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The Las Vegas Flamingo Hotel

A first-time visit to the Las Vegas “Strip” will over whelm most tourists. The overly ornate architecture, the bright lights, and an aura of sanctioned decadence inundate the senses and entice each visitor into a fantasy world of pleasure and daring.

Every new casino resort on the Strip, it seems, has an historical theme attached to it. Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome are represented. The era of the French and Italian renaissance is represented; even the age of privateers on the Barbary Coast can be found entwined with the glitter of highly polished slot machines and ubiquitous tables of chance. And while each year it seems some new casino opens on or near the Strip with yet another exotic theme, there is still the opportunity for visitors to experience the feel and excitement of what was, the original Las Vegas.

Built in 1946, by the infamous Bugsy Siegel, the Flamingo Hotel resides in the heart of the Las Vegas Strip. Its bright pink sign, featured in nearly every movie shot on location in Las Vegas, has come to symbolize the city and the freewheeling characters who forged its beginnings. And while corporate newcomers to Las Vegas invest millions on developing themes to attract guests, the Flamingo, with its simple, albeit gaudy Miami Beach theme, consistently maintains a year-round 90 percent occupancy rate.

To find out how this famous hotel and casino manages to consistently stay on top and cater to the needs of the hundreds of thousands of tourists who visit each year, the Chief Engineer decided to pay a visit to the hotel and meet the folks that work behind the scenes, keeping the Flamingo one of the finest hotels in Las Vegas.

We arrived at the Flamingo early in the morning, but from the crowds of people already strolling along the street or occupying places at the slot machines visible through the hotel’s open air entry fronting the Strip, you couldn’t really be certain of what time it was. It was mid-November when we visited the hotel and we took note of a major construction project underway on the northern part of the structure. We would soon learn that a new $20 million dollar restaurant and nightclub would be occupying the space. Named Margaritaville, the nightclub, which had a December 2003 planned opening date, is designed to enhance the Flamingo traditional Florida theme with a slightly more up-to-date Jimmy Buffet, south beach flair.

As we made our way to the engineering offices, we were amazed to see the bustle of construction activity, which seemed to be everywhere we looked. Entering the hotel’s back area, we passed carpentry, upholstery, electrical and sign shops and took note of the various labor union signs, proudly displayed on each shop door.

Finally reaching our destination, we were met by the man who was orchestrating everything that was happening around us. Gary Cox is the Director of Engineering Services at the Flamingo.

Originally from a small farming community outside of Peoria, Illinois, Gary worked in a chemical plant for 16 years before moving to Las Vegas. He began work at the Flamingo 24 years ago as an electrician and eventually was promoted into his present management position.

Married to his wife, Shirley, for 43 years, Gary has three sons who are all employed in the hospitality industry. When he is not busy at his job, he enjoys working as an amateur nature photographer.

We began our interview by having Gary tell us a little about the Flamingo’s history. “We are the oldest property on the Strip,” he began. “Originally constructed as a 770 room hotel, we now have 3,642 guest rooms, encompassing 4,100,000 square feet.”

Gary went on to tell us how Bugsy Siegal first established the hotel in 1946. In the early 1970’s, Hilton Properties acquired it along with the Las Vegas Hilton from Kirk Kirkorian, who then went to the MGM Properties. “In 1976, the first phase of expansion began with the construction of a 500 room tower and casino,” he said. Today, Gary told us, “Park Place Entertainment”, which was created in 1991 when Hilton Properties split its gaming division into a separate entity, presently owns the Flamingo. He also told us that Park Place Entertainment would undergo a name change on January 1st of 2004 to Caesar’s World Entertainment.

Responsible for a year-round staff of 135 and an annual operating budget of $20 million, Gary told us that most of the work performed at the Flamingo is done with in-house staff. “During remodeling we may temporarily increase our staff up to 350 people,” he said.

“The backbone of our staff is the operating engineers. Seventy operating engineers work here on permanent staff and during renovations, that number may increase to around 150,” Gary said.

Gary told us that the Flamingo’s operating engineers were represented by the International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 501.

“The Operating Engneers Union has one of the best training programs around,” he said. “Local 501 has a large training facility in Las Vegas that provides both basic and advanced training for their members.”

“We require at least five years experience from someone before we will consider hiring him or her,” he said. “We provide excellent benefits to our employees, but we expect excellence from them as well. That’s where the engineers training program comes into play, providing us with employees that have the skills we need to do the job and maintain a first class facility.”

“We use our engineers as plumbers and electricians here,” Gary said. “We have painters and carpenters’ unions represented here, but in the casino business, all of our plumbers and electricians are represented by the operating engineers union”.

“We do all of our own remodeling work of restaurants and guest rooms,” he said. “We are getting ready now to do a 2,600 room remodeling project, starting December 1st. Gary projected that the project would take about five months to complete.

Gary remains very active within the profession of power engineering, and serves as the Secretary and Treasurer of the Nevada chapter of the National Institute for the Uniform Licensing of Power Engineers (NIULPE). NIULPE is a national licensing and certification program for operating engineers and many states and municipalities throughout the U.S. recognize their licenses.

Air conditioning within the Flamingo is accomplished with 7,100 tons of Carrier and York centrifugal chillers. Heating and process steam is provided by four Kewanee water-tube, package boilers, each operating at 100 psig. Bundle tube heat exchangers convert the boiler’s steam into high temperature hot water that is circulated throughout the facility for heating.

“We get hit really hard here when we host conventions,” Gary told us. “Everyone is getting up at about the same time and our demand for hot water and HVAC hits all at once. That’s when we will operate all four boilers,” he said. “Most other times we operate with two boilers and keep the two on stand-by”.

Guest rooms have independent fan/coil units with remote thermostats. Future plans may call for the installation of an automation system to regulate the guest room units and conserve energy, but Gary remains cautious about implementing any program that could compromise the comfort of the guests.

“In 1996 we experimented with one tower, installing infrared motion detectors that were activated by guest room doors,” he explained. “When the door to the room opened, the detector would look for a human presence. If it detected one, it would activate the fan/coil unit in the room until the door was opened again, and no human presence could be detected.”

Gary said that their initial research showed that there were problems with installation of stand-alone motion detectors, especially when guests went to sleep. By using the opening of the guest room door to activate the infrared system, they hoped to eliminate this problem.

“Although the concept looked good on paper, the system required constant maintenance and repair and the cost to keep it up far outweighed the savings benefit, and we eventually had to abandon the system.”

Despite that one setback, Gary and his team has managed to make energy conservation one of their main priorities at the Flamingo.

“Using 1987 as our baseline energy year, we have managed an energy savings of $2 million per year as of this date.”

Plate heat exchangers and economizers, installed on air handlers, have allowed the hotel to operate in a free cooling mode. “We will get about 4,000 hours a year out of our plate heat exchangers. That’s 4,000 hours where we are not runing our chillers for air-conditioning.”

Variable frequency drives have been installed on all large air-handlers, pumps and the cooling towers within the facility as well, Gary explained. All of the VFD’s are tied into a Johnson Controls, Yamis building automation system. In addition, the BAS handles the lighting and ventilation system within the structure.

As for ventilation, some areas within the facility, such as the restaurants, operate with a variable air volume system. The casino is maintained with a constant volume system, utilizing 100 percent outside air to meet ASHRAE Standard 62 for smoking areas.

As for utilities, Gary told us that the natural gas used for the facility is purchased through a broker. Deregulation of electrical service in Nevada has apparently been stalled by concerns arising from the problems experienced in California following deregulation. Emergency power is provided by gas/diesel generators, capable of producing 4,000 kW of electrical power.

“In 1985 we had computer programmers design an operating management system for us. It generates work orders and tracks costs specific to our needs”. He went on to tell us that each year, the program is updated to capture new equipment and to be compatible with new systems.

To make things as convenient as possible for guests, the Flamingo provides guests with just one telephone number that need be used to provide for any of their needs. Directed from a central call center, employees are dispatched by handheld radios to provide whatever service a guest requires.

Our tour of the facility brought us to numerous equipment rooms where we were impressed by the neat and orderly appearance of all the equipment we found. Stopping occasionally to speak with engineering staff members, we were impressed by their professionalism and depth of knowledge. We were also grateful for the time they took to explain to us how their equipment worked.

Following along with Gary, we emerged into what is quite possible the best kept secret in all of Las Vegas. In the heart of the complex, a massive 350,000 gallon lagoon, complete with waterfalls and abounding with exotic wildlife greets the lucky visitors who stay at the Flamingo, or just happen to find their way into this hidden Eden. No chemicals of any kind are used in the lagoon. The water’s purity is maintained by a carefully orchestrated bio-diversity program maintained there, supplemented by a state-of-art filtration system.

Gary told us that in preparation for creating this attraction, he traveled around the world to see what could be done and what animals would be needed to provide the perfect biological balance. In 1996, the attraction was created to the delight of the thousands who bask in the tranquility and beauty of this beautiful and serene setting.As we said goodbye and left the Flamingo Hotel, we did so with the feeling that we had found something very special in Las Vegas. While the Strip is constantly abuzz with tourists and a hustle bustle atomsphere permeates the city, we now know of a single beautiful place where one can always go to slow down that pace and collect one’s thoughts. And thanks to Gary Cox and the wonderful men and women on his staff, we know that whenever we are in the mood for Las Vegas, the Flamingo will be ready to serve our needs.

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