Raising the Stakes

It’s the biggest private project in US history, but can the MGM Mirage CityCenter beat the odds and deliver in today’s economic climate?

“There's been a tremendous amount of reuse of materials. They don't necessarily come back onto our job site but they're getting used back in the marketplace”

Las Vegas. The city built by chance. Every year this neon-soaked oasis attracts visitors from around the world, all dreaming of the big score just a dice roll away and eager to try their luck. Millions of dollars are won and lost on simple twists of fate and fortunes have the habit of changing in an instant.

In such an environment the colossal gamble that is the MGM Mirage CityCenter development appears curiously apt. Conceived when the economy was on a seemingly unstoppable hot streak, the nearly $9 billion project suddenly finds itself in a place where cash is at a premium and the players are more inclined to fold than to up the ante. As the downturn bit, many developments in Vegas simply downed tools and waited for things to improve. But the consequences of halting or delaying a project of CityCenter's size are potentially ruinous on their own, so the only option was to push ahead. As the development's completion date approaches, observers are anxiously waiting to see how this high stakes play is going to pan out.

A major scare came in March of 2009, when rumours surfaced that the project's owners were about to default on a $220 million debt payment. Had this happened, CityCenter would have quickly transformed from ambitious project to grand folly, the unfinished site a monument to the hubris of the age. Fortunately both for its backers and the city of Las Vegas, this crisis was averted and the development is set to complete towards the end of 2009. As Vice Chairman of Perini Building Company, the organization tasked with overseeing CityCenter's design and construction, Dick Rizzo acknowledges the challenges this project has faced. "The inability to continue to confirm financing by MGM has had its concerns," he tells us when we speak to him from his Las Vegas office. "We went through a period of time where we weren't sure that the financing was going to be available from month-to-month. There was a serious challenge for us which had to be managed through cooperation with the owner as to how much they had available, how much we were able to spend in that particular month. That put a challenge on us in terms of some of the work that got stacked up because we couldn't do all that we were originally planning as scheduled as a result of the financing. Some of it got pushed more together.  So we have more work going on in a concentrated basis at the end of the project than we originally anticipated. But it hasn't impacted the completion. It may have somewhat impacted the amount of acceleration or overtime that's being spent to achieve the schedule."

The economic uncertainty has nevertheless left its mark on CityCenter. Harmon Tower, originally planned to loom 52 stories over Las Vegas Boulevard has now been cut to a more modest 28. Additionally, certain compromises had to be made in the level of finish on some of the development's condos. "This project is designed to the very highest level quality," says Rizzo. "As a result of that the finishes that were originally specified were extremely exotic. With exotic goes the price tag. Our responsibility was to take a look at that in the final intent, not to change the final appearance, but look at alternative products that could give you the same result with at less cost."

Even if the economic situation wasn't so precarious, handling a project of this scope is fraught with difficulties, not least simply managing the work of all those involved. "This one is unique in the sense that it has eight internationally recognized architects, each one of them in charge of certain portions of the project," says Rizzo. "Each group has its own design team, and there are individual challenges with each of the individual architects. There is a master architect, but under him there are other design architects that handle certain portions of the project."

Each of the architects involved in this project has been handed the brief to create something unique. Simply keeping everyone moving in the same direction requires a very structured approach, "We had to create these separate management groups assigned to each of the major architectural groups just to be able to service them the way they should be," continues Rizzo, describing the company's strategy of divide and conquer. "You break it up in manageable pieces and you assign groups of individuals specifically dedicated to those pieces. We have done that, and it seems to be working."

Cosentino echoes Rizzo's assessment: "You have basically one contractor building a little over 18 million square feet of construction on a confined site of 66 acres, and you have all these different architects," he says. "All the different architects have a tendency to detail and document their information in slightly different fashions from each other.  So to try to get them to use the same vocabulary and the same kind of detailing to be consistent from one project to the next so that there wasn't a learning curve from project to project to project was also a challenge."

Complexity has also been an issue in the project's layout. Building so many different structures one site necessitated some extremely detailed planning. "The biggest problem you have whenever you're dealing with multiple buildings on a very congested site is all the interfaces between these buildings," says Cosentino. "You have to consider how they stack up against each other, how the structural systems work adjacent to each other and how the mechanical systems and the plumbing systems flow between buildings. Those are tremendous detail issues to work through, and those challenges were ones that we did as a collaborative effort between the contractor, the owner, and the architects. In 95 percent of the instances, we had tremendous success, and there were very few areas where we had some challenges to really overcome, and sometimes they didn't manifest themselves until we were out in the field. There wasn't anything that caused a delay or a redesign of the project.  It was things that were all manageable, so from that perspective I thought it went very well."

Aside from its sheer scale, one of the most striking features of CityCenter is the attention being paid to sustainability. In addition to pushing for the US Green Building Council (USGBC) LEED certification at a minimum silver level across the project, the construction process has also been characterized by a focus on limiting environmental impact. Tony Cosentino is Perini's Project Design Coordinator for CityCenter and has responsibility for overseeing the development's LEED and other sustainability initiatives. "One thing that we have been able to do, is work with MGM and one of our construction waste haulers to help them set up a business to segregate all of the waste so that we can recycle as much as possible off the job site from the construction waste," he says. "We have been very, very successful in doing that."

This has meant that huge amounts of waste which would otherwise have ended up in landfill were instead turned into commodities. Ferrous and non-ferrous metals were sold back into the marketplace, while cardboard and paper was also baled up for reuse. But things didn't stop there.

"A lot of the gypsum board from the drywall partitions has been sold back to drywall manufacturers to be used as a recycled content in new drywall manufacturing," Cosentino explains. "They're also using it along with the wood that they're chipping up and even some of the paper that they're shredding.  With these substances they're making material that is then being used for soil remediation on farm areas or places where they typically have bad soil quality. They're tilling this mixture of gypsum, paper and chipped wood into the ground to make it much more valuable for growing trees in. These trees will then eventually be harvested at some point in the future."

Similar efforts are being taken with waste concrete, which is used as fill or base material and even in some cases in the production of new concrete. "There's been a tremendous amount of reuse of materials," continues Cosentino. "They don't necessarily come back onto our job site, but they're getting used back in the marketplace."

Ensuring that the finished project conformed to the high standards demanded for LEED certification also requires constant vigilance. "This is the largest LEED project in the history of the United States," says Rizzo. "So we all gained experience going through the project of this size and understanding what it takes to really get LEED certification. What we have learned is the significance of not only knowing what it takes to get the points that are necessary to qualify the project for LEED certification, but the amount of supporting documentation and paperwork that's required. I don't think we ever anticipated the kind of documentation that's necessary. It's not only knowing how to get the point, it's also the ability to document that you did do it." But this hard work has certainly paid off in CityCenter's case, as certain parts of the development now exceed initial targets. "Originally it was supposed to be all silver, but now we're at a point were some portions can qualify for gold. They're going through that now and evaluating those portions in making sure that they have the appropriate points for it."

Tony Cosentino also attests to the challenges involved in achieving this level of LEED accreditation. "If you were going to go to platinum, you have to involve that process in the very, very early stages of design, because there's so many things that will impact what happens there," he says. "Silver is a little more achievable in the normal course of business.  The gold, which would be between silver and platinum, takes a little bit more effort, but you can get there primarily with a lot of energy conservation, which is really where the money's going to be saved on the owner's side long-term anyway."

Given the well-documented financial troubles the development has endured it is reasonable to assume that CityCenter's commitment to sustainability might have been tested at points. That the owners and contractors have stayed the course is testament to the ambition behind the project.

There is a great deal riding on how CityCenter turns out. Apart from the adjacent Cosmopolitan hotel and condo development, another Perini construction, it is alone in a once crowded field. "As it turns right now on Las Vegas Boulevard these are the last two remaining projects that will be opened," says Dick Rizzo. "There's nothing behind them that I'm aware of that is under construction or being planned within the next two to three years after that. There's a great deal of concern right now about the impact that this project, and Cosmopolitan, will have on the market. No one's really excited about spending much more money of any consequence in Las Vegas until they understand what the impact truly is of these two programs."

This puts CityCenter in an extremely interesting position. It could come to symbolize new hope for a Las Vegas battered by the downturn, provided the much-anticipated recovery arrives in time. Alternatively, it could stand as a costly epitaph to Sin City's long held belief that big is better. Whatever way the cards fall, there is no doubt that CityCenter represents a considerable achievement from a purely design and construction perspective. We can only hope that lady luck will smile upon it in the future.

MGM Mirage CityCenter: Big Numbers

• An $8.6 billion project
• When completed, the 18 million sq ft development will contain 2650 luxury residences
• At its peak, construction involves 8000 workers and 39 cranesWhen opened, it will create 12,000 new jobs for Las Vegas
• The Veer Towers alone will use 55,000 cubic yards of concrete

Turning LEED into gold

Tony Cosentino assesses whether sustainability pays financially as well as environmentally.

You construct the buildings, you put in all the energy saving features and water saving features and you set them up so that they operate in the most efficient manner possible. From a long-term perspective, it's best to maintain those things and check that on a regular basis to make sure that you are, in fact, operating the building in the most efficient way.

Obviously, because we're not going to be operating the building, we can't ensure that. But there are a lot of things that the owner has elected to do, and a lot of credit needs to be given to MGM Mirage for making this great leap of faith to take the largest privately developed project in the country and to cause the whole project to go towards a sustainable building envelope and building project. That's a great testament to what they're trying to do, and I think that they will see a return in a couple of ways.

Number one, I think they'll see a return in some of the normal energy costs that they would have seen if they just didn't do anything special. I think they'll see savings there.  I think they'll see a savings on the side of water consumption. I think they'll use a lot less water than they would have used, therefore saving money on that side. And I think the third aspect of that is because they'll be LEED certified, probably silver or maybe even gold in some instances, that will be a great marketing opportunity for them. Therefore, they'll probably realize a better return by having a higher occupancy in their facilities because of what they are. 

So is that a sufficient return for what they're spending? Yeah, I think it might be, because the reality is they're not spending all that much more to get the LEED certification in the things that they've done in the building.

ARIA Resort & Casino

Architect: Pelli Clarke Pelli
Key stats: 4004 rooms, 51 stories, 3,797,515 sqft

Vdara Hotel

Architect: RV Architecture, LLC
Key stats: 57 stories, 1495 suites, 10,000 sqft of conference space

Mandarin Oriental Las Vegas

Architect: Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates
Key stats: 47 stories, 27,000 sqft spa, 23rd floor 'Sky Lobby'

The Harmon

Architect: Foster & Partners
Key stats: 28 stories, 400 rooms, 17,500 sqft of event space

Veer Towers

Architect: Helmut Jahn
Key stats: 37 stories, towers lean five degrees from center in opposite directions