The face of the Las Vegas Strip continues to change...

I've been visiting Las Vegas since August 1997, and I have seen several of the current Strip hotels built from the ground up during that time:  The Venetian and Palazzo, Bellagio, Wynn and Encore are the biggest and the brightest of that bunch.  The Boardwalk - along with its giant, creepy clown out front - was torn down and replaced by the gigantic, confusing mish-mash that is City Center.  The Aladdin got a face lift, and then it got a new name along with yet another face lift when it was purchased by Planet Hollywood.    

I've also seen classic hotels torn down, not to be replaced; namely The Frontier and Stardust.  A partially completed hotel skeleton stands where the Stardust once did, instead of something new.  Will its replacement ever be finished?  No one knows for sure.  For now it stands as just a sad, empty testament to what once was.

Here's what's left of the Stardust - now located at the Neon Boneyard:

Gone, but not forgotten...

Now Caesars Entertainment is trying to one-up the competition by re-doing the Imperial Palace and giving it a new name to go along with a new face on the Strip.  The name has yet to be determined, and I have no idea what it will eventually be called.  

In addition to that, Caesars Entertainment has already torn apart the O'Shea's Casino - along with its parking garage  - in order to prepare for construction of the boardwalk shopping area that will eventually connect the giant Linq wheel to the Strip.  They have also torn down everything they own on Koval Avenue behind the Strip to start building the huge Linq wheel itself, as well as more of the boardwalk entertainment area.  The whole thing is supposed to be a destination with an Atlantic City-like boardwalk feel.  The Linq project is scheduled to open sometime during the Summer of 2013.  Here's a good blog entry about the project, with great photos: Link to the Linq

If you'd like to see what's already happened to Imperial Palace's neighbor (and some of Imperial Palace's own insides), check out the Caesars blog entry here:  Goodbye to you

I am sort of excited to see what will happen to Imperial Palace on the inside, because she was certainly getting to be a tired old girl.  Even the vanilla upgrades made by Harrah's Entertainment (before it became Caesars Entertainment) weren't enough to keep it going forever, and she was badly in need of a makeover.  Even though I have many good memories of my beloved IP, I hope she is prettier after her makeover.