Vegas Is An Eye Candy Shop
When trying to define Vegas in a few words, one could maybe say that it is all about low anxiety. This has to do with the convenience of having everything in one place with easy access. And that is also connected to the city’s visual features as well. They are pleasing and easy to look at, allowing us to call them eye candy.
Eye candy is what we call visual images that are superficially attractive and entertaining but intellectually undemanding. This means you don’t really need to make an effort to understand what you see. It is all most obvious, and most pleasing.
As we approach National Making Life Beautiful Day on June 11, let’s celebrate with some of iconic Vegas’ most uniquely pleasant sights.
The Unique Beauty of Vegas
The Vegas aesthetic is recognizable and unique. For almost a century, everything built in Vegas has been grand, exaggerated, and spectacular.
Gambling Aesthetics
The casinos in Las Vegas are an attraction in themselves. Not only for the gambling, which like everything in Vegas, is superlative in all aspects, but for all the visual features. Hotel casinos are proud to state how many slot machines they have, or what is the total square footage of carpets needed to cover the casino floor. The large numbers come hand in hand with an infinite array of bright colors. These hues make every inch of the casino interesting and fun to look at.
Bright Eye Candy
When going outside, neon signage offers an abundance of colors and shapes. The lights on the Las Vegas Strip at night make it the brightest spot on earth when observed from space. Vegas neon signs are so iconic and quintessential to Sin City that they have a whole museum dedicated to their memory, The Neon Museum Las Vegas.
The Most Superlative Resorts On Earth
The world’s brightest signs call attention to some of the most opulent buildings on this planet: the Las Vegas resorts and casinos. The Flamingo is the oldest hotel still standing on the Strip. It has kept the same name since its opening in 1946. The building has been completely renovated through the years, and today none of it was part of the original structure. The aesthetic, however, brings back the feeling of vintage Las Vegas.
It seems like the idea behind every Las Vegas resort is to transport the visitor to a different place or time. They do that by explicitly and spectacularly copying features from different places in the world in hotels like The Luxor, New York, New York, The Venetian and others. The more modern buildings like Encore, The Pallazzo and Wynn, for example, appeal to the senses in a more subtle, but still extravagant way.
One of the Strip hotels has been iconic in its grandeur and extravagance by the time it was opened. Finished at a cost of $1.6 billion in 1998, the Bellagio had been the most expensive resort ever built.
Its owner at the time, Steve Wynn, Wynn envisioned the Bellagio as a five-star resort catering to tourists who typically visit places other than Las Vegas, such as Paris, London, or Venice.He said the Bellagio would “redefine Las Vegas”, describing it as the “most ambitious” and luxurious project ever attempted by Mirage Resorts. He also said it would be “the most romantic, delicious place ever built in the world”.
The Bellagio remains spectacular to this day and offers eye candy that is quintessential Vegas. Below are two genuine stances of delight to the eye.
The Bellagio Conservatory and Botanical Garden
The Bellagio Conservatory and Botanical Garden have five displays that change through the year. It is a free attraction, so you can return whenever you want. It’s a 14,000-square-foot (1300 m²) indoor space. The floral shows are not only eye candy but a push to your imagination and fill the space in a dynamic fashion.
The displays at the conservatory change five times a year: winter, Chinese New Year, spring, summer, and fall. It takes 150 people working around the clock for 6 days to remodel all items on the five displays. Eye candy exhibits are designed by Ed Libby and put together by Bellagio’s engineering and horticulturist teams.
Right now, the conservatory features an installation called “Flights of Fancy”. It is a tribute to all kinds of flying, both natural and artificial. Hot air balloons are the focal point in each display, where living plants share the space with artificial replicas. A spring palette of purples, pinks, yellows, and blues is on display on all of the beds.
Water Eye Candy: The Bellagio Fountains
The Fountains of Bellagio is an experience you can enjoy on every day of your Vegas stay. Some people think the shows happen 24 hours a day, but they really start in the middle of the afternoon. The show runs every 30 minutes from 3:00 PM to 7:00 PM Monday through Friday and every 15 minutes from 7:00 PM to midnight.
Twenty-two million gallons (over 83 million liters) of water are in the fountains. The pool around the fountains averages around 8 feet (2.5 meters) deep, reaching about 13 feet (4 meters) near the centerpiece. The depth makes it a drowning hazard for anyone who ventures inside (which is strictly prohibited). While safely standing outside of the pool, you can watch the fountains elegantly dance to 35 different permanent shows.
In March 2020, the eye candy shows were suspended for the first time in their then 21-year history. On June 4, 2020, they turned on again together with the reopening of the Bellagio resort. Since then, they have been up and running as one of the most iconic attractions in Vegas and a must-see for any visitor.
Want to get to all of the beautifully crafted eye candy sights in Vegas with no hassle? Book chauffeured transportation now and have the best time of your life.