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Martin Stern, Jr.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Martin Stern, Jr. (April 9, 1917-July 28, 2001) was an American architect who was most widely known for his large scale designs and structures in Las Vegas, Nevada. Martin Stern is credited with originating the concept of the structurally integrated casino resort complex in Las Vegas.[1][2]
The International Hotel and the first MGM Grand Hotel and Casino, two pivotal Martin Stern, Jr. projects with entrepreneur Kirk Kerkorian in 1969 and 1973, set the pace for the transformation of Las Vegas from the low-rise sprawl[3] of motels, clubs and parking lots which it had been into the extravagant high-rise metropolis it has become.
The Daily Telegraph (London) wrote of the first Stern and Kerkorian project in its September 2001 eulogy[4] to Stern: "The International, whose tri-form 30-floor tower contained 1,519 rooms and became the most imitated building on the Las Vegas Strip, provided the model for the Bellagio, Treasure Island, Mirage and Mandalay Bay, among other hotels." When it was completed, the International was the largest hotel in the world. It is now the Las Vegas Hilton.
The first MGM Grand, larger than the Empire State Building[2] and in its turn the largest hotel in the world, burned in 1980 in what is considered the worst disaster in Nevada state history. As the Telegraph observed, this loss only seven years after the hotel was completed was devastating to Stern. The MGM Grand was nonetheless rebuilt within eight months and reopened. It was sold in 1985 and is now Bally's Las Vegas.
Construction magnate Del Webb was another major client with whom Stern worked on many projects, including twenty years of elaborate stages of expansion of the Sahara Hotel and Casino between 1963 and 1983.[5]
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The extensive Lied Library and Architecture Studies Library inventories[6][7][8][9] of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Department of Special Collections[10] document more than one hundred Martin Stern, Jr. projects between 1951 and 1989, several of which — including the near-legendary Xanadu envisioned in 1975[1][6] — were never built.
Nearly half of Martin Stern, Jr.'s projects were in Nevada while another quarter were in California. The rest were in other states including Arizona, Hawaii, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Texas and Utah and in at least three other countries: Australia, Japan, and Slovenia, which was then part of Yugoslavia.
The following partial listing by decades sketches less than one third of Stern's work.
- 1955: Encino Village, a subdivision of 400 homes in Encino, Los Angeles, California.[11][12]
- 1955: Holiday Hotel Reno in Reno, Nevada - the birthplace of the World Series of Poker.
- 1958-61: Mountain Shadows (later a Marriott resort) in Scottsdale, Arizona
- 1959: Del Webb's Towne House, on Market between 7th and 8th Streets in San Francisco, California.
- 1960: Paradise Valley Country Club, Paradise Valley, Arizona
- 1963: Ship's Coffee Shop,[13] Los Angeles, California, in the space age Googie style which The New York Times credited Stern with pioneering.[14]
- 1963: Beverly Hills, California Public Library.[15]
- 1963-83: Sahara Hotel, Las Vegas.[16]
- 1964: Kaanapali Beach Hotel[17] in Kaanapali, Hawaii.
- 1964: Del Webb's Ocean House (later acquired by Hilton Hotels) in Mission Bay, San Diego, California.
- 1966: The Silver Slipper Hotel, known for its giant rotating rooftop silver slipper, Las Vegas. Purchased in 1968 by Howard Hughes.
- 1969: King's Castle (later the Tahoe Hyatt) in Incline Village, Nevada
- 1969: International Hotel, with Kirk Kirkorian. The International Hotel was purchased by the Hilton Hotels Corporation in 1970 and renamed the Las Vegas Hilton in 1971.
- 1970: Kuilima Hotel, Kahuku, Hawaii[18]
- 1971: Harold's Club Reno
- 1971: Little America Hotels in Paradise Valley, Flagstaff and Tucson, Arizona and in Salt Lake City, Utah.
- 1973: MGM Grand Hotel and Casino with Kirk Kirkorian. Rebuilt after the 1980 MGM Grand Las Vegas hotel fire. Sold in 1986 and reopened as Bally's Las Vegas.
- 1974: Las Vegas Hilton Benihana Village (addition).
- 1975-79: The Mint Las Vegas - now part of Binion's Gambling Hall and Hotel[19]
- 1979: Rainbow Plaza Resort Hotel, Niagara Falls, New York
- 1979: Ibusuki Hotel, Ibusuki, Kagoshima, Japan
- 1982: Breakwater Island Resort Queensland, Australia
- 1982: Harrah's Trump Plaza on the Atlantic City, New Jersey Boardwalk
- 1982: Valley Bank, Spring Valley, Nevada
- 1985: Nova Gorica Hotel/Casino, Nova Gorica, Slovenia
- 1986: Darling Harbour Hotel, Darling Harbour, New South Wales, Australia
- 1987: Embassy Suites Hotel, South Lake Tahoe, California
- 1988: Normandie Club, Gardena, California
- ^ a b "The Hidden History of the Xanadu." (html). UNLV Center for Gaming Research. “Two Martin Stern-designed and Kirk Kerkorian-built casinos, the International (later Las Vegas Hilton) and MGM Grand (later Bally's) had just raised the bar in casino/hotel design. Whereas previous casinos had featured modest, low-slung motel wings or mid-rise hotel extensions, these two structures opened with over 2000 rooms and suites located in mammoth hotel towers. These two projects boasted virtually every feature of what is today canonical casino resort construction: a single complex combining casino, dining, and entertainment facilities with a massive hotel.”
- ^ a b Tony Illia. "Nevada Swings Into the Seventies." (html). Southwest Contractor. “The massive, 2.5 million sq.-ft. MGM Grand set a new standard in defining the mega-resort. The monolithic building, larger than in size than the Empire State Building, had over 300 miles of draperies, 2,300 television sets, and enough heating and cooling capacity to serve 8,000 homes.”
- ^ "The El Rancho Vegas Story: History and Recollections." (html). A Presentation of the UNLV Special Collections.
- ^ "Remembering Martin Stern, Jr.: Architect of the Modern Casino Resort." (html). UNLV Center for Gaming Research.
• "Martin Stern, Jr., 1917-2001." in Las Vegas CityLife.
• "Martin Stern Jr. paved way for large integrated properties." in the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
• "Martin Stern Jr.: A Photographic Reminiscence, Architect Shaped Vegas." in the Los Angeles Times.
• "Martin Stern." in The Daily Telegraph, London. - ^ Las Vegas Mikey. "Sahara." (html). Las Vegas History.
- ^ a b Martin Stern, Jr. UNLV Libraries Special Collections. (html). UNLV Lied Library. “The Xanadu Hotel, developed by Donald Trump, was planned for the site now occupied by the Excalibur. Trump's financing fell through and Stern estimated that he himself lost a million dollars in the project. The Xanadu was a giant mastaba with a huge atrium. The rooms were stepped back by its sloping walls, a presage of the later Luxor.”
- ^ "Martin Stern, Jr., Architect of Las Vegas." (html). UNLV Architecture Studies Library.
- ^ "Martin Stern Special Collections." (html). UNLV Lied Library and Architecture Studies Library.
- ^ "Martin Stern Inventory." (html). UNLV Lied Library.
- ^ "UNLV Special Collections." (html). UNLV Department of Special Collections. “UNLV Special Collections houses unique, rare, and specialized research material that documents the history, culture and physical environment of the city of Las Vegas, the Southern Nevada region, the gaming industry, and the University of Nevada Las Vegas. The collections include books, pamphlets, posters, serials and periodicals, scrapbooks, archives and manuscripts, maps, architectural drawings, photographs, video and audio tapes.”
- ^ The History and Architecture of Encino Village. (Four styles (traditional, ranch, transitional and modern) with five floor plans in a neighborhood layout of two concentric circles with three entrances.)
- ^ Laboratory for Living: Encino. "Encino Village was built over the years 1955-56 by a single developer with homes all designed by architect Martin Stern. He later went on to design the Sands Hotel in Vegas and now has a small museum in Las Vegas dedicated to his work. Many of the homes have been modified but many are still in their original condition with original owners. It's a quiet little haven of about 400 homes with only 3 ways into the development."
- ^ Roadside Peek: Ship's Coffee Shop.
- ^ Douglas Martin (2 August 2001). "Martin Stern Jr. Redefined Vegas Skyline." (html). The New York Times (Abstract). “Martin Stern Jr., an architect who pioneered the eye-popping Googie-style coffee-shop architecture of Los Angeles and then brought his exuberant vision to the skyline of the Las Vegas Strip…”
- ^ "Beverly Hills Public Library 1929-2004: A Brief History." (html).
- ^ "Las Vegas timeline." (html). “The Sahara Hotel, where The Beatles stayed in 1964 during their only Las Vegas performance. (Photo, The Salt Lake Tribune)”
- ^ History of the Kaanapali Beach Hotel. (html).
- ^ "Turtle Bay's lost gamble." (html). San Francisco Chronicle (16 October 2005). “A few points of interest about Turtle Bay Resort ("Turtle Bay's shell now worthy of site," Aug. 28, by Jeanne Cooper): Before it was a Hyatt or a Hilton, the hotel was built and developed (in 1970) by the Del Webb Corp. as the Kuilima Hotel and Country Club. As Cooper noted, it was expected to bring gambling to Oahu's North Shore. The first floor was built wide open, and somewhere beneath the floor are power outlets that would have fed the pits and slot machines. Gambling was never legislated and Del Webb, which operated the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas and the Sahara Tahoe Hotel (now the Horizon) at Lake Tahoe, as well as nongambling properties, had a white elephant on its hands, isolated on the other side of the island from the airport and the action.”
- ^ "A Centennial Celebration of Las Vegas Gaming: Raising the Stakes." (html). UNLV Libraries. “The Fremont soon had a high-rise neighbor, when in 1964 The Mint added an even taller hotel tower. This rendering by architect Martin Stern, Jr. is remarkably similar to the finished product, which was absorbed by Binion's Horseshoe in 1988 and is still part of Binion’s today.”
