When designer Warwick Stone was asked to develop decorative theme lighting for the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, it didn't take him long to contact ELA. Warwick was well aware of the company's 75-year reputation for design ingenuity and quality craftsmanship building large scale custom fixtures for Hollywood feature film sets, landmark public buildings, resort hotels, and casinos.

Warwick Stone knew ELA was capable of achieving just about anything visualized for this sprawling, energetic complex of nightclubs, lounges, restaurants, meeting rooms, and guest rooms centered around a 30,000 square foot casino. What he didn't expect was that ELA could move so decisively – conceptualizing, prototyping, building and delivering numerous intricate chandeliers and door pulls in just three short months.

Hard Rock's music theme and recognizable globe icon were the basis for initial concepts and sketches, as ELA's design team collaborated with Stone, the designer of all of Hard Rock's memorabilia and merchandise. Within weeks, ELA produced a series of 15 hand-drawn design proposals, including exhaustive supporting documentation suggesting scale, materials, and light sources.

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Included in the designs were aluminum framed, large and small scale globe chandeliers, each composed of 72 blue glass lenses with a green terra overlay on top of each panel, a chandelier featuring 32 real saxophones positioned around its massive frame, and brass door pulls replicating the famed Lenny Kravits "Flying V" Gibson guitar. All of these were enthusiastically received by a somewhat astonished Hard Rock management team.

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ELA's Senior Director of Design and Engineering, Ernesto Aleman, then worked closely with Hard Rock’s design team and previous owner, Peter Morton, to review, critique, and finesse the designs. Prototypes were developed at ELA's facility to test material longevity and sustainability, as well as light source illumination factors.

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Following final production at ELA, all of the Hard Rock products were assembled and tested at the factory. The completed fixtures were then broken down into sub-assemblies suitable for shipping. Custom crates were designed and built to protect the sub-assemblies while in transit. Detailed instructions provided by ELA engineers simplified the on-site installation by Hard Rock personnel.

Management at Hard Rock reported they were very pleased with the results, complimenting ELA for its artistic execution, extraordinary attention to detail, and thoughtful interaction at every step in the process from concept through final installation.

Other noted Theme/
Specialty projects include:

Caesars Palace Casino – Las Vegas, Nevada
Mandalay Bay Casino – Las Vegas, Nevada
Planet Hollywood – Las Vegas, Nevada
Stratosphere – Las Vegas, Nevada
Harrah's Tunica "Mardi Gras" Casino – Kansas City, Missouri
Four Winds Casino – New Buffalo Township, Michigan
Disneyland "Toon Town" – Anaheim, California
Downtown Disney – Anaheim, California
Disney World "Monsters Inc." – Orlando, Florida
Disney World Resort – Orlando, Florida
Hong Kong Disney – Hong Kong, China

To learn more about ELA's custom division and capabilities click here.

To contact ELA's custom division regarding a future project,
contact Scott Jones at scott@ela-lighting.com.