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1. Name:
Stardust Hotel and Casino
2. Owner: Boyd
Gaming
3. Address: 3000
S. Las Vegas Blvd.
3b. Additional Site
Details: This is a large casino
property that is clearly a center of attention.
4. Condition:
Structure 4
Surface 4
Lighting 4
Notes: See
description
5. Form: plyon,
fasica, porte cochere
6. Specfic Description:
Even though the façade of
the Stardust has gone through many changes, streamlining itself
over the years, yet retains aspects of it's original flavor. The
tower faces northwest and southeast and is adorned with horizontal
bars of red neon underlining each floor. The top tube only stretches
approximately one-quarter of the way across the face, and with each
floor, the neon gets increasingly longer. The result is the building
being cut across the face at an angle, with one half being illuminated
by the red neon and the other by ambiently blue lighting. Large
Channel letters spelling "Stardust," are bordered by red
neon and filled with incandescent bulbs. The Majority of the external
signage is on the low rise structure close to the street, with the
tower located to the northwest behind it. The array is comprised
of two small pylon message centers, a porte cochere, the main pylon,
and assorted entrance signs. On the south side of the building alongside
a large parking lot, an entrance sign hangs above aa two-sided corner
entrance, Wrapping this small corner, polished gold raceways and
trim create borders for the accordion surfaced pediment, and shoot
up vertically into the sky on the far ends. Blue neon shines from
behind the shining trim above the door to illuminate the whit accordion
façade. The trim above that is adorned with two tubes of
gold neon on the top and the bottom, hidden in recessed channels
to cast a gold halo from behind. The two vertical edges are lined
with incandescent bulbs. On the south wall of the small corner,
channel letters stand on the top edge of the golden molding, reading
"Casino." They are black on the exterior, painted white
on the interior, and filled with incandescent bulbs, and bordered
with red neon. On the Southeast edge of the building another entrance
of a bit more design Above a set of doors, and the blue lit accordian
façade and golden halo cast metallic trim, a Squared "U"
shape made of polished metal raceways, holds a back lit message
center housed n a black cabinet. On either side of the vertical
legs of the "U" shape, another single raceway rises slightly
higher int the air. All the raceways are lined with incandescent
bulbs. Above the cabinet, black channel letters, spell "Stardust."
They are finished white on the exterior, filled with incandescent
bulbs, and outlined in red neon. Moving around to the eastern facade
of the building, the façade is a three leveled pediment in
the accordion pattern, and separated with the polished trim. The
Yellow and blue lighting illuminate this façade also. The
pattern is only interrupted by oval shaped back lit cabinets, placed
every so often. Eventually you come to the porte. It is no longer
finished with mirrors, but still retains the raceways lined with
incandescent bulbs. The surface in between is filled with white
stucco finish. What is left is a series of 5 hexagonal shapes crafted
out of raceways and hung a section ceiling lower than the rest.
Geometric patterns radiate from this center piece. North, past the
porte cochere a section of building juts out to the east. It contains
an entrance on the north and south faces, and two on the east face
which are parts wrapping around from the previously mentioned entrances.
Over the north and south entrances the "U" shaped polished
metallic raceways and external flanking raceways, as seen before
on the southeast entrance, play host to a narrow LED message center
and channel text spelling stardust. The letters have the same treatment
as the previous sign as well, and spell "Stardust" in
channel letters. They too are filled with incandescent bulbs and
bordered with red neon. Above the text, channel pans are in the
shape of four pointed stars as seen on the main pylon, are slightly
scattered as if to be showering over the text. They are multi colored,
centered with arrays of incandescent bulbs and interior neon contours.
The accordion façade and lighting are below the composition.
Below the accordion pediment, a polished gold bullnose creates a
pediment above the door and wraps around to the east face of the
structure. A pointed end polished metallic cabinet is placed in
the section of the bullnose over the door, spelling "Casino
Entrance" in channel letters and filled with red neon. The
surface of the bullnose is laden with incandescent bulbs. The façade
wraps around the front with another pointed end cabinet reading
entrance in the same fashion as the previously mentioned text. A
small section of foliage and shrubbery line the west face of this
extension of the casino before the same arrangements of sign are
seen repeated on the north face. Passing the entrance the property
opens up into a courtyard with an arrangement of low rising concrete
cylindrical fountains created a multileveled garden of spurting
water and plants. Just past the courtyard another entrance is found
created out of the northeast corner of the building. Like the other
entrances, elements such as the blue lit accordion face, double
rows of vertical metallic raceways, properly treated channel letters,
are present. The gold raceways wrap the corner with backlit cabinets
on the east and north faces. The channel letters read "Stardust"
on the east face and "Casino" on the northern face. The
ceiling that the overhang creates is finished in polished metallic
material and laden with incandescent bulbs. Just outside the last
entrance the first of two low rise message pylons. The one located
on the north end of the property is larger and more spectacular.
The large triangular cabinet's faces are backlit, slightly concave
message boards. The tops of each o these cabinets in adorned with
a smaller, purple steel cabinet, approximately eighteen inches tall,
and running the length of the cabinet. "Stardust is spelled
across the length of the cabinet in channel letters, and filed with
rose neon. The cabinet is laden with incandescent bulbs, creating
a canvass for the letters to reside. The three edges, which is the
gap where the three signs meet and the bottom of the cabinet are
covered in incandescent bulbs. The surfaces are treated with polished
metal. The pole which the cabinet sits is a white, two sided, support
with two peaks growing out horizontally about two-thirds up the
height. The shape, along with a Stardust style star channel pan
in its center, is a representation of the repeated image associated
with the logo of the property. The edge of the post is treated with
a border of purple paint and lined with purple incandescent bulbs.
Just inside the border stripe a channel recesses forming another
border for a tube of purple neon. The star pan channel in the center
is bordered in teal neon and filled with incandescent bulbs. A top
the entire cabinet is an array of stardust stars of various colors,
bordered in neon, and or filled incandescent bulbs. The array is
assorted again to appear as if they are being showered, tapering
to one single star at the top. The entire cabinet rotates slowly
from right toleft. The cousin to this sign is at the extreme south
end of the property, set before an entrance give a larger double
backed cabinet sits off center on a square post. The white plastic
face is housed in a white steel cabinet with rounded edges. The
top or the sign is comprised of the same purple cabinet and channel
letters seen in tops of the concave message boards of the rotating
relative at the north end. The width of the cabinet is strewn with
incandescent bulbs, continuing underneath as well. The post is painted
two tones.
7. Type of Display:
neon, incandescent, backlit, LED,
ambient
8. Media: steel
9. Non-neon treatments:
graphics, paint
10. Animation:
chasing, flashing, oscillating
Notes: All
of the bulbs, which reside in the fascia signs which designate entrances,
oscillate rapidly. The entrance sign a bit closer to the north end
of the property also contain the pan channel star shapes, with incandescent
bulbs in the center. The bulbs which, reside on the widths edge
of the small pole sign at the south end of the property, oscillate
giving a twinkling effect. The main pylon's animation is rather
simple considering the amount of lighting. Bulbs which create the
dazzling background chase each other upward to the very point, then
once they reach the top, each letter light up from left to right,
one at a time, then off one letter at a time. The letters all turn
on simultaneously while, while the background chases up, leaving
the lights off in its trail. The text then shuts off as well. The
small incandescent bulbs lacing the background of the main body
of the sign oscillate subtly, twinkling themselves. Each letter
of the text contains a single row of incandescent bulbs, just inside
the border of the red neon. This row is always on in a chasing animation
from left to right even when the letters are dark. The animation
for the three sided, pole sign, at the north end of the property
is adorned with sparkling animation as well. The purple bulbs, which
create the border of the main base, chase each other from bottom
to top, and the star shape in the center is filled with oscillating
incandescent bulbs. The bulbs, which also encrust the bottom surface
of the cabinet, oscillate as well. The incandescent bulbs, which
adorn the background of the text portion of the sign, also sparkle
with a soft random oscillating pattern. The stars which sit on top
of the cabinet, animate in a random, non descriptive fashion. The
inner star shaped pans oscillate with incandescent bulbs, and the
neon borders flash on then off, in a clumsy random order.
The three-sided sign also rotates, one of the few animatronic signs
on the Strip.
11. Environment:
To the south of the Stardust
is the Westward Ho, and to the North is Circus Circus. It stands
with these two as well as the Frontier as vestiges of an older era
of Las Vegas resorts. The Riviera also resides across the street.
Vast shoots of concrete, spread out in front of the hotel, creating
a continual plaza which runs from north to south. It contains lush
flowers and fountains that toss water to each other is shooting
arcs. In the daytime, the white of the remodeled façade is
almost blinding against the concrete. |
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