Crystals, the retail and entertainment center at MGM Mirage’s CityCenter has become LEED certified. This makes it the largest retail district in the world to have received the LEED Gold Core & Shell designation from the U.S. Green Building Council.
The district will open in December along with the other LEED-certified parts of CityCenter, including the Vdara Hotel & Spa, as well as the ARIA Resort’s hotel tower, convention center, and theater.
"From CityCenter’s inception, we aimed to create a vibrant destination to demonstrate that a community can be both beautiful and sustainable for today and for future generations," says Cindy Ortega, MGM Mirage’s senior vice president of energy and environmental services, in a statement.
The glass and crystal exterior of the retail district was designed by Studio Daniel Libeskind, while the interior, which includes a park and hanging gardens, was designed by David Rockwell and the Rockwell Group.
The retailers in place at Crystals include such luxury brands as Louis Vuitton, Prada, Tiffany & Co., Christian Dior, Versace and Bulgari. The district will also include several retailers opening shops in Las Vegas for the first time, including Tom Ford, Miu Miu, Porsche Design and Paul Smith. The center includes BESO, Eva Longoria Parker’s first Las Vegas restaurant, two new Wolfgang Puck dining concepts, and Mastro’s Ocean Club, from Todd English.
The high-end stores and restaurants were built primarily with wood produced from forests practicing sustainable management, and the center features skylights that are intended to offer plenty of natural lighting. The district has been built with radiant floor cooling to use less energy and cut down on air conditioning, and the water-efficient fixtures are expected to save 1.8 million gallons of water each year.
"From its intense focus on water conservation to the multiple strategies for energy efficiency, the CityCenter team has delivered several exceptional properties that qualify for the LEED Gold rating," says S. Richard Fedrizzi, president and CEO of USGBC in a statement. "We congratulate them on their significant achievement."
