A Las Vegas Strip landmark for decades will soon be reduced to rubble. A demolition crew plans to shortly tear down the rotunda at Caesars Palace, a Roman-themed building constructed in 1986, after decades of service and over 10 years vacant.
Following a 40-year life as a functional pedestrian entrance to the resort via a moving walkway, the rotunda has been out of service since the early 2010s. Its demolition caps a 4-decade run as a significant and retro visual feature of the resort's sprawling layout.
Caesars Entertainment, the hotel-casino's parent company, confirmed the rotunda will be demolished later in 2025.
Originally designed as a grand entrance for pedestrian traffic from the Strip into Caesars Palace, the rotunda is situated beside the hotel driveway and has long been a familiar backdrop for tourists' photographs. While prominent in visitor photography, the building became outmoded in its functional role over time.
The Clark County Building Department issued a demolition permit for the building in Mar. 2023 for an estimated $157,500. While Caesars' initial intentions were for demolition to be completed before the Las Vegas Grand Prix on Nov. 2023, the rotunda remains intact. Caesars Entertainment Regional President Sean McBurney stated building demolition is expected to proceed this year.
According to Heidi Sarno Straus, daughter of the late Caesars Palace owner and founder Jay Sarno, her father didn't include the rotunda in his master plan for the resort. She characterized it as essentially ornamental and said it likely functioned as a storage area at one time or another.
Straus called the demolition a slight loss, adding the rotunda wasn't essential to the operation and didn't mesh with the resort's original vision.
A new Las Vegas is born
The rotunda's destruction is part of a broader wave of transformation along the Vegas Strip, where many longtime institutions are closing or reopening. Perhaps most visible is the Mirage Hotel and Casino, opened in 1989 and was known for its island-hut motif and erupting volcano attraction, which is shutting down for extensive overhauls.
The 3,044-room hotel welcomed celebrities throughout its life, including Michael Jackson. The Mirage reopens within two years as the Hard Rock Las Vegas, a guitar-shaped tower designed as a replica of the brand's flag ship hotel in Florida. The change shifts away from the Mirage's initial tropical theme and is a rebranded, modernized effort.
Another notable closing is the loss of the musical Jersey Boys on the Strip. The Tony Award-winning show, narrating the success of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, had been slated for a one-year run but was suddenly terminated over the summer. Fans praised the musical in numerous cities, so its closure was another symbolic blow to the Strip's entertainment industry.
Beyond Las Vegas proper, changes occurred in communities such as Primm, Nevada. Whiskey Pete's, an off-strip casino and hotel just over the California state line, closed on Dec. 17, 2024, with no reopening date scheduled.
