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The Las Vegas Strip is notorious for excessive
drinking, but what do you do with all the empties?
One designer specializing in environmental architecture answered the
question by erecting the world's largest building made entirely of
recycled beer bottles.
Building entrepreneur Scott McCombs created the 30,000-square-foot
Morrow Royal Pavilion of more than 500,000 bottles weighing 290,000lbs
that were crushed and formed into a composite material called GreenStone.
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The construction of the unusual building, which houses the firm's
manufacturing facility, helped save an estimated 400,000 cubic yards of
junk yard space - or the equivalent of eight football fields piled to
the top of the goal post, Inhabitat reported.
Nearly every element in the $1.4million edifice at 1188 Center Point
Drive in Henderson, from fireplaces to columns and balustrades, features
a glass component.
GreenStone, which acts as a concrete substitute, is created from a
combination of recycled glass crushed into tiny grains and fly ash - a
by-product from coal-fired power plants.
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The resulting concoction is then poured into molds and allowed to dry
and harden until it becomes a building material.
Most of the work on the innovative building was done by hand and took
McCombs and his family over a year to complete. The company had to
purchase a $50,000 glass crusher to pulverize the bottles on site.
The design of the 'green' structure was inspired by the Swarkestone Hall
Pavilion in England, which appeared on the cover of the Rolling Stones’
Hot Rocks album.
McCombs’ green architecture firm, Realm of Design, which created the
Vegas pavilion, launched a Facebook campaign over the summer to try and
get the Stones to visit the new building honoring their cover art, but
so far, no response has come from the band.
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The building is being used to manufacture GreenStone for Realm of
Design. It also houses a gym and a storage facility. There are even
future plans to create residential space within some of the towers,
according to World Architecture News.
According to McCombs, he first came up with the idea after seeing how
many beer bottles are discarded by casinos on the Strip and shipped over
to the city landfill.
McCombs named his palatial new edifice, located next door to the Realm
of Design showroom, the Morrow Royal Pavilion because recycling benefits
tomorrow, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
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‘I figured we couldn't get anybody's attention unless we did it in a big
way,’ said McCombs, a construction craftsman who launched the Vegas-area
business back in 1991.
Judging by the copious consumption of alcoholic beverages in Sin City,
it does not appear like McCombs is going to run out of raw material for
his concrete substitute anytime soon.
He told the Review-Journal that the 145 tons of beer and wine bottles
delivered from the Strip to his facility every week represent about
$26million in alcohol sales over a single weekend.
In a phone interview with MailOnline Wednesday night, the building
designer’s wife, Cindy McCombs, said that since the Morrow Pavilion
officially opened its doors in May 2011, they have been getting a lot of
positive feedback from neighbors.
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In terms of building costs, Mrs McCombs admitted that using the green
building technology does come at a premium, but the slightly higher cost
is offset by significant benefits.
‘It does cost us a little bit more, ‘ she said, ‘but it’s all part of
doing the right thing. It’s just a great way to get rid of glass.’
According to Mrs McCombs, who is the president of Realm of Design, she
and her husband fell in love with a castle depicted on a random poster
they had come across at a store.
After doing some digging, the family discovered that the featured
edifice was the 17th century Swarkestone Hall Pavilion in Derbyshire,
England, which graced the cover of the Stones’ first compilation album
from the years 1964-1971.
They decided to travel across the Atlantic to take a closer look at the
impressive castle surrounded by lush cow pastures in the English
countryside.
After returning home, Mr McCombs set out to create his recycled, green
version of the historic pavilion. Once all the molds were made, Cindy
McCombs said that her husband welded much of the building together
himself.
‘Scott always wanted to put something like that together,’ she said. ‘It
just kind of worked out.’ |