It’s hard to pinpoint the Las Vegas Sphere’s main attraction. Is it the headline performances in its 18,600-seat auditorium, its glowing exoskeleton, or its recently unveiled, almost supernatural interiors? In addition to its outdoor surface totaling 580,00 square feet of glowing illumination, nearly every inch of the 300,000 square feet of interior space was outfitted to match suit. ICRAVE, a design firm of Journey, led the work on the interior which has been thought out to be equally as customizable as its exterior.
The glowing globe is an entertainment venue slash billboard from Madison Square Garden Entertainment and Las Vegas Sands Corp. Eight levels are housed within the orb-shaped structure. Each is occupied by a host of entertainment-forward spaces and amenities, among this expansive bars, restaurants, exhibitor space, 23 hospitality suites, and lots and lots of lighting opportunities. Building as performance is the guiding design principle here. The walls, floors, and light fixtures surround guests and concert-goers with an unrivaled pre-game experience.
The Sphere opened to the public on September 29 with a concert from U2 in its state-of-the-art, nothing-else-like-it-in-the-world auditorium where the seats are equipped with haptic feedback and an LED screen engulfs the ceiling above. The debut concert kicked off a 25-show residency and follows a robust art and advertising campaign to illuminate The Sphere’s glowing exterior.
“We needed the surrounding spaces to live up to the promise of what’s inside the bowl and to ensure guests feel a seamless connection to the venue before even taking their seat for a show,” said Lionel Ohayon, founder and CEO of ICRAVE and cofounder of Journey. “The design of Sphere clearly delineates and accentuates the moment one leaves the default world and enters the venue, a place like nowhere else in the world.” Ohayon spoke about The Sphere and his firm’s other work, including projects for Memorial Sloan Kettering, at AN’s Tech+ conference this past fall.
Patrons enter The Sphere through the Atrium, where sculptural elements dangle from the ceiling and lighting fixed onto the walls and curved balcony faces lights up to correspond with the evening’s entertainment. The glowing hues encase the black terrazzo floors, offering guests a truly immersive experience.
The building’s round shape has informed many architectural features found inside. As a nod to this, the design team wrote out the mathematical equations used to design The Sphere itself as wall decor. To a similar note, the names of the bars—Radius Bar, the Curve Bar, the Circle Bar—also pay homage to its unique form.
