Word: hotels
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...hard to imagine any of Russia's current leaders getting a birthday party like the one thrown Monday at Moscow's Ismailovsky Hotel for the former despot, Josef Stalin. The grand hall was packed beyond capacity with more than 2,000 revelers - some of whom wept as patriotic poems were read. Famous actresses sang ballads with the backing of a full military orchestra. And towering over the stage was an enormous portrait of the birthday boy in his military regalia, adding an element of the surreal to the entire scene...
...also be called a gesture of pure architectural theater. Especially at night, when the building is lit from within, it's a completely smashing addition to the neighborhood, somehow managing to bridge the divide between the Ukrainian Catholic church that borders it on its eastern side and the hip hotel just to its south...
...purpose and power. The Babylonians played board games; the ancient Greeks had yo-yos. The Chinese were flying kites 3,000 years ago. Crayola crayons were first produced in 1903. In 1916, Frank Lloyd Wright's son John, inspired by the way his father had built an earthquake-resistant hotel in Tokyo, invented Lincoln Logs. And many great toys are accidents or improvisations, a serenade by kids whose first drum set is a wooden spoon and a tin pot. Play-Doh was invented as a wallpaper cleaner. In 1943 a Navy engineer trying to smooth the sailing of battleships found...
...question remains whether CityCenter will help spur a rebound in the city - the common wisdom in Las Vegas is that new supply creates demand - or the addition of more than 4,000 new hotel rooms will depress an already oversupplied market. Murren describes it as the "stimulus package of all time for this community," pointing to the 12,000 jobs CityCenter has created. Expectedly, he's bullish that CityCenter will lure new visitors to Vegas. "There's no doubt in my mind that more people will come to Las Vegas next year than this year...
Parts of the project have had bad luck. The Harmon boutique hotel, a victim of construction defects, won't be finished until the end of 2010. But the opening of Aria is a significant achievement, signifying the end of an era in Vegas. The days of visionary auteurs bringing extravagant casino dreams to eager banks are over. Land is too expensive if you don't already own it. Banks are reticent to lend to developers who lack land equity and plenty of cold hard cash. MGM Mirage owns a larger parcel than CityCenter a few miles north...