Modern Materials Craft Historic "Legacy"
Combining Nevada's turn-of-the-century silver mining heritage with state-of-the-art architecture and unrivaled entertainment theming, the Silver Legacy Resort Casino is northern Nevada's most spectacular "must see" property.
Themed around the legend of Sam Fairchild -- a fictitious silver baron of the previous century -- the casino resort attempts to recreate the look and extravagance experienced 100 years before, during the area's silver boom.
The resort casino showcases the world's largest composite dome -- 180 feet in diameter. Within the dome, a unique environment is created using the latest in lighting, sound and special effects technology. The interior of the dome -- an astounding 75,000 square feet -- reflects the dramatic skies of Nevada. Featuring one of the largest indoor murals ever painted, the dome interior depicts an entire day -- from sunrise to sunset -- at two-hour intervals.
The dome houses an elaborate 120-foot high automated mining machine that "produces" silver coins. The mining machine, complete with ore cars, works in concert with the resort casino's exterior facade to recreate scenes of Northern Nevada from the 1890s and early 1900s. Additionally, the complex features collected treasures from Europe, the Far East and Africa, which further depict the fortunes amassed during Nevada's rich silver mining heyday.
The $350 million resort is the development of a joint-venture between Circus Circus Enterprises, Inc. and the Eldorado Casino. Skyways connect the Silver Legacy to Circus Circus, to the north, and the Eldorado, on the south.
Encompassing over two city blocks in the heart of downtown Reno, the Silver Legacy features 1,720 guest rooms and suites. With dark woods, marble floors and rich, vibrant carpeting, the elegant and refined resort casino has five uniquely-themed restaurants, a 30,000-square-foot special events and convention center, an outdoor pool and sun deck. The casino itself boasts 85,000 square feet of gaming space with 90 table games and 2,300 slot machines.
Lending a sense of scale to the vast complex, the casino's storefront facade simulates a turn-of-the-century business district.
Working under the direction of general contractor Perini Building Co., Los Angeles-based wall and ceiling contractor Raymond Co. was given full charge of creating the casino's street level exterior. The subcontractor performed the complete design/build for the street-level facade, which incorporates a number of decorative materials -- fiber reinforced plastic, glass fiber reinforced concrete, expanded polystyrene foam shapes and an exterior insulation finish system -- to replicate a late 19th century mining town.
"We pretty much did the whole thing," explained Jeff Miller, project manager with Raymond Co. "We did all of the exterior -- FRP, GFRC, EPS shapes and EIFS exterior. We also did the wood products, fabric awnings and some of the signage -- everything pretty much."
A tight time frame and the need to produce design details required that the exterior contractor take a total approach to the casino exterior. "On this job, with the time frame and the design stage, pretty much the only way it could be built was to give us total control -- with owner approval -- to get all the pieces together, whether they be wood, cast FRP or GFRC," said Miller. "That's why we approached it this way."
Well-experienced in "theme" construction, Raymond Co. was brought onto the project by the general contractor in September 1994. The casino's owners had decided upon on the resort's theme and final design just prior to that time.
"We were given some designs -- line drawings for the facade -- and we had to do the design/build," said Miller. "We did all the construction drawings in house."
Beginning in September, through the first half of January 1995, the contractor was heavily involved in the engineering phase, noted Miller. "We never really got out on the project until November," he said.
The job proceeded in three phases, the first being engineering and production of construction drawings. The second phase, consisting of structural work, took place from November through March. The decorative and finish work, the final phase, progressed largely from January through the end of July. The exterior work comprised the street level facade for the entire casino resort, as well as three connecting bridges to the adjacent Circus Circus and Eldorado casinos and parking garage.
"In some of the areas the structure wasn't even there, and we had to do the structural steel framing. We were also responsible for getting everything structurally engineered," said Miller. "The framing was mostly heavy gage metal stud and tube steel."
Heavier framing was needed to meet the wind-load requirements of local building codes. Given its location along the Sierra Nevada Mountains, Reno often experiences severe Easterly winds. Accordingly, the casino facade had to be engineered to withstand an 85 mph wind load. "It made it more challenging to engineer, working out what we could use," said Miller.
To replicate the appearance of a cluster of buildings, the facade is broken into a number of distinctly-styled storefronts. Accordingly, the exterior required a variety of materials that ordinarily wouldn't fall under one contract -- EIFS, masonry, metalwork, architectural woodwork and decorative glass. The bulk of the exterior, however, relied upon GFRC, FRP and EPS foam shapes integrated into a Sto® EIFS system.
"Where things weren't too complicated, we'd use the foam shapes. For the more detailed pieces we used cast FRP and GFRC," Miller explained.
For purposes of authenticity, the GFRC was used primarily on the lower portions of the facade so that if passers-by come in contact with the exterior, it will feel and "sound" like the genuine article. The FRP and EPS shapes, which will sound hollow if tapped, were kept at higher levels. Moonlight Molds, of Gardena, Calif., supplied the GFRC shapes.
To meet the July completion date for the project, decorative and finish work was initiated in January -- in the midst of one Reno's worst winters in years. To keep pace with the construction timetable and ensure a quality exterior application, the work area was completely enclosed and heated.
"It was probably their worst winter in many years," said Miller. "It snowed up through May. Basically, we were working in totally enclosed areas. The weather didn't affect us at all."
The design team on the project was led by Terry Winnick, senior vice president Planning and Design, with Circus Circus Enterprises, Inc., Las Vegas. Arthur Valdes, with Arthur Valdes Company, Newport Beach, Calif., performed the concept development. John Novak, president of Urban Design Group, also of Newport Beach, was responsible for design development and documentation. Sam Latona, project manager with Perini Building Co., Phoenix, provided the overall supervision of construction.
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