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I had some time to kill on Friday night and seeing how I have been wanting to checkout the new Crystals shopping center at CityCenter in Las Vegas, I finally got in there to see how it all turned out.

Cyrstals was designed by award winning architect Daniel Libeskind who is most famous for designing the World Trade Center in 2003, and also for the Jewish Museum in Berlin in 1990. The latter project really launched his career and he became a one hundred person firm.

Getting to the CityCenter from where I was at Planet Hollywood was a very peculiar experience. I walked to the end of Planet Hollywood outside on the strip side and went down the escalator. You can easily see where access to the walk-over bridge is once you’re on the strip level. I had to fight off a few porn slappers who were hanging out in a group down there by the bridge escalators. Why they thought I would need their little hooker cards they hand out, I have no idea, but two of them got me! And one of them was a woman! I was offended, but my Spanish isn’t what it needed to be to give them a piece of my mind. It could be argued that I don’t have a piece to spare anyway. At any rate, up to the cross over bridge I went and I walked the maze of bridges to Crystals.

The walk over really is a bit like a maze. There seems to be bridges going everywhere. I took the Crystals route. This shopping center is just massive! It is a 500,000 square foot place altogether.

The architecture is really quite unique. I usually don’t take to new types of buildings, being more of an old fashioned sort of girl. The three-story sculptural tree house, or as I call it “the huge basket looking thing,” is just as strange looking to me now as when I saw the models of it. I just don’t get it, I guess.

I do like the wide open space of the place. In some areas upstairs you can see many levels off in the distance. Such is the case with the view of the awesome staircase which was inspired by Rome’s Spanish Steps. That is a really nice feature of the place. You do not feel closed in at all.

I was disappointed to discover there was only one place to eat. Well, there were two places to eat but the restaurant was completely booked for the night due to its special event for the big opening. I found my way to the Coffee Shop. I had a very nice Greek Salad and a chocolate milk while I poked away at my Blackberry. I’m sure eventually there will be many places to eat in there, but for now there is a one restaurant and one coffee shop.

There is a bit of a hum in the place that reminds me of an old Star Trek episode. I guess this is their interpretation of crystals ringing, or maybe it was one of their unique sculptures that was making the sounds, I’m not sure. It is a new kind of thing, and well, I am not the most comfortable with “new.”

Speaking of the sculptures. They did put some really cool ones in there and you can get right up to them and touch them. “Glacia” continuously debuts new shapes and patterns as ice rises from a pool of water, and “Halo” materializes a series of water vortices within clear cylinders. I saw some kids and parents playing with “Halo.”

Some shops were open and some had coming soon signs. I did see a few designer names on those signs like Louis Vuitton, Tiffany & Co., Roberto Cavalli, Cartier, H.Stern, Christian Dior, Emilio Pucci, Ermenegildo Zegna, Fendi, Gucci, Hermès, Miu Miu, Philipp Plein, Prada and Versace and more. So, you can bet the shopping is going to be good!

They have a shopping Concierge which offers incredible customer service. The Concierge serves as fashion consultants, personal shoppers and more. Whether securing the best table at one of Crystals’ dynamic restaurants; reserving tickets to CityCenter’s hip-swiveling production, Viva ELVISTM by Cirque du Soleil®; or selecting the season’s hottest items, they are there to help. Who ever heard of that in a mall before?

CityCenter is one of the world’s largest environmentally sustainable urban communities. Crystals has received LEED® Gold Core & Shell certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, making it the world’s largest retail district to receive this level of recognition. So, you can have less guilt for shopping! I like that.

Crystals is open 10am – midnight daily.

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