Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, Hollywood, Florida

Photo: © Ron Hull / Kuraray

The hotel’s entire fa ade is made up of IGUs incorporating the SentryGlas® ionoplast interlayer. Photo: © NR Windows

The guitar’s main entrance is a sea of glass, where minimal framing is complemented by maximum strength, thanks to Faour Glass’s SLIMPACT® system.

Stunning six-string edifice strikes a chord on Hollywood, Florida skyline thanks to SentryGlas® – both inside and out.

Casinos are renowned for pushing the envelope in terms of building design and the new Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Florida is no exception.

HOLLYWOOD, FLORIDA, USA, 2021. Rising 137 m (440 ft) above the ground, clad in glass and millions of lights, the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida – the world’s first guitar-shaped hotel – is really hard to miss.

Designed by Klai Juba Wald, the 34-story building is, without a shadow of doubt, a landmark during the day. And, thanks to lightshows – generated by 2.3 million LED lights, video mapping and lasers, combined with its façade’s reflectivity – it’s impossible to miss at night.

Even though the hotel is in Florida and subject to stringent hurricane-related building codes, glazing is widely deployed and plays a vital role, not just in delivering striking aesthetics, but also in imparting robustness and functionality, thanks to the SentryGlas® interlayer from Kuraray.

The guitar shaped hotel forms part of a $1.5 billion entertainment complex, which features over 1,100 rooms (600 in the guitar), a 3,810 m2 (41,000 ft2) spa, restaurants, shopping, a 54,600 m2 (13.5 acre) pool and lagoon experience, a 7,000-seat event complex and, of course, a fully featured 18,100 m2 (195,000 ft2) gaming space.

In addition to the fa ade, SentryGlas® laminates are part of the lobby entrance, shopping, and restaurant areas – including a complex curved glass wall with curved sliding doors, that enclose the Butcher Shop, at the Council Oak Restaurant. The laminated glazing continues onto a spectacular indoor water feature – based around a 12.2 m (40 ft) diameter glass cylinder – called the Oculus, which is comprised of fourteen panels of custom-laminated glass, some with a projection film applied. SentryGlas® is also used in the guest rooms, for the balcony railings and even the shower doors, which were supplied by Continental Glass. In both instances, laminated glass helps to ensure occupant safety and protection.

According to Ron Hull, America’s Marketing Manager at Kuraray: “Panels laminated with SentryGlas® are used in multiple varied external and internal locations, primarily for their in-service and post-breakage strength, stiffness and outstanding clarity and light transmittance. This is one of the best examples of a multi-location SentryGlas® installation that I have seen to date.”

Noshad A. Shamshad, owner of NR Windows, the façade contractor, explains: “We deal with lots of different glass types, but in this region almost all of them are specified with SentryGlas® interlayers. In this instance it was chosen due to the stringent building codes and the intricate geometry of the building, including the architect’s demand to see the smooth curvatures. The fa ade comprises insulated glazed units made up of two panels of 1/4 inch (6 mm) glass laminated with the SentryGlas® interlayer, with an air gap and another 1/4 inch (6 mm) glass pane. On the curved surfaces on the east and west sides of the fa ade, the two plies on both sides of the air gap are laminated, to meet the safety glazing code and giving them additional strength.

“We are certainly seeing much greater use of SentryGlas® in both public and private installations and interestingly, its deployment is creeping further along the coast, as the hurricane paths migrate. In fact, we have just used it in a new casino in Mississippi, which also specified impact resistance in its glazing. This was the first casino built to meet the stringent Miami-Dade County Codes by using SentryGlas® interlayer after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Mississippi Gulf Coast. People in different areas are now starting to look more long term in the way they ‘harden’ their buildings, taking cues from the tough Florida building codes.”

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