Designing the Nugget, twice

There was an interesting piece in the Review-Journal on Joel Bergman, a prolific casino architect:

Joel Bergman dislikes awards.

He doesn’t enter competitions for them. He believes the application process can give away too much inside information about his company, one of the gaming industry’s leading architectural design firms.
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So when the Global Gaming Expo Institute awarded Bergman the 2006 Sarno Lifetime Achievement Award for Casino Design in May, he wondered who in the company submitted the application.

The recipient of the prize, named for legendary Las Vegas gaming pioneer Jay Sarno, was chosen at random by the American Gaming Association, producers of the G2E Institute.

The award recognized Bergman’s excellence in the field of casino resort design and construction.

Bergman’s résumé resembles a trip down Las Vegas Boulevard. That’s one way he shows off his work to out-of-town visitors.

“I have a four-passenger convertible and on a nice summer night, I’ll give my guests a tour,” the 69-year-old Bergman said. “They get to see everything and I give them a little history of my own personal involvement.”

The Southern California native designs, what he calls, “entertainment architecture.”

Bergman spent 15 years working with Atlandia Design, the in-house architecture firm for Steve Wynn’s Mirage Resorts. His first casino project was in the early 1970s when he helped design the Las Vegas International, now known as the Las Vegas Hilton.

In his career, Bergman has played a role in helping develop or redevelop The Mirage, Treasure Island, Paris Las Vegas, Bally’s, Sahara and Caesars Palace. The Golden Nugget casinos downtown and in Laughlin also carry Bergman’s signature.

But Southern Nevada isn’t his only canvas.

In Atlantic City, Bergman worked on the expansion at Resorts International and is currently working on the Atlantic City Hilton.

As gaming expanded nationally, Bergman and his company, Bergman, Walls & Associates, which he founded in 1993 with partner Scott Walls, continues to leave a mark. The company designed the Barona Valley Ranch in San Diego, the Agua Caliente Casino in Palm Springs, the Suquamish Clearwater near Seattle, L’auberge du Lac for Pinnacle Entertainment in Lake Charles, La.

Bergman has been in the business for so long, he’s now redesigning casinos he originally developed. Colony Capital has enlisted Bergman Walls to remodel the Atlantic City Hilton, which Bergman first designed 28 years ago for Wynn when the casino opened as the Golden Nugget.

“The Golden Nugget was the first project I did for Steve and now we’re doing it again. How cool is that?” Bergman said.

Bergman has also found his way into condominiums. His company designed the Trump International Hotel & Tower and the Residences at MGM Grand for the Turnberry Group.

reviewjournal.com — Business – NEVADA AT WORK: Up and down the Strip, architect sees reminders of his work on projects past

I remember when the Golden Nugget opened in Atlantic City. It really was way beyond anything the city had seen up to that point.

Reading this, I’ve got a new ambition–to see some of those unbuilt projects and hopefully get some record of them for UNLV Special Collections. The only thing more interesting than the casinos that were built is the ones that weren’t.