Fans amped by guitar-shaped Hard Rock hotel
HOLLYWOOD – As hotels go, this one’s already a bit of a rock star, impossible to ignore.
Shaped like a guitar, the curvy tower rises 450 feet into the sky on the grounds of the sprawling Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood.
The landmark hotel, still under construction and not expected to open until fall 2019, has generated quite the buzz around town.
Some hate it for being oversized, gaudy and garish. Others love it for the same reasons, noting it will be visible for miles.
“It’s very iconic and very cool,” Hollywood Commissioner Peter Hernandez said of the 638-room hotel and its shimmering reflective glass panes. “You can’t miss it. Everyone I know says, ‘Wow, you can see it from miles away.’”
Once it opens, the guitar-shaped icon will be even more impossible to ignore, with 12 powerful beams of light — six from each side — shining straight up into the sky after sundown.
“At night, there will be this illusion of a guitar neck that goes to infinity,” said Gary Bitner, spokesman for Seminole Tribe of Florida. “It will be quite amazing, kind of like the [light on the] Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas. It’s going to be quite dramatic and unique for South Florida. It’s really going to be something.”
Those lights will likely make the hotel visible from as far as Miami Beach and Boca Raton, Bitner predicts. Not everyone is impressed. “That thing would have never flown here,” said Arlene Owens, who lives in Boca. “First of all, it’s just not Boca. A giant guitar tower is just a little out of place here. No Boca envy. I can’t see the stars as it is.”
But some people, including Lauderhill’s Joel Leshinsky, just can’t wait to take in the view from a plane.
“We have a lot of tourists that fly into Fort Lauderdale,” he said. “The biggest icon you get to see as you fly over is the garbage dump. To now see a magical guitar is pretty neat. It’s better than flying in and seeing a dump.”
Critics wonder whether it might cause accidents as distracted commuters drive by gawking along surrounding roads, including the Turnpike and busy U.S. Highway 441.
Davie resident Karen StenzelNowicki was not happy about the lights.
“It’s going to be like we’re in New York City,” said Stenzel-Nowicki, who lives more than a mile from the Hard Rock. “It is massive over 441, right there on top of people. It’s not like any of the beautiful lovely hotels you see in Manhattan.”
Aventura resident Ivy Ginsberg says the massive tower turns heads for all the wrong reasons.
“It’s ugly, don’t you think?” Ginsberg said. “I think it’s oversized. I understand the guitar theme, but it’s too much.”
Would the larger-than-life guitar with its iconic beams of light fly in Aventura? “Hell no!” Ginsberg said. “And you can quote me on that.”
Anne Hotte, executive director of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, said she was stunned to hear the new hotel had critics.
“This hotel makes a statement — and it’s going to put Hollywood on the map,” she said. “To me, it’s a beautiful thing. I think it’s original. It’s so wonderful to see this in our backyard. It’s really becoming a landmark.”