Neon guitars have graced the signs in front of Hard Rock Cafe venues for decades – and now the company has scaled that symbol way, way up. As part of a US$1.5 billion expansion of the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida, the world’s first guitar-shaped hotel has now opened, adorned with a huge light screen facade.
The 34-story guitar towers 450 ft (137 m) into the South Florida skyline, taking on the familiar form of the instrument, complete with six strings running down the middle. At night, light “cannons” on the roof project the strings up to 20,000 ft (6,000 m) into the sky, creating the illusion of the neck of the guitar.
The entire building is covered in 16,800 V-Sticks – strips of LED fixtures that can individually light up to display different colors and patterns at different speeds and directions. The whole thing can be carefully choreographed to make for some impressive sound and light shows.
“Before a show, we have a moment where the installation is in a dormant state; the lights are ambient, fluid,” says Antoine Saint-Maur, Multimedia Director at Float4, the company that designs the light shows. “At that moment, we want guests to be able to congregate in anticipation, collectively anticipating the start of the show. That’s the feeling we want to create with the shows; we want to create a moment for Hard Rock guests and fans to come together and watch a daily celebration.”