{"id":21209,"date":"2019-09-04T10:39:01","date_gmt":"2019-09-04T14:39:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/?p=21209"},"modified":"2019-09-04T10:39:01","modified_gmt":"2019-09-04T14:39:01","slug":"vegas-visionary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/vegas-visionary\/","title":{"rendered":"Vegas Visionary: Paul Steelman '77"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Before Steelman graduated from Clemson with an architecture degree, there was only one city in the country where you could place a legal bet: Las Vegas.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"Paul<\/a>
\nThen, in 1976, New Jersey legalized casinos in Atlantic City.
\nAs a native New Jersian, Steelman was attracted to the area. He\u2019d had experience working under his father, also an architect, in Longport, New Jersey, doing smaller projects. Schools,
\nfuneral parlors, summer homes. But he was ready for something bigger.
\n\u201cI was offered a position as [Atlantic City] planner, and I took the job mainly because I wanted to see how this rebirth of the city was going to work,\u201d Steelman says. \u201cI was the architect of the city even though I wasn\u2019t [working as] an architect at the time.\u201d
\nGrowing Atlantic City into a thriving resort destination meant working with some of the day\u2019s most famous architects. Through them, Steelman got a glimpse of his dream career. And then he got a job offer from high-profile architect Joel Bergman. He worked for nine years on Vegas design projects like the Golden Nugget and the Mirage before opening his own architecture firm, Steelman Partners, in 1987.
\nNow, Steelman Partners has designed more than 4,000 casino and integrated resorts worldwide, including Galaxy Macau Phase II, Sands Macao and Solaire Resort & Casino. With so much
\nexperience in the business, Steelman understands that a casino\u2019s design must walk the fine line between brand culture and achieving profitability, versatility and ease.
\n\u201cWe have a lot of experience with what people like and are comfortable with, and we start from that experience.\u201d Steelman explains. \u201cWe want to follow a set of rules.\u201d
\nThese rules consist of certain design elements that he doesn\u2019t often stray from, things like fast elevators; soothing colors; easy access to exits, cashiers and restrooms; and ample lighting. The goal is to create a space that\u2019s not only exciting for guests but also comfortable. Too much experimentation with core revenue features can lead to failure, Steelman
\nwarns. But that doesn\u2019t mean there isn\u2019t room for creativity: \u201cThe direction of the columns of the garage or the color of the carpet or where you place a mirror \u2014 that\u2019s the reason I became so interested in this [career]. It\u2019s fun!\u201d
\nLooking forward, Steelman isn\u2019t even close to tapping out. \u201cI\u2019m not sure I ever want a break,\u201d he says.
\n\u201cMonday is always my favorite day of the week.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Before Steelman graduated from Clemson with an architecture degree, there was only one city in the country where you could place a legal bet: Las Vegas. Then, in 1976, New Jersey legalized casinos in Atlantic City. As a native New Jersian, Steelman was attracted to the area. He\u2019d had experience working under his father, also […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":21210,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[21],"tags":[230,545,1170,1770],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-21209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumniprofiles","tag-architecture","tag-casino","tag-fall-2019-alumni-profiles","tag-las-vegas"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/08\/Paul_Steelman.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21209"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=21209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}