The Best Cosmo since Sex and The City!

So I have many thoughts on Las Vegas...but in the interest of keeping this a positive blog, let's just say--Vegas is not my favorite town--to say the least.

Don't get me wrong, there are some great restaurants and amazing shows. But I can't help but feel like I'm completely surrounded by the people I try to avoid on a daily basis.

But I digress...I was completely blown away by the newest hotel to open, The Cosmopolitan...and had to find out more about the interior designer!

Of course it's David Rockwell!

David Rockwell and his firm has designed some of the most interesting spaces that include--but are not limited to--the Jet Blue Terminal inside JFK, Hollywood's Kodak Theatre--home of the Academy Awards, as well as the set designs for the Broadway musicals Hairspray and Legally Blond!

And he sure helped spend the $3.9 billion that it took to create The Cosmopolitan very well!!!

(Interview by Tony Illia from Las Vegas Business Press)

"This is an independently minded project where the owners were open to a whole new set of new ideas," said Rockwell. "A large part of the design sensibility was the notion of curation collected so it doesn't feel like it was all bought at exactly the same time from exactly the same place."

"I was able to get variety by having a large amount on people working on the project. We have had up to 60 people from all of four of our U.S. studios working on Cosmopolitan since October 2008," Rockwell said. "We applied lessons learned working in theater to this project, where you're forced to collaborate. I think we bring choreography to Cosmopolitan. It's one of the things that set it apart."

The 100,000-square-foot casino area, for instance, has floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the Strip that eliminate the dark cavernous feeling often found inside megaresorts. To the contrary, there is chrome and glass, diffuse and indirect light, and swirling crystal and glimmering fabrics. The Cosmopolitan is loosely themed on the elements of wind, fire and water, which inform the resort's shapes, colors and material selections.

"Design isn't just the big gestures, it's a lot of small gestures," said Rockwell. "In many instance, the little gestures are even more memorable."

That design credo is especially evident inside The Cosmopolitan's 2,995 hotel rooms, which feature balconies and natural light, kitchens and Rockwell-designed desks. Blue and gold shaded rooms are cosy and contemporary without being cold or sterile. They're sized for small relaxed gatherings that nurture a lazy pampered attitude, with Japanese soaking tubs, folding screens and spacious terraces.

"The goal in design in a hotel is to have a very distinctive point of view. We wanted to the rooms to feel individual and have a very distinct point of view," Rockwell said. "Cosmopolitan thought of this as independent film rather than a studio film, so we investigated how to do things differently."

"Polish without pretense," is how Cosmopolitan chief executive John Unwin describes the hotel atmosphere.

That's what I call design!!!