Sometimes the biggest power players are the ones who stay behind the scenes.
Architect Brad Friemutter may not be a household name, but together with the firm he founded in 1992, the Friedmutter Group, he has provided the design muscle behind some of the most expensive integrated resorts and casinos in the world: the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, Harrah's in Atlantic City, and the recently opened Studio City in Macau, just to name a few.
His projects are often worth billions — Studio City (where he designed the casino, lobby, and porte-cochère) publishes at $3.2 billion — and the resort owners he works with are usually billionaires.
"They know all of the nicest things in the world. They’ve been to the nicest hotels, and restaurants, and places in the world," Friedmutter told Business Insider. "We as designers have to have seen those places as well, so that we understand."
We recently caught up with Friedmutter and his wife Kimberly to hear a bit more about their jet-setting lifestyle.
Friedmutter is originally from Queens, in New York City, but eventually made his way out to the West Coast after landing a job with Bank of America in San Francisco. After starting work with a designer who focused on casinos, he became acquainted with Steve Wynn, who took a liking to Friedmutter's work and eventually promoted him to VP of design and construction on the Golden Nugget. In 1992, Friedmutter started his own firm, which has worked on a number of projects in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, and Macau. The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas is one of their biggest and most expensive projects to date.
But when you're working on integrated resorts and casinos, every project is big, as competition along the Las Vegas Strip can be fierce.
The way to survive in such a competitive and loud environment, Friedmutter says, is to know your customer. "What the business traveler is looking for, what the gaming traveler is looking for — it's all different," he said. "It's a very interesting business because they’re open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. And they have to figure out how to fill those rooms and get people to come there in different seasons. It even varies during the day."
See the rest of the story at Business Insider