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The new dining and entertainment district The Park opened Monday between New York-New York and the Monte Carlo with the new T-Mobile Arena, opening tonight, as the anchor. The district includes dining options such as the German bier garden Beerhaus, the Japanese restaurant and entertainment center Sake Rok, California-based waffle house Bruxie and California Pizza Kitchen.
The design here mimics the surrounding Mojave Desert. Agaves, yucca and tree species of Palo Verde, Acacias and Mesquites pepper the landscape. Red meta-quartzite stone from Las Vegas Rock's Rainbow Quarry, just 30 miles from The Park, find a home in the planters.
Not to worry about the Las Vegas heat. Light-colored pavers keep the temperatures down, while most of The Park is covered with shade via fully grown trees and 55- to 75-foot shade structures that collect heat at the ground level and circulate it up. The 16 shade structures change color.
The restaurant area features U.S. Green Building Council's LEED Gold standards for Core and Shell development.
All of the furniture, shade structures, waste bins, tree grates and building structures were made with combinations of pre- and post-consumer-recycled steel, and 80 percent of all waste was recycled during construction. Even the centerpiece art installation Bliss Dance is an existing sculpture from Marco Cochrane. The 40-foot statue of a dancing woman first appeared at Burning Man in 2010.
An on-site well provides all of The Park's irrigation water, and the water sculptures run through a closed-loop system that reuses the water.