STYLE : ARCHITECTURE : Ground Effects

In these days of stiff competition, the red-carpet treatment simply isn’t good enough. So Las Vegas hotel-casinos are rolling out acres of exquisite designer floor covering. “The main thing you see in the casino when you gamble is the floor underneath you and the ceiling above. You have to get the main design impact from the carpet,” says Charles L. Silverman of Yates-Silverman Inc. in Irvine, which created all of the Luxor and Excalibur carpet designs.

For Luxor’s public areas, there are more than 15 different patterns, all in sturdy wool-nylon blends custom-woven in Great Britain. Areas of lighter traffic, such as hotel-room corridors, received less-expensive printed nylon carpets. While Luxor motifs include lotus blossoms and palm fronds to evoke ancient Egypt, crowns and other heraldic images at Excalibur refer to knights in shining armor. The Mirage’s riot of blossoms calls to mind a tropical paradise, and Treasure Island’s flooring appears to be dripping with jewels.

Carpeting here isn’t only decorative. It mutes the din of slot machines and cushions anyone standing at the gaming tables. It also guides guests wending their way through the cavernous casinos (MGM Grand will feature a 171,500-square-foot casino with four themed areas). Given all that this floor covering accomplishes, hotels might justifiably call it magic carpet.