Architects behind Bellagio, Wynn launch new Las Vegas firm

After working together for more than three decades on some of the world’s most recognizable casino resorts, Tony Marnell and architect David Howryla are entering a new chapter.

The two officially formed Marnell Howryla Architecture last fall, positioning the firm to carry one of Las Vegas’ most influential design legacies into the future.

The partnership formalizes a relationship that began in 1994, when Howryla joined Marnell Companies as a young architect. Since then, the pair has helped shape projects including Bellagio, Wynn Las Vegas, M Resort and resorts around the world.

Marnell said the partnership represents the next chapter of his company’s story.

“It combines strong leadership with outstanding talent to continue pushing the boundaries of innovation, creativity and dedication in every project we deliver,” Marnell said.

The firm has about 60 architects and designers.

Five-decade legacy

With a legacy spanning more than five decades, Marnell has been responsible for designing and delivering some of the most iconic projects on the Las Vegas Strip and beyond, including Rio, The Mirage, Bellagio, Caesars Palace, Wynn Las Vegas and more. The company’s portfolio also extends to major hospitality, entertainment and commercial developments worldwide.

“We work for customers who operate buildings that are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” Marnell said. “They’re like a hospital. In a way, we’re like doctors. People call us for open-heart surgeries. They call us for plastic surgery. They call us for all kinds of things. And they have their ideas.”

Howryla’s favorite building may not even be a casino – it’s the corporate Marnell Companies complex where they maintain their offices and the design magic happens on a daily basis.

Marnell Companies is a rare entity that not only provides the architecture, but also the interior casino design, construction and management services. That front-to-back strategy has been something that has served Marnell’s companies well, Glenn Nowak, an associate professor at UNLV’s School of Architecture, said in an interview.

“They definitely know casinos are integrated resorts inside and out,” said Nowak, who worked for Marnell before launching his 20-year career as an educator at UNLV.

Comfortable environment

Nowak said designing a casino property is a science to make sure patrons are comfortable within their environment.

“It kind of establishes the organizing structure of how you move through the entire resort, and I think they understood how to connect it and how to connect all the other things through the casino,” he said.

“People say how disorienting or how you get lost in casinos, but really, for those that visit, even just a couple of times, you can begin to associate,” Nowak said. “I see at the far end, we’ve got the fill in the blanks, either the movie theater or this destination restaurant or that direction to the shopping, and the casino becomes a kind of wayfinding device. Perhaps at first glance, it looks and feels like it’s a sea of chaos, but really there’s subtle cues that get designed in that kind of help people understand, ‘Oh yeah, this is the way back to the hotel tower, the elevator, the lobby.’”

That, Nowak said, is what makes Marnell and Howryla good at what they do.

“One thing that had always stuck with me after working with Marnell for a couple of years was just how they would really put themselves in the guest’s shoes,” he said. “This isn’t casino design specific, but it’s resort design specific. And they would think about, like, ‘Oh, you don’t want to bring your suitcase after you’ve checked in at the lobby desk.’”

Asked which Las Vegas resorts best illustrate thoughtful casino design, Nowak pointed to Cosmopolitan, M Resort and Durango, saying each succeeds for different reasons.

Cosmo design

He named The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas as one of his favorites because “they’ve organized much of what you would find in every other resort on a much smaller footprint.

“Relatively speaking, it’s a smaller site than Caesars or Bellagio. And so they stack a lot of things vertically,” he said.

Marnell and Howryla say that in all their years together, they’ve never had a dispute, which can be challenging when a client asks them to offer features on a project that they believe wouldn’t work.

“That’s how you learn,” Marnell said. “You know, you don’t learn from your successes as much as you learn from — I don’t want to call them failures, but things that could have done better. We know how to do it better now than having done it once. And you know, remember, we’re in it with our clients. We make big commitments, billion-dollar commitments to people. And we take them seriously. In all these years, we’ve never been over budget and we’ve never been late.”

Marnell likened working with clients on projects as a dance.

“It’s give and take. It’s a dance. And we don’t really know what dance this particular one’s going to be. Is it going to be a tango? Is this going to be a waltz? That’s the fun of it. That’s the magic of it that we try to produce for them (clients).”

Howryla said the work involved in dancing with clients is what leads to a successful project and that provides value to the customer.

“There’s a collective energy to get the best value. Some of the decisions along the way are based on saving a penny now, but it ends up costing you a dollar later. I think that’s the key as I look back on a project. I should have done this or that instead of what we did.”

Marnell said one of his most enjoyable projects over the years was the design, construction, building and management of the Rio, now owned by Dreamscape Companies LLC.

“It was baptism by fire,” Marnell said. “I think some of the initial success there was that it was a food renaissance. We had 26 restaurants, I think, in the end. We served 20,000 meals a day. That was more than 30 years ago, but it showed us how much food could influence a project. We’ve probably done maybe a dozen of every one of those different kinds of restaurants in the last 30 years. There wasn’t a restaurant anybody’s ever thrown at us that we haven’t built and fooled with, so we know our way around restaurants.”

What’s next?

What’s next for the Marnell-Howryla team?

Because the partners adhere to strict ethical constraints, they won’t talk about upcoming projects, particularly those in which they’re under contract with another developer.

Marnell believes the company’s future now rests with the next generation of designers, including Howryla and, soon, Howryla’s daughter Kelsey, who recently graduated from Cal Poly-San Luis Obisp and will join the firm after years as an intern.

“She’s our next superstar,” Marnell said.