The City Center is a mixed-use, 18 million square feet urban community with fine art and impressive architecture. It also houses the 4,004-room ARIA Resort & Casino; Mandarin Oriental, Las Vegas; the Crystals retail and entertainment district; Vdara Hotel & Spa; The Harmon Hotel; and Veer Towers.
The Aria Pool Deck located at the base of Aria, is designed by Graft Architects as a lush tropical lagoon. The space offers an intimate sanctuary of cabana around a pool area at the center of the larger vision of the City Center. The structures consist of a series of overlapping contours offering a fluid space. This helps in establishing a spatial hierarchy for the distinct lounge areas. The scheme has been designed to include 52 separate cabanas, two bars, a restaurant, retail and a European pool lounge.
All the individual buildings display unique variation maintaining the overall composition of the pool deck and resort at the same time. The use of similar material palates has helped in making this vision a reality. All the materials such as massaranduba wood and various textiles were chosen for their haptic and optical sensations.
The Breeze Café and Pool Bar is located at the eastern end of the lagoon. The design of the structure is inspired by the cooling experience of Mangrove forests. Shade is provided by large canopies while simultaneously allowing free air flow through the openings between the roof structures.
The Pool Bar offers a protected cliff dwelling in the center of the area. The space features a large overhang that provides cooling shade and protection from the sun. The monolithic white structure displays a welcoming wood interior with an abstracted image of a canyon behind the bar.
The Liquid Pool Lounge is the third architectural component designed as a secluded cove at the western end of the pool area. The material palette of the other zones can be observed here too, but with a different architectural and spatial language. This helps in setting it apart from the adjacent areas.
City Center is considered as the largest privately financed development in the history of the US and is also the largest LEED-Certified project in the world.
