New Yaamava' decor is `California Dreaming'
Sandy surfboards and colorful beach balls are signals for the upcoming summer, but these seasonal staples aren’t just for the outdoors. They’re also making their way into an unlikely setting: a casino.
Yaamava’ Resort & Casino’s latest horticulture installation, “California Dreaming,” is part of this year’s summer display. The collection of fixtures highlights iconic landmarks like the Golden Gate Bridge and the Hollywood sign. It also emphasizes some of the themes associated with the season such as boats, fishing rods and a Volkswagen bus with surfboards by its side.
“The installation is based on California’s natural beauty, from the beaches to the mountains and the cities,” said Jerry Bowlen, director of horticulture.
“California Dreaming” is one of five horticulture installations at the casino throughout the year. Other installations themes include the Lunar New Year, spring, fall/harvest and holidays.
“It takes us about four to five months from the time we design and get the concept to build and then install,” Bowlen said.
The casino’s summer installations are displayed for the longest period, 12 weeks, and run until September. The shortest is the holidays installation, which only runs for five weeks.
Casino guests coming in from the nearest parking garage will notice fixtures displayed on the casino’s window ledges that focus on this season’s themes. The fixtures include different surfboards made with elements of various textures such as flower petals, sand and stainless glass.
Bowlen said some of the live flowers have been frozen but can last up to a year and be cultivated into the designs of the fixtures.
One of the largest displays of the installation can be seen by guests heading down the escalators onto the gaming floors. Three-dimensional art hangs from the highest parts of the rotunda: surfers, seagulls, kites and sea oats.
Other sections of the casinos have different themes. A high-limit room’s entrance is decorated with a fishing boat and rods.
“With this one, we’re representing more of the deep sea fishing areas,” Bowlen said. “The fishing industry is big out here, so we want to make sure we represent them too.”
By the high-limit slots, there are more 3D fixtures that Bowlen calls the “Windows of California.” The displays combine plants placed along the ledges of mock casement windows that display a painted view, with an accompanying sign naming the location that inspired each piece. They include Pacific Coast Highway, Big Sur and Sequoia National Forest.
“We created windows looking out along the different coastlines and replicated that,” Bowlen said. “We’ll put the signage up of the different locations to educate our guests at what they’re looking at.”
At the entrance of Lotus 8 Palace, one of the other high-limit rooms on the property, is a massive display of the Golden Gate Bridge. The bridge at the center of the piece is surrounded by several plants, giving the display a more natural and realistic element.
Bowlen said one of the challenges of putting up the displays is making sure they don’t block security cameras.
“Often, when we’re hanging stuff up, we have security on the phone telling us if we’re good or need to move over a few inches,” Bowlen said. “We want to make sure we stay vigilant as a casino and are not getting in the way.”
Bowlen said that as the property has expanded, so has its footprint of
A mock window display with a painted scene from Big Sur is inside one of the Highland casino’s high-limit rooms.
Another segment of the casino’s seasonal display incorporates a boat to highlight the summer activity of fishing.
where he and his team can take their décor. He said that while the changes give them more room to work, they also mean more construction.
“There’s so much building going on, and we’ll come to a spot, and then there’s construction scaffolding, so we’ll just move somewhere else,” Bowlen said.
Part of the casino’s expansion that began in 2018 includes the property’s new hotel tower. When guests go through the hotel’s lobby, they’ll also see hot air balloon fixtures constructed with flowers hanging from its ceiling. If guests continue on the stairs leading to the gaming floor, they’ll see one of the more extensive displays, made from recycled paper rolls painted to look like a blue oceanic background.
In front of the display are silhouettes of surfers next to their surfboards.
To the left of the hotel lobby’s main display is a smaller piece modeled after Big Sur. To the right, it also showcases a display of the Hollywood sign with the Griffith Observatory by its side.
“You can’t be California dreaming without Hollywood,” Bowlen said.
The Hollywood sign display will also include the Hollywood Walk of Fame, but Bowlen said this display version might feature the names of the employees of the month in place of the artists seen on the famous street.
Bowlen said he and his team have more ideas they plan to implement in the future, including holograms, robotics and projections to amplify their work.
“The best part is we’re 16 months into this project, and we still have so much more we’re going to bring out,” Bowlen said. “If we can think it, we can build it.”