I've watched the Encore building being built for quite a while. Since the DI came down in various sections, I've watched it with great interest. I now see a problem and I can't find any info on it, so I am going to start my own rumor.

As the Encore buildng topped off and the cranes removed and the glass installed, it looked like things were going well. I stayed at the Wynn a couple of weeks ago and noticed some broken windows from the top floor of the Wynn parking garage. They were too high up for kids throwing rocks, too large for gunfire, so I wrote it off as construction accidents.

Then I looked at the backside, which is the inside of the curve. Holy Encore Batman, something's wrong. They never did put the windows back in the holes where the cranes were. That's not the problem. The problem is that there are lots of broken windows. There are lot's of cracked windows. I drove to Cathedral Way, off LV Blvd, after it passes over the Di Arterial, and went to the church parking lot for a closer look.

Here are some facts. The outside of the curve as viewd from the Wynn garage looks pretty good. There's a few panels missing across the top part where there are no rooms. The main part looks pretty shinny, except for one broken and maybe 5 random missing panes. The inside of the curve of the building as viewed from the church looks BAD. There are hundreds of 'irregular" windows. It's not clean. It's not shinny. By "irregular", there are many that have "something" behind them. There are many that are missing. There are about a dozen that are just boarded up. There are about a dozen that are clearly shattered out with at least 80% missing and the only thing left is jagged edges. There are many that "seem" to me to be cracked.

I can tell which windows the cranes were secured in, as they follow two straight lines. The rest seem to me to be fairly random from down low to the top, from one side to the other.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that these windows are not cheap and they aren't the same cheap stuff you might find on your patio door. I'm saying something is wrong, but I don't know what. I've done some investigating and talked to most of my sources and nobody has anything on it. It is mysterious that nobody knows anything, yet any goon can see the problem a mile away.

Is it a geological issue? There was a tunnel out of the old DI that merged into the DI Arterial. I remember something about the Manadalay Bay having some kind of cavern underneath it that they had to fill in with LOTS and LOTS of cement. There have been a lot of 4.x earthquakes in Reno lately. Could that have something to do with it?

Is it a design flaw or construction flaw? The Encore is supposed to be quite different from the Wynn on the inside. One might guess that they know how to design and build those windows. Did they miss a step in the structural design and the building is imploding on itself?

Is it a vendor problem? Did they find someone else to make the glass at a cheaper price?

It it were 200 windows that just had not been installed, then it would just be a mystery. Given the number of broken and cracked windows, I'm gonna suggest that there is a real problem and say that someone is doing a good job of keeping it out of the press.

Hey Tater, your hubby is a pretty sharp cookie. Any input?

Maybe this has something to do with the Palazzo closing their pool one day while I was there "due to high winds". The windows may be blowing off Encore???

JMT,
My "sharp cookie" DH specializes in underground stuff, but may post here as soon as he gets registered and approved!!!

i'm going with sun/heat/lousy fastening system that doesn't allow for expansion.

Dag, it's basically north east side that is having the problems. It doesn't get the sun much yet. The good side gets more sun, it gets the direct sun and winds.

Hey, that does lead to another theory. The winds blow INTO the good side and starts throwing construction equipment around that eventually blows out the back windows.

On the mystery side. What if nobody has told Steve Wynn about this?

Anyone consider calling someone at the Wynn dot to see if an actual problem does exist? I'd think that they would want to be the first to let the public know if there was a problem and the steps they are taking to correct it.

Will, I mentioned a 3 part Steve Wynn interview in a post prior to this. One of the many fascinating things I got out of the interview is the guy can talk a good line. He is so very convincing. I'm glad he is into casinos instead of religion because he could talk me into walking off the edge of the world with great confidence. So without actually making the call, I think it would be a waste of time because I "assume" there would be calming and reassuring answer. Besides that, I doubt they would say it was sinking, falling over, or had a construction flaw, even it really did exist.

I have considered getting an "investigative reporter" from the media hooked up on it. There's a couple of 'em in town that can really dig deep into a story and not just accept the answer from the front desk. I am mentally prepared to accept an answer that everything is under control.<g> I'd just like to hear it from a neutral party.

BTW, are you in town? Have you seen it?

No, JMT, I not presently in LV and haven't seen the Encore lately, but I have tons of photos that I took while they were building it and I don't recall seeing any broken windows back then .... about four months ago.

Last night I did send an Email to the Las Vegas Review Journal City Desk.... Mary Haynes - I believe - informing her about JMT's post in the hopes that she or a member of her staff could let us know what the situation presently is. That was less than 24 hours ago so I have not received a response just yet.

Would be nice if she responded on here personally but if she does not I'll post her response if I do receive one.

Your idea about an investigative reporter is also a good approach.

I posted some pictures on Google's Picasa website. You can view them at

http://picasaweb.google.com/toomanyids/

There are 13 pictures of the bad side of the Encore and 1 pic to show the side you see from the Wynn. All the pictures were taken with the sun to my back, so there is not like the bad side was taken in the shade where shadows are easier defined.

I did e-mail a reporter I know about the windows. He has not gotten back to me.

wow-not going to be a cheap fix!

I just showed David a few photos from my trip, and his first reaction was - wow, winds are being directed and amplified in a funny way because of the shape and direction of the building.

hmmm so we have to determine if the windows are being sucked in or being sucked out.one thing for sure,the fix it costs are huge and the general contracter will go broke either in fix it fees or legal fees.can you imagine having to go back and changing or fixing each window!a big x of duct tape on each window!

Personally, I'm not sold on the wind theory. OTOH, I'm open to anything at this point. If you want to play the wind theory, here's a few things to consider.

The "normal' Las Vegas winds are west to east.

If you look at the building as an airfoil or wing, a west or east or north wind would put high pressure on the bad (inside) of the curve and low pressure on the good (outside) of the curve. Only a south wind would put higher pressure on the good side and lower pressure on the bad side.

You might want to consider the DI Arterial tunner that opens up right near the base of the building. I don't know if that would be a wind factor or not.

I'll drive by the place after the holidays and take some pics to see if there are any changes. I think my pics were taken last Sat, the morning of the 17th.

Still no word from the LVRJ City Desk, so I've just about given up on them, but I did check some photos I took of the north-east side of the Encore on March 8, 2008 and even back then there were some windows that appeared to be "not in place".

The same "not in place" situation is noticeable on that side of the building even when the windows were only installed up to the third floor - been taking a lot of Encore pictures over the past 12 months. Ditto for Trump Tower.

Gonna be interesting to see if there is a problem or just the builders way of getting the construction job accomplished.

At one time years ago, I noticed a good number of large windows that appeared to be "broken" in an up-going highrise and was told that they left the windows out till the pianos got hauled in by some large craine. Apparently baby grands are too big to fit through the allways and doorways of these condo apartments so they have to haul them up on the outside of the building and push them through an empty window and only then do they install the actual window-glass.

If for some strange reason you were following my wind/pressure statement, it has been revised.

I took another look and some more pictures yesterday. There isn't really a lot of difference. The pictures are posted on the same link mentioned above.

It appeared that they might be putting some panes in the center section, possibly once used as crane support access. In that area, there were a lot boarded up holes. I notice less boards, but upon closer inspection, most of those positions are not filled with good windows. Some are holes. Some are irregular windows.

I found one person who said he heard that the building is leaning over towards the inside curve side. I don't know where he heard it or how someone would know without expert survey equipment. I doubt the surveyors and construction crews would tell my source that there is a problem.

Another very real possibility is that those windows probably have a protective film on them that will get removed when construction is done. That might explain "some" of the irregular windows. Maybe the film is not smooth or gets torn or whatever. Still, given the number of clearly busted windows with sharp edges exposed, that doesn't answer the main questions I have.

I also noticed a group of windows particularly in the lower left area appear to not be smooth. Based on the shadowing, it appears as if they are stresses and bulging, and possibly candidates for more busted windows.

I drove by the Encore on the DI arterial a few days ago. There is still work going on from people hanging down the side of the building. The general view didn't appear to have changed much, if at all.

I stopped and looked this morning. There were 3 different crews hanging down working on various areas. Some of the questionable irregulars may have been improved, otherwise, it's still a mess.

JMT,
I viewed the Encore website (through the Wynn) and noticed that they are accepting room reservations for 2/9/09. It seems that the December opening has been delayed. Perhaps they are repairing those shattered windows. The rates are astronomical. I believe they were somewhere around $700 nite, but this was probably for the grand opening celebration. It better be a big celebration with a lot of extras! As you know, on our last visit we stayed at the Palazzo and the view was the Encore. I just kept staring at it and the hardly used golf course. Your critique made me a little uneasy staying there. I am not one that enjoys heights anyway!

Wow, that's the first I heard of the delay in construction. I'll check the place out again soon and take some more pictures for comparison to my old ones. Thanks for the tip Lis.