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Martin Stern Jr.

American architect (1917–2001) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Not to be confused with The Adventures of Aggie writer Martin Stern.

Martin Stern Jr. (April 9, 1917 – July 28, 2001) was an American architect who was most widely known for his large scale designs and structures in Las Vegas, Nevada. He is credited with originating the concept of the structurally integrated casino resort complex in Las Vegas.[1][2]

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Early life, education and career

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Martin Stern Jr. was born in New York in 1917. He moved to Los Angeles in the 1930's to work in the movie industry as a studio sketch artist.[3] He graduated from the University of Southern California before briefly working for Paul R. Williams. In 1945, he opened his own practice in 8912 Burton Way, Beverly Hills. His early work in Los Angeles included custom homes and garden apartments like Manchester Gardens, Wilshire-La Cienega Gardens, and Belford Gardens. He also designed apartment and office buildings. He then had a brief hiatus from architecture when he served in the U.S. Armed Forces around 1950.[4]

After his military service, he returned to work. He collaborated with William Cody on the Tamarisk Country Club in Palm Springs, as well as multiple shopping centers, housing tracts, homes and coffee shops.[4] Stern was probably best known in Los Angeles for three Ships coffee shops opened in 1956 and 1957 by Emmet Shipman. One was in Wilshire Boulevard and Glendon Avenue in Westwood, another in 1016 La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles, and the third in 10705 Washington Boulevard in Culver City.[3]

In August 1947 at the Pueblo Oratorio in the Chapman Park Hotel, Stern married Doris Sonia Nathanson (1919–2008). Doris was the daughter of Abraham Nathanson of Philadelphia.[5] Martin and Doris had two sons. After they divorced, in 1967 Stern remarried to Chantal Maspey, with whom he had a son and a daughter.[6]

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High-rising Las Vegas

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Las Vegas transformed by high-rises

Martin Stern Jr. designed the International Hotel, which later became the Las Vegas Hilton, and the first MGM Grand Hotel and Casino, two pivotal Martin Stern Jr. projects with entrepreneur Kirk Kerkorian in 1969 and 1973, which set the pace for the transformation of Las Vegas from a low-rise sprawl[7] of motels, clubs and parking lots into an extravagant high-rise metropolis.

The Daily Telegraph (London) wrote of the first Stern and Kerkorian project in its September 2001 eulogy[8] to Stern: "The International, whose tri-form 30-floor tower contained 1,519 rooms and became the most imitated building on the Las Vegas Strip, provided the model for the Bellagio, Treasure Island, Mirage and Mandalay Bay, among other hotels." When it was completed, the International was the largest hotel in the world.

The first MGM Grand, with more square footage than the Empire State Building[2] and in its turn the largest hotel in the world, burned in 1980 in what is considered the worst disaster in Nevada state history. As the Telegraph observed, this loss only seven years after the hotel was completed was devastating to Stern. The MGM Grand was nonetheless rebuilt within eight months and reopened. It was sold in 1985 and rebranded as Bally's and is now Horseshoe Las Vegas.

Construction magnate Del Webb was another major client with whom Stern worked on many projects, including twenty years of elaborate stages of expansion of the Sahara Hotel and Casino between 1963 and 1983.[9]

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Legacy

Death

Martin Stern Jr. closed his architectural practice in 1996 and donated many of his drawings and plans to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Library. He died on July 28, 2001, at the age of 84. He was survived by his wife, Chantal, four children, four grandchildren, and his sister.[3]

Archives

The extensive Lied Library and Architecture Studies Library inventories[10][11][12][13] of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Department of Special Collections[14] document more than one hundred Martin Stern Jr. projects between 1951 and 1989, several of which — including the near-legendary Xanadu envisioned in 1975[1][10] — were never built. Dreaming the Skyline: Resort Architecture and the New Urban Space is an online collection from UNLV Libraries Digital Collections that includes several hundred images of Stern's work, including architectural plans and photographs.

Selected works

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Nearly half of Martin Stern Jr.'s projects were in Nevada while another quarter were in California. The rest were in other states including Arizona, Hawaii, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Texas, and Utah, and in at least three other countries: Australia, Japan, and Slovenia, which was then part of Yugoslavia.

The following partial listing by decades sketches less than one third of Stern's work.

1950s

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Sands Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas

1960s

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Las Vegas Hilton, formerly the International Hotel
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Ship's Coffee Shop sign

1970s

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Bally's Hotel and Casino, formerly the MGM Grand, Las Vegas
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The Sahara Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas

1980s

1990s

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Stardust Hotel and Casino, West Tower, Las Vegas
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References

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