on a plush couch in the lobby at the Hard Rock recently and reflected on the lights of Las Vegas. "It looks like the daytime," the 21-year-old marveled. "The lights pull you in" to the casinos. Schmidt's favorite display is the one put on inside the MGM Grand's casino. "They have this weird design that just keeps moving across the ceiling," he says. "That's probably the best one I've seen." If it's daylight Schmidt wants, he should head to the Grand Canal Shoppes at the Venetian hotel-casino. There, old-fashioned street lamps line the walkways beside the winding waterway trafficked by gondolas. The store and restaurant facades are set beneath a not-so-new Las Vegas trend -- the faux-sky ceiling -- which puts the area in a state of perpetual daylight. In here, "the lighting creates the world," Beyer says. "It seems like you're walking down a Venetian street. You're certainly a long way from Las Vegas Boulevard when you're in a canal with a gondola in it. And the lighting enhances that. "The idea in every Las Vegas property is to remove the person from the outside world and put them in a separate world," Beyer says. "Obviously lighting is essential, but especially in the world of theming, in this sort of fantasy architecture that Las Vegas and Hollywood try to make, you can't do it without lighting." archive