Is this familiar to you?
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Here’s the latest Mystery Eye Puzzle! Hopefully, this will stump you for more than five minutes….
When was the last time you were here?
Photo courtesy of LV Convention & Visitors Authority
1. Where is this?
2. What would be directly east of the photographer’s location?
3. When was this property built and opened to the public?
4. What construction challenge still keeps the property’s engineers busy?
More about the Vegas Eye mystery photo game:
1) Anyone can play! If you think you know the location of the place or landmark pictured in the mystery photo and can answer the accompanying questions, please post your responses as a comment below. Locations and landmarks are all located within a 35-mile radius of Las Vegas City Hall.
2) We invite you to contribute mystery photos to Vegas Eye and pose your own puzzle questions. If you’d like to contribute, please keep in mind that a good subject for a mystery photo should be unique in some way. There should be subtle but identifiable visual clues in the photo to help players solve the puzzle. Please send photos and puzzle questions to Vegas Eye at this address. (Please submit high resolution photos. Full-size images straight from your camera are best.)
3) We invite you to subscribe to the Vegas Eye Mystery Photo feature so you’ll have the first shot at solving each week’s puzzle.
(5 votes, average: 4.80 out of 5)
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That is Mandalay Bay and the place is sinking.
Troy, you are certainly succinct….
OK, yes, it is on the Mandalay Bay property, but where was the photograph taken? Why is it sinking? And what’s are the answers to the other questions?
VE
hehe. Yes, sorry ’bout that. I was sort of busy this morning and wanted to guide others in the right direction. Since there are no takers so far I will see what I can come up with with a little research.
Patti checks in after she gets home from work and so most days, she can’t get here until about 2:30 PST…
VE
So I have this as the stairs south of the wave pool. I am not sure what is to the east. I think it is the rotunda of glass for the convention center lobby or perhaps the entrance to Shark Reef. But I don’t hang out much at that part of MB. I go straight to HOB or Mix.
The good folks at Wikipedia have informed me that the resort opened on March 2, 2000 and that “During construction engineers discovered vertical movements and particularly differential movements (‘dishing’) between the tower core and the wings. The tower core was sinking at a rate of 1/2 to 3/4 inches per week and the wings were sinking at a slower rate causing differential distortion between the column bays. If these movements were not stopped structural damage would occur. Construction was halted while a solution was developed and implemented. The solution proved to be the installation of micro-piles (formerly marketed as ‘Pin Piles’) filled with grout 200 feet deep below the structure each capped with a hydraulic jack to stabilize the structure at the desired vertical height to carry the weight[2]. Since then, there have not been any reports of this problem recurring.”
Troy Trivia- The first time I came to Las Vegas they were building the lower floors of Mandalay Bay.
I am not a fan of Wikipedia in any way — but that explanation is pretty good. The source of the problem is that water table in the area is very high. One can hit water within a few feet of the surface and so the mushy ground is what’s causing this issue.
One of my neighbors was instrumental in creating the solution that keeps the Mandalay Bay property from “submerging” into the desert sand….
The view of the stairs is actually near the convention center — and that neon sign (partially obstructed, is for the Shark Reef). Perhaps that will help you determine what’s directly to the east of this photo?
VE
Greetings – I peeked this morning before work and thought it looked like the area outside of Mandalay Bay. I have sat on the window seats inside of the stairway area. Many people from a convention were congregating on the stairway outside – guess it was a smoking area. Anyhow, directly to the east of the photographers location would be the convention center walkway indoors, and outdoors the beach cabanas, smoothie shack and the south lagoon pool. The resort opened March, 2, 1999.
Ta-Da! A perfect example of why Wikipedia should never be used as resource citation, or at least taken with a bag of salt! If you look at this page, you will see that the Mandalay Bay opened in March, 1999 as Patti mentions. And Patti is correct as to what is to the east of the spot as well. I was actually looking for another description, but I’m thinking maybe my memory is wrong… I gotta go look at the map.
Great job, once again you two!
VE