Fontainebleau - The great blue elephant.

The picture does't really do the size of this place justice. I was interested in seeing this place after seeing a documentary about it a year or so ago. 

This 68 story high hotel casino had 2.9 billion dollars spent on it before the bank pulled the plug and its now derelict.

Its the 2nd highest building in Vegas, and would have had a cool 4000 rooms. Its reckoned another $1.5 billion is needed to finish it. It may well never be finished as alot of the interior finishings bought for it have already been sold off to another casino who was having a refit.

It did strike me as a bit of a gamble building something that size at that end of the strip, as the north end of the strip struggles to get the tourists away from the lure of the south end with the Bellagio fountains, The Mirage, Paris,  Venetian etc. If you walk up the Strip, the Wynn and the Encore are like the sort of cut off of the modern bit and it gets more rundown the further up you go.

I read alot about Vegas being on its arse, but theres not much sign of it at the south end of the strip - Bills Gamblin Hall is being demolished and rebuilt, the Imperial Palace has been replaced by the quad, and the New York and Monte Carlo casino's undergoing upgrades.

Las Vegas Underground.

A fascinating 3 part documentary about the homeless people living in the tunnels under las vegas, and also shows the "urban historian" sneaking into the newly built Fontainebleau, which was never finished when the owners ran out of money. Its the tallest building in Vegas and the two guys filming it scale the 68 storey building only to get to the top and its hammering down with rain.
Part One Part Two Part 3 - Scaling the (derelict)Fontainebleau.