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Vegas Sun Turns Mirrored Hotel Vdara Into a Death Ray

by Terrence O'Brien on October 1, 2010 at 06:30 AM

hotel vdaraYou're supposed to be able to trust in your designers and architects. When they tell you to build something a certain way, you listen. After all, they're the ones with the relevant degrees and experience, right? Not true of the Las Vegas strip's newly opened Vdara Hotel, which has earned the nickname "the Vdara Death Ray" thanks to a glaring design flaw (pun intended); it's a giant, curved mirror in the middle of the desert. The face of the building is gathering, reflecting and focusing the midday sun on the hotel's pool area, scorching guests and melting thin plastics in the process. It's likely of little comfort to victims like Bill Pintas, whose hair was singed while lounging poolside, that MGM Resorts International (owner of the Vdara) claims to be working on a solution to the problem. It has offered no details of what that fix might entail.

According to Yahoo!, the Vdara is not unique. Circus Circus, Mandalay Bay and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles all produce similar effects, though it's unclear whether or not they produce the same 20-degree boosts in temperature that have been recorded at the Vdara. While the pool area might be an unwise place to try and tan or relax, it might be a perfect place to set up a few solar panels.

Tags: architecture, DeathRay, design, LasVegas, lolz, top, vdara

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