World's largest hotel?

The Palazzo at night 2009
Address	3325 Las Vegas Blvd Las Vegas, NV 89109
Opening date	December 30, 2007
Theme	Italian
No. of rooms	3,068
Total gaming space	105,000 sq ft (9,800 m2)
Permanent shows	Jersey Boys
Signature attractions	The Shoppes At The Palazzo Lamborghini Dealership
Casino type	Land-Based
Owner	Las Vegas Sands
Website	palazzolasvegas.com

The Palazzo (pronounced /pəˈlɑːtsoʊ/) is a luxury hotel and casino resort situated between Wynn and The Venetian on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, a suburb of Las Vegas. It is the tallest completed building in Nevada (although the Fontainebleau Resort Las Vegas, whose construction is currently stalled due to financial problems, is already taller). Designed by the Dallas based HKS, Inc., the property's design is marketed as being reflective of a modern European ambiance and luxury living. The hotel and casino are part of a larger complex comprising the adjoining Venetian Hotel and Casino and the Sands Convention Center, all of which are owned and operated by the Las Vegas Sands Corporation.
This all-suite hotel offers the largest standard accommodations on the Las Vegas Strip at 720 square feet (67 m²) per guest room.
In its first year of eligibility, The Palazzo was awarded the AAA Five Diamond Award for 2009.

History

 Construction

As of February 27, 2006, the project had been under construction for over a year. Most of that time was spent digging the 4-story-deep hole to put in the underground parking structure. Then the building itself began gradually rising upwards. The steel fabrication and erection was supplied by Schuff Steel Company. By November 2006, the hotel tower had reached the 35th floor. Construction of the ground floors, including the parking garage and shopping center, were well under way.
As of March 2007, the hotel tower's elevator core was complete, and the rooms area was rising to the top. The façade and windows were being installed on the lower floors. As of August 2007, the lettering on the side of the tower was finished and is topped out.
As of December 20, 2007 the Palazzo was scheduled to open at least 1,000 rooms by December 28 in preparation for the Las Vegas New Year's celebration, America's Party. The casino and other areas of the Palazzo opened at 7 pm on Sunday, December 30, after a delay of several days due to the Clark County permitting process.
Upon its completion, The Palazzo (its total floor area covering 6,948,980 square feet (645,581 m²) displaced the Pentagon as the largest building in the United States in terms of floor space, by a margin of about 383,000 square feet (35,600 m²).
The structural engineering was done by Walter P Moore Engineers and Consultants. Parts of the resort were opened to the general public on December 30, 2007. The official grand opening took place on January 17, 2008.
Currently under construction, the 270-unit condominium tower addition The St. Regis Residences at The Palazzo will be the first residential offerings at The Venetian complex. The high-rise tower is being built on top of the 90,000-square-foot (8,400 m²) building that houses the Barneys New York apparel store. On September 4, 2008, Las Vegas Sands announced that it had come to an agreement with Starwood Hotels & Resorts to operate the condo tower as a signature branch of The St. Regis Residences with all hallmarks of the St. Regis brand offered to residents.

Design

Hanging umbrellas in the Palazzo

The $1.8 billion resort features a Lobby where guests from the street arrive beneath a 60-foot (18 m) glass dome with a two-story fountain. Those approaching from The Venetian make the transition through a towering octagonal structure and garden, itself topped by a glass-and-iron dome. Visitors to The Palazzo using the underground parking structure can take elevators or escalators from the underground garage and arrive in the center of the property's casino.
The Palazzo Casino, like some other casinos on the strip, operates under the license of a related casino—in this case The Venetian's license. The resort's 642-foot (196 m) high hotel tower features 3,068 all-suite rooms and 375 concierge-level suites.
The Palazzo is LEED Silver Certified—the largest LEED certified building in the nation.
The Palazzo is reported to be the sixth largest building in the world in terms of available floor space and is also currently the second-largest building in the Western Hemisphere.

Biggest Tree

General Sherman

General Sherman tree before the loss of its largest branch in early 2006

The General Sherman is a giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) tree located in the Giant Forest of Sequoia National Park in Tulare County, California. By volume, it is the largest known living single stem tree on Earth. The General Sherman Tree is neither the tallest known living tree on Earth (that distinction belongs to the Hyperion tree, a Coast redwood),  nor is it the widest (that distinction belongs to the Sunland Baobab, a baobab tree), nor is it the oldest known living tree on Earth (that distinction belongs to the Methuselah tree, a Great Basin bristlecone pine). With a height of 83.8 metres (275 ft), a diameter of 7.7 metres (25 ft), an estimated bole volume of 1,487 cubic metres (52,513 cu ft), and an estimated age of 2,300 – 2,700 years, it is however among the tallest, widest and longest-lived of all trees on the planet.

History

In 1879, it was named after American Civil War general, William Tecumseh Sherman, by naturalist James Wolverton, who had served as a lieutenant in the 9th Indiana Cavalry under Sherman. In 1931, following comparisons with the nearby General Grant tree, General Sherman was identified as the largest tree in the world. One result of this process was that wood volume became widely accepted as the standard for establishing and comparing the size of different trees.

Current

In January 2006 the largest branch on the tree (seen most commonly, in older photos, as an "L" or golf-club shape, protruding from about a quarter of the way down the trunk) broke off. There were no witnesses to the incident, and the branch—with a bigger circumference than the trunks of most trees, a diameter of over 2 metres (7 ft) and a length of over 30 metres (98 ft)—smashed part of its enclosing fence and cratered the pavement of the walkway surrounding the sequoia. The breakage, however, is not believed to be indicative of any abnormalities in the tree's health, and may even be a natural defense mechanism against adverse weather conditions. The branch loss did not change the General Sherman's status as the largest tree, as its size has been calculated using measurements of trunk volume, excluding branches.

Dimensions

Base of the tree, September, 1962

Height above base	274.9 ft	83.8 m
Circumference at ground	102.6 ft	31.3 m
Maximum diameter at base	36.5 ft	11.1 m
Diameter 4.5 ft (1.4 m) above height point on ground	25.1 ft	7.7 m
Diameter 60 ft (18 m) above base	17.5 ft	5.3 m
Diameter 180 ft (55 m) above base	14.0 ft	4.3 m
Diameter of largest branch	6.8 ft	2.1 m
Height of first large branch above the base	130.0 ft	39.6 m
Average crown spread	106.5 ft	32.5 m
Estimated bole volume	52,508 cu ft	1,487 m3
Estimated mass (wet)	2,105 short tons	1,910 t