But she declined to speculate on whether the Vdara’s wall is acting as one. Its pool lies at the center of this southern-facing wall, on top of a low-rise building that is three stories tall.Ī concave reflective surface can act “as a lens,” according to Kerry Haglund at the Center for Sustainable Building Research, which is at the University of Minnesota. There is no tall building farther south to block the sun’s hot afternoon rays, so Vdara receives the full brunt. The crescent’s southern-facing side is concave. Viewed from above, the Vdara tower resembles a crescent. Pintas’ theory is that Vdara’s curved southern wall acts as a parabola to collect and intensify the afternoon rays, which it then reflects. Many disposable plastic cups are made of polypropylene, which melts at about 160 degrees. Plastic shopping bags are often made of polyethylene, which melts at between 120 and 130 degrees. “This is a real risk to pool guests and pool employees,” Pintas concludes. “Glare sounds like what a politician or insurance attorney would call it. Does glare “painfully heat your hair (and scalp)?” he asked in an e-mail after he returned to Chicago. Pintas disagrees strongly with the “glare” terminology. “It’s like 20 degrees hotter” wherever the reflection is hitting, another one said. But several employees recognized the “Vdara death ray” nickname, and readily spoke about the effect. The Review-Journal’s other visit was well past noon, so the phenomenon was gone. At this time of year, the bright reflection is present for about an hour and a half, both before noon and after, according to the young man. An employee pointed out the zone and said it was “like a magnifying glass that shines down” over a space about 10 feet by 15 feet, which moves as the Earth rotates. The “hot spot” was visible during one of the visits, but no guests were in its reach. Employees did not know they were talking to a reporter. Pintas snapped a photo of the bag, which he shared with the newspaper.Īfter Pintas’ experience, a Review-Journal reporter went to the Vdara pool twice. Holes marked where the letters, in black ink, had absorbed the heat. The portion of bag bearing the name Vdara had entirely melted away. Then he noticed something more - a flimsy plastic bag holding his newspaper had partially melted. He remembered that a patron nearby laughed, and said something like, It got you, too? Sometimes it causes disposable drink glasses to melt, a cocktail waitress added.Īfter the intense reflection had passed, Pintas returned to his lounge chair. “Yes, we call it the death ray,” he says they told him. He said they chuckled when he described what had happened. Taking brief refuge at the pool’s bar area, Pintas chatted with employees. It was about 12:20 p.m., as best Pintas can recall. Then he smelled an odor, and realized it was coming from his head, where a bit of hair had been scorched. “I started running as fast as I could without looking like a lunatic.” “I was effectively being cooked,” Pintas said. He tried to put on his flip-flop sandals but, inexplicably, they were too hot to touch. He was on his stomach, relaxed, eyes closed.īut suddenly, the lawyer became so uncomfortably hot that he leaped up to move. 16, after a brief dip in the hotel pool, he was sunning on a recliner. Pintas told the Review-Journal that at midday Sept. A lawyer, he was here on business for Preferred Capital Lending, which he co-owns. But that’s not enough, Absher acknowledged, as some pool guests are still uncomfortable.Ĭhicago visitor Bill Pintas experienced Vdara’s “death ray” recently. The film scatters more than 70 percent of reflected rays. He went on to say that designers are already working with resort staff to come up with solutions.ĭesigners foresaw the issue, and thought they had solved it by installing a high-tech film on the south-facing glass panes, according to Gordon Absher, the MGM spokesman. Hotel pool employees call the phenomenon the “Vdara death ray.”Ī spokesman for MGM Resorts International, which owns Vdara, said he prefers the term “hot spot” or “solar convergence” to describe it. The tall, sleek, curving Vdara Hotel at Cit圜enter on the Strip is a thing of beauty.īut the south-facing tower is also a collector and bouncer of sun rays, which - if you’re at the hotel’s swimming pool at the wrong time of day and season - can singe your hair and melt your plastic drink cups and shopping bags.
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