A Foot in the Past, Another in the Future

By McKee, David

Trying to keep pace with who owns what on the Strip or which downtown condo project is happening and which one is headed for oblivion? To find the answers to those questions, and others, it’s imperative to go ‘behind the Orange curtain.’

From his home in the Orange County city of Costa Mesa, Calif., do- it-yourself cartographer and Web designer Mark Adams, 51, publishes one of the most authoritative Internet sites devoted to Sin City, www.VegasTodayandTomorrow.com A former technicalsupport advisor for home automation, Adams “did not intend to go into business” as Vegas’ unofficial mapmaker. But what began as a hobby has evolved into a 14-hour-a-day job.

Launched in May 2005, Adams’ magnum opus was recently awarded a ‘Trippy’ for ‘Best Web Site’ by voters at www.VegasTrippingcom. Harrah’s Entertainment spokesman Alberto Lopez also vouched for the “accurate information at the Web site VegasTodayandTomorrow.com. It shows the immenseness of the continuous acreage that we have on and adjacent to the Strip.” Lopez even gave Adams’ coverage higher marks for accuracy than that of the Las Vegas Sun.

This online museum, with its 127 pages and approximately 900 images, isn’t just casinos and condos. “I’m talking about Fremont East,” Adams said, “the bridge going over Hoover Dam; anything of interest or scope in the valley gets covered.”

WYNN GOT IT STARTED

Adams’ vast enterprise grew out of a series of frustrations. The first occurred when Steve Wynn announced what is now Wynn Las Vegas. Intrigued, Adams went onto the Web, in search of renderings. “Well, there weren’t any,” he recalled. “Steve Wynn never releases renderings. So I started to research. I found out who the architects were. I went to the architects’ Web sites, looking for renderings. Nothing. I went to the construction companies’ Web sites. Not a thing. All I found anywhere was this single paragraph with Steve Wynn’s big promise of a fabulous place.”

But, in the process, Adams found tons of other projects. Being unable to find one Internet site that gathered every Vegas undertaking within one portal, he decided to create his own.

Doing so would enable Adams to rectify some of his frustrations with the Web itself. “When I go on a Web site I get frustrated sometimes because they’re so poorly designed,” he said, sitting in the Fireside Lounge of the Peppermill Restaurant, a cup of black coffee and a pack of Marlboros at his right hand. “Navigation is terrible. Information is sparse or scattered, or it’s very unprofessionally put together.”

The designer-by-necessity says concision of information is his forte, boiling six-page articles into a paragraph. “It’s not a very wordy Web site,” he added. “It needed to be easy to navigate and it had to have a pretty face on it.”

COKE OR PEPSI?

The manifold categories on Adams’ site run the gamut from “Wacky Comparisons” (Luxor Hotel & Casinos pyramid vs. Giza’s ancient one, for instance) to “Dreams” (including projects that never got built) and even a photo quiz. One of Adams’ favorite features, however, is “The Coke-or-Pepsi Map,” showing which casinos are vassals of the two soft drink oligarchs.

“I’ve been contacted by both Coke and Pepsi,” Adams revealed. “Coke commissioned a large version for their sales office, and Pepsi keeps calling me to tell me they’ve conquered yet another property and to change the color. It’s a wonderful, ongoing battle between those two.”

For all the fun, Adams still has to pay the bills. “The ads from the Web site, that keeps a roof over my head,” he said, “and I sell (customized) version of my maps to developers, architects, real estate agents, title companies, investment bankers.” And how much does he charge them? “We’ll just leave that off the record,” Adams laughed.

The consultant-turned-cartographer gives Luxury Realty Group’s Aaron Auxier the credit for launching his second career: “He was my first client. He contacted me because he has some really good Vegas Web sites, and he wanted maps on (them) and found no maps like mine.

“Aaron looked at those and said, ‘That’s exactly what I want on my real estate Web site. ‘We worked out a price, worked out a licensing plan and he was my first job.” Others followed. Verge, a downtown affordable-living project, wanted a five-by-five version of Adams’ master map, while Streamline Tower, not to be outdone, purchased a nine-by-nine blowup. “I’ve had these development companies that want eight different versions of the map,” Adams continued. “People want their project highlighted. Or they want the map colored differently for their sales office, to match the decor.”

THE LION IS NOT AMUSED

Such quirks don’t bother Adams, nor do the long hours. “I’m relaxing in my home,” he said of his office. “I have very low overhead. The boss is great: I can smoke at my desk and do whatever I want.

“Most companies play beyond nice with me,” he added, thanking him and giving him even more renderings. MGM Mirage, however, is an exception. At one point, Adams had compiled every Project CityCenter rendering to date. “It was fun to see the progression – or the degression – of the design.”

Then MGM Mirage’s lawyers called, demanding that Adams quit “misrepresenting their product.” MGM Mirage wouldn’t want people to see a rendering that shows rooftop gardens, he explains, if they’ve now been eliminated. While Adams says the company promised to levy the same treatment against other sites carrying CityCenter images, when he looks at realtor sites, “They’re all (still) up.”

According to Adams, while MGM Mirage promised, “We’ll give you a rendering if we find your Website suitable,” what it really wants is “to homogenize my CityCenter page, which is the largest and most important on my site.”

IMPLOSIONS & ONE-ARMED BANDITS

There are consolations for the native of “Cereal City,” Battle Creek, Mich. He’s now being quoted in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Fans of his site contribute construction photographs. And he’s got a ready-made excuse to hop into his car and drive to his favorite city on earth.

“I love Las Vegas because it’s a strange, surreal place that I can get to in three hours if I feel like it,” said Adams, in town for the implosion of the Stardust. Lunchtime, however, found him still bleary-eyed from a late night of gambling down at the Aladdin Resort & Casino. “I’m sorry; four hours of sleep doesn’t do it for me,” he confessed.

“My first trip here, I drove out alone, stayed at the Sahara,” Adams recalled. “It was nostalgia for me, because that’s where I stayed when I was a kid.” He sat down at a slot machine, won about $700 and realized that, ‘Gee, these trips can even be free if you win money.’ I think,” Adams laughed, “that was the last time I came out ahead.”

Copyright Las Vegas Business Press Apr 02, 2007

(c) 2007 Las Vegas Business Press. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.