Fontainebleau Las Vegas

The Fontainebleau Las Vegas is a Contemporary skyscraper designed by Carlos Zapata Studio, in association with Bergman, Walls & Associates, Ltd., and built between 2007 and 2023, for a reported $3.70 billion dollars, in Winchester, NV.

Fontainebleau Las Vegas is not the only name you might know this building by though. Between 2018 and 2021 it was also known as The Drew Las Vegas.

Its precise street address is 2755 Las Vegas Boulevard South, Winchester, NV. You can also find it on the map here.

Construction began in mid-2007. By the end of 2008, the tower had been topped out, but by mid-2009, work was halted due to financial problems.

Construction resumed in February 2018 but was once again suspended in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It resumed in November 2021 and was finally inaugurated in December 2023..

Carlos Zapata Studio was the architecture firm in charge of the architectural design, in association with Bergman, Walls & Associates, Ltd..

That being said, architecture is a complex discipline involving many professionals from different fields, without whom this building would have not been possible. We will surely be leaving out a lot of names here, but here is a list of the people we do know also played their part in making the Fontainebleau Las Vegas a reality:

• Walter P. Moore in charge of Structural Engineering
• Richardson Construction as the Main Contractor
• Turnberry Associates as the Main Developer
• Lifescapes International in charge of Landscape Architecture
• David Collins Studio in charge of Interior Design
• Urs Fischer as the collaborating Artist

The Fontainebleau Las Vegas can be categorized as a Contemporary building.

The Fontainebleau Las Vegas uses a frame structure made of reinforced concrete columns and beams.

A frame structure uses a combination of beams and columns to sustain the building's weight. The walls in this case are non-load bearing, which allows for more flexibility when distributing the interior spaces.

The facade uses a non-load bearing curtain wall system. This means the curtain wall modules are anchored to the building's structural frame, typically by being attached to the edge of the floor slabs. The curtain wall system connects to the slabs using brackets, anchors, and mullions, which transfer the loads imposed by wind and temperature changes, to the building's primary structural elements.

This setup allows the curtain wall to accommodate differential movement between the facade and the structural frame, such as thermal expansion, floor deflection, or sway from wind forces. This system's integration with the slab edges also allows for continuous insulation and weatherproofing layers.

The building features three main cores, two at the ends and one in the center, that house elevators and emergency stairwells.

These rigid cores serve as the structural backbone of the tower, providing stiffness against vertical and lateral loads such as wind or earthquakes. The floor slabs rest on concrete beams connected to the central core and perimeter columns.

From an aesthetic point of view, the facade features a continuous suraface of dark blue tinted glass with aluminum frames. The only interruption to this continuous surface is a light-colored horizontal band that runs across the building at mid-height. This band marks the mechanical floor.