It became the largest AAA Five-Diamond landmark in The United States and Canada. Architecture [modify] Sands Hotel and Gambling establishment in the early 1960s Wayne Mc, Allister created the initial $5. 5 million Sands Hotel, an exotic-looking terracotta red-painted contemporary hotel with a popular at the front, surrounded by a zig-zag wall ornamented with tiled planters.
The name "Sands", written in sophisticated italics, featured a 36 feet (11 m) high letter "S", and the name was sprawled across an egg dog crate grill, cantilevered from a pillar. The indication was responsive to the light and shadow of the desert, and during night time it was illuminated, glowing neon red.
Underneath "Sands" was the tagline "A Place in the Sun", composed in smaller capital letters. Listed below that was the billing of the names of the performers appearing at Sands, very frequently photographed displaying names such as Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Sammy Davis Jr. and Red Skelton in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
For the very first time, the sign was an essential part of the architectural design." The Aqueduct structure in 1963 The porte-cochre of the hotel included 3 great sharp-edged pillars jutting out in front of the glass-fronted building, angling down into the ground, which looked like fins. The two-story glass walled entry was bordered by a wall of imported Italian marble, and above the entrance area was a horizontal airplane with copper lights suspended from the beams.
Natural and stained cork was utilized throughout the structure. A.J. Leibling of The New Yorker described the hotel in 1953: "The main building of the Sands is a terrific rectangle-shaped hall, with the reception desk in one corner, slots along one long wall and a bar and barroom, total with Latin trio, along the opposite wall.
The bar included bas-reliefs with a Western theme, including cowboys, racing wagons and Joshua trees, designed by Allan Stewart of Claremont College, California. The Garden Room dining establishment neglected the hotel's pool and landscaped grounds. Revised marquee and tower, last setup c. July 1996 previous to implosion The 200 visitor spaces of the initial hotel were divided into 4 two-story motel wings, each with fifty spaces, and called after well-known race tracks.