Las Vegas Hotel Dumps Beige, Adds Bling

After a late-spring opening, Palms Place has quickly become the new it-hotel for Las Vegas weekenders looking for a stylish crash pad that's not full of synthetic floral carpeting and bland, beige furnishings.

Once privy to TheHotel at Mandalay Bay and MGM SkyLofts, luxury travelers are demanding more than just oversize rooms and jetliner views from their all-suite hotels. Adjusting to these demands, Las Vegas is on the verge of a watershed architectural moment that will say goodbye to those ubiquitous V-shaped faux-Hausmann and Italianate high-rises and usher in a new era of cutting-edge design by some of the world's top architects, including Libeskind, Pelli and Foster.

What to expect

Away from the taxicab and pedestrian mayhem of the Las Vegas Strip, Palms Place is located adjacent to the original Palms Hotel. That hotel has made a name for itself as the city's prime party pad, like Temptation Island with a casino. But Palms Place is something different. Located in a tower, the luxury hotel offers its own private resort area and casino-free lobby accessed via a separate VIP entrance. Slot-lovers shouldn't fret because the casino is only a people-mover away through a tube-like bridge connecting to the Palms gaming floor.

The first impression

Jon Jerde, the architect responsible for the original Palms Tower as well as the nearby Bellagio, designed the hotel. The architect is helping to shape the new modern aesthetic of Las Vegas with a vertical glass tower topped with iconic LED sticks that illuminate the desert skyline. A glassy entrance opens to a sedate lobby area of Madagascar-wood paneled walls, dark slate floors and sunken leather seating remarkably sedate for a Vegas hotel.