Video by M Place Pro. Images by Nicole Hernandez Photography.

THE NORTH STAR AT ARIA WISHES YOU HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

The North Star Installation at ARIA Resort was designed to delight and inspire all people, regardless of where they are from or how they celebrate. I wanted this piece to be an expression of the winter and a celebration of the season. This beautiful, dazzling display for all people came from something deeply personal to me.

While designing this installation, I kept thinking back to the night my father died. I was with my mother, my sister, and my brother. We received the call and pulled over to process the information. It was one of those moments when the world just stopped, and I lost my breath, and I wasn’t quite sure what to do or where to turn. As I started the car and pulled back on the road, a shooting star flew overhead, guiding me in his direction. It was the universe talking to me, telling me that everything would be ok, and letting me know that I was heading in the right direction. It was magical and calming and exciting all at once. In that brief moment, I felt everything. It was beautiful.

I wanted to take this deeply personal experience and turn it into something universal. I wanted to share a bit of that moment with friends and family, with locals and visitors alike. The goal was not to be literal, but to translate the experience and the way that I felt into something that everyone could connect to.

From my own experience with a shooting star I began to meditate on the idea of the North Star. The North Star, Polaris, is considered to be the brightest star in the sky. I has been used as a directional marker for centuries, guiding people and civilizations to where their future. Metaphorically, our North Star is our highest power, our moral compass, and our core principal guiding us towards the bright future..

ARIA Resort represents all of this and more to me. ARIA is one of the brightest, most compelling attractions on Las Vegas Boulevard. Classic lines and modern lights, ARIA is timely and timeless; a beacon in the middle of the madness of The Strip.

Every element of the North Star was meticulously and intentionally chosen to tell a part of our story. The central star stands at over 28 feet tall is obviously the center of our design. Coming from the very top we have a 32 foot long tail, the shooting part of our star, moving guests in through the space and guiding them to the Lobby Bar. Surrounding this glittering “North Star” are a series of starbursts created in a three-dimensional pattern and alternating materiality. We used hanging crystals and stands of twinkle lights to create dimension and space, and to keep the eye moving through the “sky”.

On the ground, I wanted the space to feel organic and fecund. We didn’t want anything that felt pre-fabricated or “off the rack” so we sourced various trees with different needles, colors, flocking, and heights. I imagined shards falling off of the star as it flew through the sky, mixing in with the icicles in the snow on the ground.

Given that the tail of the star leads to the Lobby Bar, I knew that we needed something Merry and Bright! We brought in a 6 ft. tall sign that acts as a photo opportunity for guests. To play off of the dazzling star design, but also to allow for a festive feeling and holiday expression, the ARIA Horticulture team worked with existing Christmas and holiday accents such as ornaments, balls, crystal snowflakes, and white petrified wood to create table scapes and vignettes that were nostalgic and exciting. The tail of the star ends just at the piano, inviting guests in to enjoy a cocktail, conversation, and music.

The final touch was created in partnership with the ARIA Pastry and Patisserie team. Each year the chefs create stunning confections to enhance the lobby design and to showcase their skills. While the star itself and the surrounding pieces were more celestial and less holiday inspired, I wanted the patisserie to do something very literal that spoke to the holidays. Again, my goal was to take things that were deeply personal and turn them into universal symbols that anyone and everyone could connect to. As a wedding planner, I wanted to celebrate the the holidays are the start of engagement season. My husband actually proposed to me on Thanksgiving, and so I asked Chef Mathieu to include a series of engagement rings. The big sugar bear came from a gift that my daughter picked out for my son, and the rest of the items all tied back to our family; toy cars that my son used to collect, a rocking horse my daughter loved, shoes. Personal, yes, but also very accessible to the memories and moments that anyone could feel a connection to. I wanted to use blown sugar as glass that we could see through, and the chefs came up with the idea of see through presents and also cracking the pieces of sugar to be reflective under the star.

Given that there are three ways to enter the main lobby, I wanted the space to be interesting and multidimensional from every angle. It was also important that the rest of the space in the hotel told the same story. In the bar, we added tall, white columns, dusted in glitter, and horticulture accent at the space with Dusty Miller and sculptures made of large holiday ornaments. The Patisserie changed their cakes and window display to winter white confections and cakes. Wrapped in fondant, each cake pulled from our main design. Some featured celestial motifs such as stars and planets and the dark blue sky, while others were more about the shards and the sparkles. We created trees out of see through ornaments and Chef Mathieu and his team created additional presents made of sugar.

My last and final location that I was able to touch was the North Lobby. Given that this is the “secret” side entrance, I always think of this as the local’s lobby. However, it is also the lobby that leads to the nightlife location and the Uber pick up, so I knew that it would be heavily trafficked, especially during the holidays. The lobby is fairly open and already has permanent art installations that I did not want to take away from. Instead, I leveraged the poles to create another light and forrest experience. Originally, I wanted to use these poles as “trunks” on which I would build a tree with arms and branches and lights. However, as we began to put the pieces together it became clear that the best way to deploy the poles was to wrap them in lights and allow them to “fall” from the sky. Each strand was capped with a hand tied crystal in the shape of a leaf or snowflake. To tie in with the theme of the main lobby, we added a series of additional flocked trees surrounded by more Dusty Miller.

Since unveiling the week of Thanksgiving, I have been able to visit ARIA and walk through the installation several times each week. I marvel and delight in watching people take the piece in and photograph it. I am giddy each time someone shares a video and am reposting as much as I can.

One of the things I love most about this installation is that you can see it through the windows, through the doors, and across from the outside of The Strip. It’s just dazzling from every angle! Art is universal and allows us to connect with the world around us. Design is about solving problems beautifully and telling a story that allows others to connect to their own humanity. The North Star gave me the opportunity to take a personal moment that was filled with darkness and despair and turn it into something beautiful and light. I will forever be grateful.

With love this holiday season and always…AE

Click the images below to enlarge. Images by Nicole Hernandez.