Mohegan Sun, Phase II

Cost: $50 million

Development Team

Owner: Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority, Uncasville, Conn.
Developer: Trading Cove Associates, Waterford, Conn.
Construction Manager: Perini Corp., Framingham, Mass.
Theming Design Architect: Rockwell Group Architecture, NYC Structural Engineer: DeSimone Consulting Engineers, NYC
Water Features Design Consultant: Cloward & Associates, Provo, Utah
Theming Contractor (Wombi Rock): George M. Raymond Co., Orange, Calif.
Theming Contractor (Turtle Shell): Alexander Manufacturing Inc., Portland, Ore.

It took a lot of engineering reality to create the fantasy world in the expansion of the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Conn.

Overall, the build-out, an addition to the already existing 100,000-sq.-ft. casino, cost $800 million and involved 4 million sq. ft. of construction.

Last year, the project reached completion with the opening of the hotel and meeting space. This final phase cost approximately $50 million.

The hotel's three major theme elements - the Taughannick Falls, the Turtle Shell and the Wombi Rock - raised unusual challenges for interior design architects Rockwell Group Architecture Planning and Design PC and DeSimone Consulting Engineers, the project's structural engineers.

The Taughannick Falls are two series of 45-ft. waterfalls set opposite from one another in the retail corridor facing the hotel lobby entrance. The Turtle Shell is a three-dimensional tube frame in the shape of a turtle. Its footprint is 75 by 60 ft. and it rises 30 ft. into the air. The Wombi Rock is a 60-ft.-tall structure designed to look like a two-peaked, glowing mountain, with a dance floor and a bar on its second-floor mezzanine overlooking the casino. Two 40-ft. tall arches support the twin peaks.

Within each peak lies a moment frame that is offset from the panels by no more than 4 ft.