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Musician Bruno Mars and design studio Yabu Pushelberg have teamed up to create the interiors of a cocktail lounge and live music venue at the Bellagio casino in Las Vegas.

Named The Pinky Ring, the 5,000-square-foot (465-square-metre) lounge is accessible directly from the casino floor, but designed as an entirely separate experience away from the bright lights, bustle and noise.

Bar at The Pinky Ring surrounded by golden drapes — The stone bar at The Pinky Ring is surrounded by golden drapes that are reflected in the mirrored ceiling

Grammy Award-winning artist Mars collaborated with Canadian studio Yabu Pushelberg to craft an elevated and luxurious space within the Bellagio Resort and Casino.

The bar serves a curated collection of cocktails and hosts live entertainment by top musicians and DJs – though no phones are allowed inside.

View from VIP area at The Pinky Ring — A huge crystal chandelier hangs in the centre of the lounge and is visible from all corners

The entry sequence begins with a dimly lit mirrored passageway, where Mars’ collection of Grammy trophies is displayed.

“Inspired by contemporary museum design, the corridor was designed as a soothing and discreet exhibition space where guests can cleanse their visual palette from the outside world and begin to submerge into The Pinky Ring,” said the design team.

VIP area lined with faceted mirrored panels — A VIP area is lined with faceted mirrored panels that create infinite reflections

Guests arrive at the main bar and lounge in front of a sunken conversation pit, wrapped with a wavy banquette and furnished with soft armchairs gathered around a series of small tables.

The carpet, the leather and the velvet chair upholstery are shades of green – colours also found in the richly veined stone tabletops.

Seating area in a niche featuring dark wood-veneer panels — Other niches with additional seating feature dark wood-veneer panels

A giant halo-like chandelier with tiers of glowing crystal hangs from the ceiling above, providing a central focal point that can be seen from every corner.

At the rear of the space is a gently curved, dramatically patterned stone bar, topped with a row of metallic Flowerpot lamps by Verner Panton.

Conversation pit with carpet, chairs and banquettes in various shades of green — In the central conversation pit, various shades of green were chosen for the carpet, chairs and banquettes

The back bar is housed within an elongated pill-shaped, mirrored recess, which displays a wide range of liquor bottles and is ringed with stepped cove lights.

Golden drapes run floor to ceiling across the back wall and are reflected in more mirrors on the ceiling.

Seats and banquette surrounding a table with a richly veined stone top — The green hues of the seating are echoed in the richly veined stone tabletops

Off the main lounge are various niches and VIP areas that offer additional seating, some lined with dark wood-veneer panels.

“See or be seen, each area is composed of its own suave and purpose that echoes into the next,” said the team.

One organically shaped space is lined with faceted, smokey mirrored panels that create infinite reflections, and features a banquette that wraps around a large table fitted with a giant ice bucket for chilling drinks.

An important factor in the design was the lighting, which comprises under-seat and ceiling coves, along with wall lights with five globe-shaped diffusers attached to vertical brass rods.

Patterned crushed velvet and leather banquette — Patterned crushed velvet covers the curved banquette back, while the seat is wrapped in leather

“In the pursuit of perpetual allure, where lighting not only transforms spaces, but perceptions, The Pinky Ring unveils a strategic lighting innovation, schemed to make people look and feel their best,” the team said.

“Through a strategic interplay of low-level, contrast, and accent lighting, The Pinky Ring lighting design unveils the unseen.”

Mars joins a long line of famous musicians to open entertainment venues. Among others is singer Justin Timberlake, who put his name behind an AvroKO-designed Nashville dining and drinking destination in 2021.

Bathroom with a large circular mirror and walls lined in pink-red stone tiles — Pink-red stone tiles across the bathroom walls nod to the lounge’s name

Yabu Pushelberg was founded by George Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg in 1980, and the studio has designed some of the most recognisable hospitality interiors over the past four decades.

Shortlisted for Dezeen Awards 2021 design studio of the year and judges for the program in 2023, Yabu Pushelberg’s recent projects include the Moxy and AC Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles – of several they’ve completed for the Moxy brand – and The Londoner hotel on Leicester Square in the UK capital.

The photography is by Sean Davidson.

Reference

Canadian design studio Yabu Pushelberg has created the Moxy and AC Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles to encapsulate a variety of references to the surrounding city.

The two hotels were placed side by side within a Gensler-designed building in central Los Angeles, with Yabu Pushelberg carrying out the design for both hotels.

The designers used a variety of LA-oriented references across both hotels, referencing local artist culture, streetlife, the desert, as well as the imagery of movies from Hollywood.

Moxy hotel lobby with motorcycle — The Moxy Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles was designed based on deserts and cinema

“Moving making and the California Dream are all mashed up together to create this atmosphere,” studio co-founder George Yabu told Dezeen.

“We also captured the grittiness,” added co-founder Glenn Pushelberg.

The hotels were designed to complement each other, providing various experiences for guests, who the team hopes can be staying in one while visiting the bars and restaurants of the others.

Moxy Hotel Los Angeles lobby — Yabu Pushelberg wanted to challenge guests with a sense of “grittiness”

According to the duo, the hotels are meant to be the day and nighttime versions of the same person or “like the same person in different movies”.

AC Hotel provides a more work-oriented vision and the Moxy representing a more dimly lit atmosphere.

Plush furniture in Moxy lounge — The Moxy includes lounge areas with plush furniture

Using desert themes and references to the 1969 film Easy Rider starring Peter Fonda, the Moxy has rammed earth walls, woven wall hangings and homages to motorcycle culture with a custom pouf designed with Harley Davidson in mind. It even has a motorcycle in the lobby lounge.

“If you look at the materialities and colors and textures, it is kind of off-off, which makes it on,” said Pushelberg.

AC hotel with custom Yabu Pushelberg rug and wall hanging — AC Hotel is more restrained

Also in the Moxy’s lobby is a snakeskin-like carpet with a graphic of a snake.

The hotel includes studio spaces above the lobby with neon lights and plush furniture; minimal rooms with tile and stone walls; and a bar inspired by the “roadside gas station” with mottled stone countertops, metal mesh liquor cabinets and “cocoon-like” chairs.

Black table in Hotel AC Los Angeles — The AC Hotel is meant to evoke the artist’s loft

The AC Hotel is more restrained. The lobby is on the 34th floor and was designed to evoke the “artist’s loft” with views of the city below. Materials were inspired by Spanish architecture – such as textured plaster and stucco.

These details continue throughout the bars, guestrooms and library lounge, with the addition of wooden sculptures and dark black tile.

Yabu Pushelberg designed the carpets in the guest rooms to “reflect the geometric pattern and color story found throughout the hotel” and contrast the birch wood flooring.

According to the team, the hotels together are meant to bring together a variety of local influences to attract people to the downtown core.

“It’s a perfect time for the hotels to be there because all these different types of people have never ever had a reason to go downtown,” said Pushelberg, who referenced the growing gallery scene in the area as an additional inspiration.

Hotel AC lobby overlooking Los Angeles — The AC’s lobby is on the 34th floor of the building

The design follows a slew of other hotels designed for LA’s downtown, including Hotel Per La designed by Jaqui Seerman, which occupies a 1920s bank building.

A division of Marriot, Moxy has dozens of hotels around the world, including a recent addition in New York’s Lower East Side designed by Michaelis Boyd and Rockwell Group.

Reference

Yabu

Bruno Mars and Yabu Pushelberg design cocktail lounge in Las Vegas

Yabu Pushelberg references multi-faceted LA culture in conjoined hotels

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