Painful Demolition of Mirage Las Vegas Atrium Begins

Posted on: August 7, 2024, 11:24h. 

Last updated on: August 7, 2024, 12:04h.

Corey Levitan Read More
Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Entertainment, Expert Insight, Las Vegas, Restaurants, Las Vegas Myths.

Demolition has begun on The Mirage in Las Vegas, which closed on July 17 and is destined to reopen as one of a chain of Hard Rock casino resorts in 2027. While the guts of the casino and towers will remain, as will the villas, among the elements that won’t survive the $4-$5 billion transformation is the cherished atrium.

The Mirage atrium is being reduced to rubble as you read this. (Image: X/Twitter/@JamesInLas Vegas via Scott Roeben/Vital Vegas)

As the main entrance to The Mirage, the atrium is the memory all guests have of entering the game-changing Las Vegas Strip property for the first time. And, as visionary Steve Wynn intended, it is an indelible one.

The atrium was a passageway through a lush rainforest, complete with a cascading waterfall, towering palm trees, 100 varieties of exotic plants and flowers, and a 60-foot high domed skylight providing natural sunshine.

The atrium took four full-time gardeners more than 160 hours a week to maintain. (Image: MGM Resorts)

With the atrium, Wynn successfully imparted his guests with the feeling of entering a Polynesian paradise smack in the middle of the Mojave Desert — a resort so crammed with luxury, entertainment, and surprises it would be a destination in itself.

Too Successful

Destroying the atrium feels to many Las Vegas regulars like felling an actual rainforest. Many question the move, since the space could have served as a perfectly functional and beautiful way to enter the second Hard Rock Las Vegas. (The first reopened as Virgin Hotels Las Vegas in 2021.)

That is a hurtful image,” commented @UnckelMike beneath the main photo in this story as shared by Vital Vegas on X/Twitter.

“The atrium should have been a UNESCO Heritage Site,” added @jasonbeahm.

“Sad to see — especially for what they are replacing it with that isn’t unique or Vegas,” noted @bobby_wells.

However, when you consider Hard Rock’s perspective, there really was no other choice. And that’s precisely because Wynn’s plan to indelibly implant an atrium memory in all first-time Mirage visitors succeeded so wildly.

Preserving the atrium would serve only as an active and constant reminder of what used to occupy the space, stoking feelings of nostalgia instead of wonder about whatever casino resort took its place.