LAS VEGAS | Stardust Imploded

[john doe]

LAS VEGAS — The venerable Stardust casino-hotel on the Las Vegas Strip was imploded early Tuesday morning in a hail of fireworks to make way for Boyd Gaming Corp.'s $4.4 billion megaresort Echelon.

The property, known for its bargain rooms, friendly service and mobbed-up past, opened on July 2, 1958, billing itself as the world's largest resort hotel with 1,032 rooms.

It is also credited with being Las Vegas' first mass-market casino, thanks to cheap rates and loss-leading food and drinks.

The implosion of two towers, gutted to bare concrete and steel over the past three months, included a 32-story building that was the tallest ever felled on the Strip.

In its place, Boyd plans to build a new resort, Echelon, to open in late 2010 with more than 5,000 hotel rooms, a production theater, concert venue, shopping mall and more than 1 million square feet of meeting space.

Kind of sad, Stardust wasn't half-bad, but Echelon should be amazing.

[cur_sed]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XOFTARtyWw

Boy, they sure do know how to do an implosion in Vegas - this is spectacular!

[KevinFromTexas]

Damn. It was one of my more favorites actually. I always liked the colors in the facade, and of course the sign was quite cool.

[Distill3d]

that was freaking AWESOME!

[CGII]

I wouldn't be surprised if the implosion of the Luxor, MGM Grand and Excalibur all happen within my lifetime. Perhaps my children will see the Bellagio.

[MNMike]

Have they considered saving any of these old casinos? I mean these old "kitchy" casinos are a big part of las vegas history and charm, it seems to me, and they don't seem to care at all. How many are left(seems like most have been torn down?)? Have any of the original ones been restored? I think it would be really cool, and somewhat chic, to re-do one back to its 1950s glamour. Has this ever been brought up or done? It just seems to me that they contnue destroying the little bit of history that they had with every one of these landmark casinos thats imploded Anyone agree, or am I crazy?

[Lecom]

It was a great, quintessential Las Vegas hotel, and it's sad to see it go, but at least they gave it a spectacular, well-deserved farewell. Going out with a bang, heh.

A related Desert Inn demolition video with a nice shot of the then-operational Stardust behind. Man, that hotel (Stardust) was a classic and will be missed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8VcJ...elated&search=

Any Echelon renders/stats while we're at it?

[WonderlandPark]

I would think that the Excalibur may not be too far off, it is a pretty miserable place in a fantastic location. Luxor could stick around for a while.

[GeorgeLV]

Originally Posted by MNMike

Have they considered saving any of these old casinos? I mean these old "kitchy" casinos are a big part of las vegas history and charm, it seems to me, and they don't seem to care at all. How many are left(seems like most have been torn down?)? Have any of the original ones been restored? I think it would be really cool, and somewhat chic, to re-do one back to its 1950s glamour. Has this ever been brought up or done? It just seems to me that they contnue destroying the little bit of history that they had with every one of these landmark casinos thats imploded Anyone agree, or am I crazy?

What will really blow your mind is that the highrise tower was from 1990.

[illmatic774]

Originally Posted by MNMike

Have they considered saving any of these old casinos? I mean these old "kitchy" casinos are a big part of las vegas history and charm, it seems to me, and they don't seem to care at all. How many are left(seems like most have been torn down?)? Have any of the original ones been restored? I think it would be really cool, and somewhat chic, to re-do one back to its 1950s glamour. Has this ever been brought up or done? It just seems to me that they contnue destroying the little bit of history that they had with every one of these landmark casinos thats imploded Anyone agree, or am I crazy?

The Flamingo still exists. It's beautiful, but that won't last very much longer either. Vegas doesn't care about it's history.

Built 61 years ago. (flickr photo courtesy of Wolfgang Staudt)

[john doe]

Personally I hope they don't implode to many more of the 'older' towers, I actually think that a few of them, maybe The Luxor and New York, New York should be given protected status.

[Derek]

the video of this thing falling is amazing...i just saw it on the news

[GeorgeLV]

Originally Posted by illmatic774

The Flamingo still exists. It's beautiful, but that won't last very much longer either. Vegas doesn't care about it's history.

Of course we do. There are plenty of archival collections of old Vegas and of course there's the Neon Museum where you can find many of the old historic signs. We just care about property rights more.

[Urban Sky]

what a send off!!

[LMich]

Originally Posted by GeorgeLV

Of course we do. There are plenty of archival collections of old Vegas and of course there's the Neon Museum where you can find many of the old historic signs. We just care about property rights more.

Sorry, but that's ridiculous. Saving old neon signs in a museum hardly makes Vegas anywhere near the top, or even middle, when it comes to preservation. Now, some may argue that preservation is over-rated, and I think one could make a decent argument for that, but to say Vegas cares about its history is pretty ridiculous, even for a newer city. I'm aware of quite a few historic sites within the city, as I've visited many, but let's not pretend Vegas does a good or even decent job in appropriately preserving its history.

[bnk]

What will happen when all of the water rights are exhausted or/ impending or eventual droughts are with us?

What happens to a desert city without water?

How can a small state proportion enough of the Colorado River to sustain its self?

I think the demise is closer than most will realize. La will get the water first, threw politics and population, and the gambling interests will follow anyone that will take them.

Other rosier senarios may take place. Maybe the Colorado will supply enough water to totally cover the southwest.

But in the long term, i guess, we are all fucked.

[holladay]

When Vegas starts to preserve its history it will only be because some corporation realized you can make money at it by marketing it as a tourist attraction. And if that happens it will be a 'corporate history' museum of the dime-a-dozen Coke Museum variety.

At any rate, whenever Vegas implodes an old casino it cleans a slate for itself to leave the small-scale of the earlier days literally in the dust. It's the perfect way for it to reinvent its own spectacle. Which, after all, is what Vegas is all about. Every few years you have to put up some obscene new montrosity and wave your flashy, neon-lit cock all around so that you simultaneously achieve 1) the instant degradation of all cultural standards of decency and 2) the virtually unstoppable flow of dollars from tourists' wallets right into your immense, fortified casino cashbox.

[Caernavon]

Why does Vegas keep doing this at night? Because it's Vegas, I suppose. Am I the only one who feels this way? I watched the video, and after the flashes you can't see anything because it's obscured by darkness and dust. For me, daytime demolitions are awesome; nighttime demolitions are just dark.

[BobbyWLA]

There goes the historical casino where the Saved by the Bell crew stayed when Zack and Kelly had their wedding in Las Vegas. *sigh*

[MolsonExport]

It is kinda sad seeing the old gambling halls destroyed. Think about all the people that visited, and all the events that took place, in these old palaces, during the days of mob rule.

Makes me want to watch "Casino" or "The Cooler"