Considered the largest privately funded construction in the United States, the CityCenter Development in Las Vegas, Nevada, was designed by some of the worlds most renowned architects and engineers. This new "city within a city" has also scored highly with environmental accreditation programs such as the LEED system.
Built in under 4 years, this project covered nearly 18 million square feet and cost roughly $8.5 billion dollars. The project was funded by MGM Resorts International. Located on a 67-acre site bordering the Bellagio, Monte Carlo, and Las Vegas Boulevard, it is the prime strip of real estate on the Vegas Strip and will provide nearly 12,000 new jobs for the city.
The main portion of LEED credentials were earned for this project due to the fact that when the existing building on the site, the Boardwalk Hotel and Casino was demolished, 80% of the materials from the earlier building were either recycled for the new project or sent elsewhere for reuse.
Another large factor in its environmental sustainability included an 8.5 MW natural gas power plant that was built on site to provide 10% of the required energy and 100% of the heated water for the building.
Overall, this building is a colossus of building construction and the utilization of environmentally friendly technologies on large scale construction projects. The CityCenter will continue to be an engineering and environmental master achievement.
This building is massive if 8.5 megawatts only fuel 10% of its electricity needs. Props to it for the recycle of materials from the old building, but I have seen stuff like this before. The recycled material( a large portion) is usually used as fill for foundations and other places. How one company can raise the capital to do and not go bankrupt is amazing. MGM either has billions stashed away or their CEO played thousands of games of golf to raise that money from investors.
ReplyDeleteI agree 8.5 megawatts and only 10% of the energy requirement seems enormous, but the building stil achieved LEED certification. Although this infrastructure does provide many jobs, is it necessarily a sustainable structure considering it consumes so much energy. The structure is impressive and the fact that they took the initiative to recycle previous materials, however I wonder what the overall carbon impact of this construction considering all of the recycled benefits. Is this really sustainable construction.
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