Friday, Jan. 15, 1999 | 11:24 a.m.
Charles Silverman can't allow himself to be too attached to his work.
After all, the interior designer has been working on Las Vegas casino projects for 37 years. And anyone familiar with casinos in Las Vegas knows they don't stay the same for long.
"In the past three to four years, we've seen several of our projects blown up," Silverman said in a recent interview. "Some projects we keep remodeling and remodeling year after year ad infinitum."
Silverman's firm, Yates-Silverman Inc., has designed the interiors of some of the most distinctive casinos in Las Vegas including New York-New York, the Luxor and the Excalibur. The company's current project is designing the inside of Paris, the new Hilton hotel-casino themed on the French capital.
Silverman has worked in casino interior design since 1961, when he joined the Los Angeles firm Albert Parvin & Co. as a management trainee. But interior design was not an obvious career choice for the native of northern New Jersey. After graduating from Rutgers University in 1954 with a degree in history, he spent six years working for the family furniture manufacturing company.
In the spring of 1961, married with one daughter, he moved to Southern California, where he had family contacts, and started looking for a job. At that point, Parvin was an interior design firm and casino operator. Albert Parvin owned interests in the Flamingo, the Pioneer Club, the Stardust, Aladdin and Fremont.
"Al Parvin was a legend in this city," said Silverman.
As a management trainee, Silverman was directed to the interior design side of the firm.
"The first project I worked on was refurbishing guest rooms at the Sands," said Silverman.
Five years later, he was president of the non-gaming side of Parvin's company. Why the meteoric rise?
"I got up early in the morning, I guess," deadpanned Silverman.
In 1969, Parvin closed shop and Silverman joined with fellow Parvin interior designer Bill Yates to form Yates-Silverman. Yates retired in 1978 and has since passed away.
For much of its history, Yates-Silverman was based in Los Angeles and maintained offices here and in Atlantic City. But five years ago, after suffering a heart attack in the airport during one of his frequent jaunts between offices, Silverman decided to consolidate.
Today, Yates-Silverman and its 45 employees operate out of one Las Vegas office. The company generates $7 million in annual revenues.
Since his early days at Albert Parvin & Co., Silverman estimates he has done work for 80 percent of the casinos in Las Vegas and more in Atlantic City. The 10-year explosion of gambling into new jurisdictions across the country has provided a world of opportunity for casino design firms, Silverman said.
"When the casino business started expanding, there was just so much business here for our type of firm," said Silverman.
Silverman's competitors include heavyweights like Paul Steelman Ltd. and Marnell Corrao Associates Inc., but also former employee Terry Dougal, who works out of Los Angeles. He also sees competition from unknowns, who pop up, work on a project, and drop off the radar screen.
"We still see people coming out of nowhere," said Silverman.
Saying Silverman has the respect of his clients is to understate their view.
"Tops," said Paul Pusateri, executive vice president in charge of Paris and Bally's for Hilton, when asked how Silverman compares to the competition. "This is a guy that has been around town."
Pusateri cited Silverman's ability to focus on business issues like costs and deadlines in addition to design details.
"He clears up the muddied waters," said Pusateri. "He knows how to keep it on track. ... He's a pleasure to work with."
"He understands his clients' tastes and preferences," said Harlan Braaten, president of Coast Resorts. "He is very flexible, accommodating and willing to work with his client until the client is happy with the final design."
Silverman said he sees casino design as a business, "and not as an art form."
Silverman does not only work on high-profile interiors, like Paris and New York-New York. He also remodels rooms, designs restaurant interiors, and even teams with architecture firms to design entire resorts from top to bottom.
"We do a lot of other things," said Silverman. "Our role varies to the need of the client."
For instance, the firm is remodeling suites at the Circus Circus hotel-casino and at the Las Vegas Hilton, as well as rooms and suites at New York-New York. It designed the interior of the new Gilley's bar and restaurant at the New Frontier, and is working on a new Italian restaurant at the Sahara.
In addition to Paris, Yates-Silverman is working on interior designs for the Sundance, Coast Resort's planned hotel-casino in Summerlin. Silverman has completed extensive plans for a New York-New York expansion north of the resort, between New York-New York and Monte Carlo. But the coming room capacity boom on the Strip means the New York-New York expansion is not likely to happen anytime soon, said Silverman.
Dan Brady, a New York-New York spokesman, said the company does not comment on its future expansion plans.
Silverman, who sits on Coast's board, also designed the Orleans hotel-casino.
Outside of Las Vegas, Yates-Silverman is working on the interior of the Trump Plaza in Atlantic City and of the MGM Grand Detroit.
Past projects include the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, and Whiskey Pete's and Primm Valley in Primm. The Circus Circus hotel-casino interior was Silverman's first. He also designed the interior of the Dunes hotel tower in 1965.
Silverman's projects come together in a variety of ways. In some cases, he is called in well into the design phase just to work on the interior. More often, though, Yates-Silverman helps with the earliest designs.
"It's normally a joint effort between the owner, the architect and our firm," said Silverman.
In some cases, such as the Orleans, Yates-Silverman designed both the building and the interior. The firm was involved in the earliest brainstorming sessions for New York-New York, and company officials traveled to New York City to research their designs.
"We might do the entire process of design, including the concept, the theme, and the interiors, using the services of an architectural firm," said Silverman. "Our design is to meet a market."
In other cases, Yates-Silverman draws up extensive plans that are never used. When Circus Circus was trying to decide what to do with a parcel immediately south of the Excalibur, Silverman designed a "riverboat in the desert" resort that would have featured a moat traversed by a real riverboat.
Then another architect came up with the idea for the Egypt-themed Luxor, and the riverboat plan was dropped. But Yates-Silverman remained involved, and Silverman and members of his staff took several trips to Egypt to research the resort's interior.
Silverman's favorite project to date is New York-New York.
"I happen to think New York-New York is exceptional," he said.
But Silverman is also clearly proud of the work he is doing in Paris. The resort will feature 45-foot ceilings, compared to New York-New York's 35-foot ceilings, and will truly capture the feeling of being in the French capital, said Silverman.
"We are recreating the city of Paris on the interior of the building," said Silverman. "It's the idea of, you walk in the front door, and you're in Paris."
archive
