While in Las Vegas last week for the 2009 HD Expo, I had the pleasure of touring the beautiful new Encore, Steve Wynn’s 50-story, US$2.3-billion sister property of the neighboring Wynn Las Vegas. Though I easily could have wandered through the breathtaking property alone for hours, I was fortunate enough to be led by longtime Wynn collaborator and chief designer Roger Thomas. Along the way, he offered some interesting insight …

(For more on the Encore, read “Wynn’s Encore design raises bar for luxury.”)

The first stop on our tour was a restaurant called Switch. What looked at first like an unassuming (by Vegas standards) upscale bistro soon proved itself the most dynamic space in the hotel.

The restaurant is what Wynn called “dinner theatre, but without the actors,” Thomas told us. Throughout the course of a 1.5 hour seating, the scenery literally undergoes a progression—a “switch”—in three acts. Every 30 minutes, a dramatic swell of music overtakes the space as the exterior walls lift up or slide out, the lighting changes and the ceiling folds open, revealing theatrical chandeliers.

With the flourish of dramatic music, the exterior walls slide up into the ceiling, revealing honey-combed glasswork or …	… exotic layered draping.)

A similar switch happens with the ceiling, which opens like a folding closet to reveal …	… bubbled chandeliers made by the team that designed the set pieces for the Broadway hit “Wicked.”

As we left Switch, we walked along the side of the main casino floor. Thomas used soft draping to divide what is an otherwise massive floor space into “enclosed” seating areas to give gamblers a sense of intimacy.

Just off the casino floor was Society Café Encore, a casual-cool restaurant featuring new takes on classic American cuisine. But while the food is inspired by the tastes of home, the setting was inspired by a man across the pond. Thomas, a huge fan of the classic British author/poet/playwright Oscar Wilde, said Society is a reimagining of the types of dining clubs the witty wordsmith must have frequented.

With such dramatic use of black and white, combined with flourishes of red, it’s easy to see why Oscar Wilde was such an inspired wordsmith.

The next dining option we encountered was Wazuzu, an innovative pan-Asian showcase of Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Singaporean and Thai cuisines. The décor was much more subtle here—with the exception of a 27-foot long crystal dragon that sprawled across the back wall. The dragon’s head curls out over the largest—and most requested—booth in the house.

Though the booth beneath the dragon’s head is the most requested in the restaurant, patrons often ask to be moved elsewhere, fearing the massive crystal statuette will fall on them mid-meal.

After a long walk down a corridor with shops, we came to XS, “the hottest nightclub in Vegas,” Thomas assured us. After walking in, it wasn’t difficult to see why. The walls were filled with a horde of eager clubgoers trying to break into the scene through a decadent gold sheet. The display immediately set the stage for the level of exclusivity and grandeur that is XS. The main club room was swathed in a palette of gold and brown, and laid out in a circular fashion surrounding the central dance floor. And in lieu of a traditional disco ball? A crystal-plated “disco chandelier.”

These static club goers appear to be trying to break through a gold curtain to enter the nightclub.

Scattered throughout restaurants and cafes, on carpets and on ceilings, tiled into floors and painted on walls, are a single motif—butterflies. Thomas said the playful creatures reflect the uniqueness of the property because “no two butterflies are alike.” They also exude the beauty and grace of the property’s overall design, something I can attest to after a two-hour tour.