The Pool Went Up, and Became a Second Property

For most of casino history the pool was an amenity: a rectangle of water on the ground, behind the building, free to hotel guests, closed at dusk and closed all winter. The archive documents it becoming something else entirely — a venue with a door charge, a design budget and a peak day of its own.

The move: upward

At the Cosmopolitan, constrained by a tight urban site, the pools went on the roof — and Metro-Gaming records the team discovering that the constraint was an asset. Friedmutter's Jones: Having the pool decks on the roof actually became an advantage because it removed it from the ground plane and offered exclusivity at the various pools.

Exclusivity is the operative word. A pool you must travel to, past a control point, is a pool that can be sold. On the ground plane it is landscape; on the roof it is a venue.

The format the archive names

Beach Party gives the type its name and its rationale in a single line: The "dayclub" has become a new element of casino resorts, allowing executives to get the most out of every space in the property.

What makes a dayclub rather than a pool is programming plus infrastructure: sound, shade, service, and a second identity. Metro-Gaming describes Marquee Dayclub as an adult pool experience that doubles as an extension of Marquee nightclub — one operation, two dayparts, two atmospheres, shared back of house.

The cabana is the unit of revenue

Once the deck is a venue, it needs sellable units, and the archive is consistent about what they are. The Cosmopolitan, per Metro-Gaming: The Marquee pool has cabanas with infinity pools in each and three-story bungalows behind them that are really super suites. Revel, in Best of the Boardwalk: the pool deck with several small wading pools lined with a series of cabanas that offer guests the chance to relax in the shade. Marina Bay Sands, in Shooting for the Stars: Several pools, tropical and Japanese gardens, a traditional Japanese tea pavilion and private cabanas dot the Grand Resort Deck area, making it attractive for private and corporate functions.

Note the last clause. A deck designed with enclosable units is also an events venue, which is how it earns on days nobody is swimming.

What that costs the engineer

None of this is free, and the archive's project stories imply the bill even when they do not itemise it. A pool on a podium roof is a structural problem (water is heavy and it moves), a waterproofing problem over occupied space, and a services problem — filtration plant, kitchen, bar, toilets and back-of-house circulation all have to get up there without crossing guests. Shade structures on an exposed deck are a wind-loading question. Sound is a neighbour question.

The projects that get it right in these pages share one trait: the deck was in the scheme from the start, not added to a roof designed as a roof.

The wider outdoor turn

The pool deck is one case of a broader move outdoors that runs through the archive. Iconic and Profitable records an outdoor amphitheatre seating over 10,000 for al fresco performances. Ace in the Hole describes a mobile sportsbook in an outdoor yard with giant screens. Both are the same instinct: find a daypart and a customer the enclosed floor cannot serve.

It is also the only way a windowless building gets daylight into its programme — see what the archive says about daylight.

Four questions before drawing a deck

1. Is it an amenity or a venue? An amenity needs sun, water and towels. A venue needs a door, sound, service and a name.
2. What is the second daypart? A deck that only works at midday in summer is a very expensive seasonal asset.
3. Where are the sellable units, and how private are they? Cabanas are the difference between attendance and revenue.
4. Who serves it, and by what route? The back-of-house answer decides the plan, as it does everywhere else in these buildings — see when the restaurant started paying the rent.