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I took this picture on a visit to City Center with some visiting relative in March of 2010. There is so much to see here, that I plan on making a several more picture taking visits. The wild slant of Las Vegas’s Veer Towers, designed by Helmut Jahn create one of the most eye-grabbing sights in Las Vegas. The twin 37-story trapezoidal-shaped towers tilt five degrees in opposite directions for a striking visual contrast of angles that seem suspended in time and space. By contrast, the Leaning Tower of Pisa tilts just 3.9 degrees. A core of slanted columns hands off the load at the sixth, 19th and 32nd floors as the floorplates shift more than 35 feet across the 37-story height of the building. The result is an impossible-looking structure and, because the towers lean past each other, views from every room.Buildings are wrapped in a distinctive yellow checkerboard fritting that reduces heat gain while providing shading and privacy. It could be one of 2010's boldest examples of a true partnership between architect and engineer, in what Jahn calls “archineering.”
Area Description: CityCenter is a 16,797,000-square-foot mixed-use, massive urban complex on 76 acres located on the Las Vegas Strip. With a total cost of more than 11 billion dollars, the project, owned MGM Resorts International was the largest privately funded construction project in the history of the United States. Vdara, Aria and Mandarin Oriental (a mix of hotels, residences, casino and restaurants) and The Crystals (a high-end shopping mall) opened in December 2009. The Veer Towers and the Cosmopolitan Hotel and Casino opened in 2010. Plagued by construction problems and lawsuits, The Harmon Hotel and Residences has yet to open.
