Over the spring, the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City, N.J., completed a renovation of its gaming and food-and-beverage spaces, dedicating a portion of the casino floor to Asian guests with specialized decor and games like Pai Gow Poker and Tiles. The resort also introduced Noodles, a Pan-Asian restaurant.
The design for the new spaces, developed with KNA Design, incorporates colors and symbols that represent wealth and fortune throughout Asia, said Travis Truong, vice president of international marketing at Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa. For example, the color palette combines reds and golds with taupe, ivory and grey tones for an aesthetic that would be perceived as auspicious in many Asian cultures.
Asian Inspiration
“Our team consulted cultural and Feng Shui experts to ensure the environment would feel comfortable and balanced for our guests,” Truong said, noting that the resort’s Asian Gaming Space has “a number” of games with origins in Asia or that are especially popular across Asian markets.
Matthew Ray, creative director at KNA Design, said his team was careful about implementing Asian elements in the design when they joined the project in mid-2023. “Ultimately, we don’t know what guest will play in the space or what games the Borgata will wish to host in the future,” he noted. The High Limit area uses “sinuous oval shapes” while the Baccarat space has “sharp lines” that “evoke the architectural order that’s apparent throughout Asia.”
The team, he added, made a “clear distinction” between the two areas. “We used relatively neutral and subtle concepts and designs—for example the use of the color red, fans, cherry blossoms and abstract roof lines.” The team also incorporated design elements that were inspired by Asian art but are not directly Asian, such as gilded art-deco panels in the Baccarat gaming salons. “It constitutes a complete ambiance,” Ray said.
The new Noodles restaurant maintains the Asian theme in both the menu and in the design. Using inspiration from the traditional Asian associations with noodles—longevity and prosperity—the design incorporates a “flowing” ceiling design and “intricate” flooring details. The entryway is decorated with large antique rice wine jars from the Qing Dynasty while the dining tables were made by traditional Asian woodworking. The eight-seat bar reflects the significance of the number eight in Asian culture—a symbol of luck and prosperity.
Developing a Concept
The KNA team worked alongside MGM Design and Development to go down the Borgata team’s “wish list” and see what they could implement. “There is some major infrastructure to work with that directly influenced the Baccarat space planning in particular,” Ray recalled. Throughout the process, the teams held as many as three regular calls per week with the client/operations team, the architecture/consultant team and the FF&E and procurement teams. “Communication and managing expectations is key,” he added.
Truong called the layout and lighting “defining elements” of the design. “The lighting creates a bright, welcoming atmosphere that highlights the beauty of the space,” he said, noting that the space was designed to facilitate “flow” from area to area. The proximity to the new Noodles restaurant “enhances the experience” by creating a “cohesive environment,” he added.
Ray, in turn, noted the artwork that was installed in the new spaces—both in terms of traditional art and in terms of details that were incorporated into the design elements, highlighting the embroidered walls in the High Limit gaming space as an example. “The designs for the ceilings are dynamic and innovative,” he said, praising both the craftsmanship and the contractor’s work.
Challenges and Solutions
Of course, no renovation goes entirely according to plan. Ray noted that the sharp trapezoid ceiling design in the Baccarat space seemed straightforward in the team’s documents, but when the contractor begin to install the stud structure the geometry twisted in the space. “This twist was undesirable, so we scrambled with the architect [Perkins Eastman, Dan Bedesem and Amalia Gonsalves] to create computer models to solve the issue in just hours as to not stall the construction progress,” he said, noting that time and money are the “baseline” for any endeavor. “As always, we had [to do] some value engineering to make fantasy a reality.”
The space, Truong said, is “designed to welcome a wide range of guests and will host gaming, dining, promotions and special events.” Rather than limiting the new area to the traditional concept of a gaming area, he added, the team views it as a “vibrant hub for connection and engagement.”