Photography by Alissa Esposito www.alissaesposito.com

Tribal Government Gaming: Can tribal heritage and Las Vegas style peacefully coexist?

Ewing: Now that tribal gaming is more sophisticated and basically worldwide, they often want Las Vegas style, which is pure gaming and pure entertainment. It does get very contemporary. Some tribes will display their culture and history in a museum or a special dedicated hall. Also, today we find culture being shown to the public in the hospitality space and less so in the gaming environment.

Is it a must in tribal design to draw on the natural environment?

Some of these resorts are in the most beautiful settings in the world. We’ll display some of the regional characteristics and use the materials, but inside, I find that guests want to have a different experience—almost transporting the customer to a different place.

Plus, the great outdoors can speak for itself when you open up a property.

Yes, today we use a lot more glass and natural light that allow views to the environment. We absolutely take advantage of the setting and environment as a complement. But we don’t necessarily duplicate it, because we don’t have to.

How do you tell the tribal story in design?

We go where the client wants to go. We’re doing Emerald Queen for Puyallup tribe in Tacoma, a brand-new project. We reference tribal history from Mount Tacoma (Mount Rainier) down to the Puyallup River to Puget Sound. That was our baseline, the thread we followed through the building, using very subliminal colors and textures. These elements might not necessarily jump out at somebody—“Oh, this part of the casino is the river”—but we use colors and textures and linework in a way that emulates a river and reflects it in a tasteful, subliminal way.

Do you feel called upon to create specific “selfie spots?”

The “wow” space is important. Harrah’s Cherokee in North Carolina has an incredible lobby with backlit tree forms that are very abstract, and everybody remembers and talks about them after they visit. When the opportunity is there, we like to create memorable spaces like that. The client likes it, too, when customers say, “You’ve got to go see this.”