Gehry's Revenge

Frank Gehry said he would NEVER design a building to be built in Las Vegas. Well as the old saying goes, never say never.

Visitors walking into the Lou Ruvo Cleveland Clinic from the parking lot are greeted by this inviting bench made from rock, but driving up from the opposite corner of the property  Da da duhm....

GEHRY's Revenge

Now living in LasVegas, there is a whole new world of lingo one must learn.
LasVegas doesn't have gambling, it has gaming.
LasVegas doesn't have alcohol it has spirits.

The bank role behind this building is a man who has spirit, has spirits, sells spirits and makes a lot of money from spirits.  The reason behind this building was that his father passed away from the affects of Alzheimer's.  Larry Ruvo had a dream to find a cure to the disease by attracting a prestigious national medical research facility to study neurocognitive disorders a group to Las Vegas. Ruvo arranged a meeting with Frank Gehry.  Gehry had previously vowed to never design a building for LasVegas because Las Vegas has a ". . . cacophony of high-rise casinos and condos forming the spine of Sin City's sprawl."  but Ruvo pressed on because of his dream

Ruvo was able to get Gehry to renounce his vow "Vegas Vow" because Gehry's pet cause of curing Huntington's disease fell under the umbrella of  the clinic.  Working with Gehry's name he was able to attract the Cleveland Clinic.

Ruvo and Gehry came up with the concept of having a building with two distinct parts.  Part one is the fund raising wing and part two is the clinic.  The fund raising wing is why Ruvo sought out Gehry. Ruvo a distributor of "spirits" had an aha moment when he was thinking about the building he wanted to have.  It is said that one day he was thinking of his building when he realized that although he had over 100 different types of Vodka in his warehouse, four of them make up 90% of his sales.  Now I am told that all Vodka tastes a like so the only difference is the packaging.  Ruvo wanted a package that would attract fund raising dollars. The main eye catching portion of the design  is a 9000 square foot open structure where activities can be scheduled.  The room rents for $5,000 per night on weekdays and $10,000 per night on the weekends.
  

The clinic portion of the building has no lobby's for waiting rooms.  People as they come in are either escorted up to the medical imaging section or upstairs straight to one of 27 examining rooms.  Each examination room is different.  All design is based on research done on patients who are in varying stages of the disease with the primary goal of making them as comfortable as possible.  Ruvo's whole purpose is to "keep memory alive".

So there you have it.  Gehry's revenge is not the building in Las Vegas but the means to find a cure against neurocognitive disorders.

P.S.  I chose not to mention the irony of  alcohol use to brain function because the potential affects of Alzheimer's is all to real to me.  And, I am grateful for what this may mean to my family.