The Las Vegas Strip’s new T-Mobile store, located less than a mile away from their new arena, is not your typical neighborhood electronics store. T-Mobile’s first two-story, signature-style space serves as a vibrant, nightclub-esque showcase for the company, complete with a virtual reality display, photo booth, juice bar, and concierge ticket desk, among other features.
The 9,000 square-foot space inside Showcase mall (best known for the Coca-Cola bottle and M&M characters which embellish the Strip), replaced the Grand Canyon Experience gift shop, purchased by the Nakash family in 2014 and 2015.
T-Mobile and the numerous construction teams involved, including Giroux Glass, were managed by DC Building Group, the general contractor. Together, our teams produced a design that’s truly cutting-edge and one-of-a-kind. It was a design-build project in which Giroux Glass was critical to achieving the overall vision for the store, since we acted as the design-assist on the job, working with both T-Mobile and Nadel Architecture. The project also required several outside engineers for collaboration within short deadlines (PK Delp and ES2) to realize the custom architecture.
With the design in place, our scope for installation included:
- Exterior walls faux door (magenta)
- Structural glass wall (point supported) glass doors and above it
- Curtain wall system with insulated glass was also exterior
- Hand rails on levels 1 and 2
- Staircase
- Risers
- Glass landings on staircase (2)
- Smoke baffle above juice bar
- Glass divider walls
- Glass designed to hide the “stringer” under the staircase
- Inserts individual pieces of glass for exterior metal decorative façade
Given our wide scope, the number of vendors involved and the degree of collaboration required to complete the design and installation on this project, made this a notable project for us. There were many different players, and we all worked together to bring to life T-Mobile’s vision for their showcase store.
Glass Manufacturers:
- Gold Ray (Canada) magenta glass;
- Glasswerks;
- Innovative Structural Glass;
- Steel Structures (custom steel frame and internal standoffs for exterior wall to which they referred as a “faux door,” and glass supports)
Metal Systems Manufacturers:
- Arcadia;
- Innovative Structural Glass (point supports, glass doors and structural glass walls);
- CR Laurence (aluminum base shoe for the handrail);
- American Metals (cladding)
T-Mobile had never before created such a store, and wanted something new and unique for their highly-visible retail location. The exterior is special: starfire magenta laminated glass walls layered under a custom metal facade (Yesco). The innovative, unique design of the “faux door” which utilized custom-designed hardware support was the result of collaboration between Giroux Glass and Steel Structures. Another high-end feature is a floating glass staircase, reinforced with steel beams. The underside of the glass steps were obscured with a unique acid-etched glass stringer.
Products Used:
- Magenta glass: exterior 9/16” tempered laminated starfire glass; and vanceva starfire glass
- Staircase glass: 9/16” tempered laminated starfire glass with a grey vanceva interlayer insert
- Landing: 1” thick starfire tempered laminated glass with vanceva interlayer with anti-slip ceramic frit surface
- Baffle: 9/16” tempered laminated starfire glass with acid etch on 2nd surface and with a grey vanceva interlayer insert
- Metal framings: Curtain wall framing aluminum (supplied by Arcadia)
Types of Machinery/Equipment Used:
- Forklift
- Chain hoist to lift the steel loaded mullions for the curtain wall system; it was the most atypical piece of machinery on this project
Thank you to our Giroux Glass lead team members on the T-Mobile project, including Jenny Crone (project manager and estimator), Jim Gibson (metal fabrication), Jose Paez (shop drawings), and our field team, led by Keith Olsen (foreman) and Jesse Grubbs (superintendent). Without their skill, craftsmanship, and teamwork, this project would not be the stunning success that it is. Next time you’re in town, look out for the magenta glass and metal storefront–it’s hard to miss!
