Hard Rock’s Guitar Tower Construction is Well Under Way

By Scott Roeben, on April 08 2025
3 min read 9 comments
Las Vegas Las Vegas Hotels

After months of demolition and site preparation, the guitar hotel tower at Hard Rock Las Vegas (previously Mirage) is starting to look like a thing.

Feel like you’ve missed something? Don’t fret. It’s time for a guitar tower construction update. Because guitars have “frets.” Please keep up.

Hard Rock Las Vegas is expected to open in 2027, so let’s see what’s up with this magnificent erection expected to change the Las Vegas skyline forever.

Some things have transpired since your last visit.

Hard Rock’s guitar tower sits where the Mirage’s volcano was. The existing Mirage hotel structure will undergo a major renovation. The guitar tower, however, is being built from scratch.

The Seminoles, owners of Hard Rock, have spent months getting ready for this build, including clearing the space, setting up temporary facilities for workers and digging down to the appropriate depth for foundations. The depth of the building’s foundations is determined by things like soil conditions, load-bearing capacity and the building’s final height.

Hard Rock’s guitar tower will be 660 feet tall, which we consider a missed opportunity because if it was 666, it would be all the numbers on a roulette wheel added up. Circa tried something similar when it announced it would have 777 rooms, but that ended up being a P.R. hook (the industry term is “hooey”). Hard Rock probably made the right decision, especially given nobody wants the “number of the beast” attached to their fancy new casino.

Fun fact: The number of the beast in Las Vegas is 866-740-7711, the reservation line for David Copperfield tickets. The more you know.

Las Vegas is all over the place architecturally, so the guitar tower will fit right in.

Penta Building Group is doing the Hard Rock’s guitar tower, McCarthy Building Companies is doing the overhaul of the existing hotel structure.

Workers are currently completing the podium foundation and starting on the “flyer columns,” the starting point for the base of the guitar tower.

A “podium” is a large, multi-story structure that provides the base for the tower above. So, at this point, it’s a base guitar. We’ll be here all week.

For the Hard Rock guitar tower, this large slab serves both as a foundation and the lower floors of the hotel.

The podium involves formwork (steel and wood forms are placed to mold the foundation’s shape), reinforcement (steel reinforcement bars are placed to provide structural integrity to the slab) and concrete pouring.

Passersby can now see flyer columns sprouting up on the Hard Rock site.

Yes, cement and concrete tend to cure faster in desert environments. LFG.

The term “building up the flyers” refers to constructing flyer columns or flyer walls—vertical structural elements that extend from the podium foundation to help carry the weight of the tower.

Flyer columns are vertical steel or concrete columns that provide support for the structure above. Flyer walls are reinforced concrete or steel walls that provide both support and resistance against lateral forces (wind, seismic activity).

Construction dudes are the unsung heroes of Las Vegas. Consider yourselves sung!

Next up, the core and superstructure.

Pillars and beams will begin rising above the podium level. These are the skeletal framework of the building.

Screw tariffs, Vegas has shit to do.

The cladding (external facade) can begin installation in parallel with the superstructure work. This includes windows, curtain walls, and exterior panels that will form the outer skin of the tower.

Speaking of windows, there are some window tests being done on the old Mirage parking structure.

We told you about this back in Jan. 2024.

All of these steps, including what’s to come, is a painstakingly planned intercourse between engineers, contractors, architects and workers.

We wanted to get closer, but our reflective vest was at the cleaners.

In recent years, there haven’t been many ground-up hotel construction jobs. Resorts World opened in 2021 on the bones of the abandoned Echelon project. Circa was a ground-up build, it opened in 2020. Cosmo opened in 2010. Dream started then stalled. Tilman Fertitta’s planned resort on the Strip is shelved. Nothing is happening at the Tropicana site.

Mirage closed on July 17, 2024, a reminder to not take things for granted.

You know we’ll keep you in the loop on progress at Hard Rock Las Vegas, including the new guitar tower.

When people see its spectacularity, they’ll forget all about that cheesy volcano and gaze in wonder at the newest addition to Sin City’s collection of eye candy that includes Sphere, Fremont Street Experience, the Bellagio fountains and us that one time we wore a tuxedo to the Circa opening.