Those design tools include the most cutting-edge programs on the market. AutoCad helps the design team visualize space; e-builder manages bids, keeps specs in order and helps keep design, purchasing, accounting, and contract administration all in line; Timberline helps the group stay on budget; and Primavera Project Planner is the glue that holds it all together. It allows us to manage multiple projects at each property.

Primavera Project Planner also gives MMDG intimate knowledge of every minute detail that goes into each project. “We have to stay with these projects after they are completed,” says Sven Van Assche, Vice President of Design. “We have the ultimate responsibility to make sure everything is properly designed and managed from start to finish,” he says.

At MGM Grand, the lounge Zuri is a prime example of how the Design Group used existing space and redefined the way people interacted and flowed. Formerly the Betty Boop Lounge, the space had always been meant to catch people for a quick cocktail immediately after check-in. While collaborating with the hotel management, designers found this space served a host of other purposes as well: friends waiting for hotel guests, impromptu business meetings, a meeting place for groups before departure, new guests just checking in, and others just looking to step away from casino action. So the Design Group catered to each of these clients in a single space by creating grouped seating arrangements and keeping the space open, and accessible yet removed, from the surrounding casino. Rich, sophisticated colors were chosen for appeal to a mass audience; and the design scheme is that of an echo chamber—“subconsciously spreading the noise of people having a good time,” says Smith. The ceiling resembles resonating sound, but “you can choose your environment in Zuri… it needed to appeal to everyone, so these design solutions made the space more successful,” he says.