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Stratosphere Las Vegas is a hotel and casino located on Las Vegas Boulevard just north of the Las Vegas Strip in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. The property's signature attraction is the Stratosphere Tower, the tallest freestanding observation tower in the United States, and the second tallest in the Western Hemisphere, surpassed only by the CN Tower in Toronto, Ontario. It is the tallest building west of the Mississippi River〔http://www.stratospherehotel.com/content/download/587/4973/version/1/file/Dale_Tower.pdf〕 and also the tallest structure in Las Vegas and in the State of Nevada.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Stratosphere Tower )〕 The hotel is a separate building with 24 stories, 2,427 rooms and an casino. The Stratosphere is owned and operated by American Casino & Entertainment Properties. While the traditional definition of the Strip excludes the Stratosphere, it is often included in travel guides as a Strip attraction. Using this alternate definition, the Stratosphere is the northernmost of the major Strip resorts, and is the only Strip hotel actually located within the City of Las Vegas. ==History== In the late 1980s, the Stratosphere was conceived by Bob Stupak as an addition to his Vegas World casino. He initially wanted to create a tower resembling the Eiffel Tower in Paris, but the narrow footprint of the available property would not permit such a broad base. Searching for options, he contacted an engineering firm in Texas whose expertise was in designing radio transmission towers. They produced a series of possible configurations based on computer 'stretch-outs' of their standard skeletal tower designs. When Stupak showed these to CEO Lou Papais of Ad Art, Inc., Stockton, CA, he and his Executive Art Director, Chuck Barnard, agreed the designs were unsatisfactory and Barnard produced the concept for the 1149 ft. tower. Ad Art design associate, Jack Dubois, then created a giant color rendering of the tower which Stupak used to secure financial backing for construction. Architect Ned Baldwin, creator of the CN Tower in Toronto, Canada, was brought in and assembled a team of local engineers and architects to flesh out the design and move the project to completion. At the conception of the project, one of the planned rides was a giant ape that would carry riders up and down on one of the tower's columns. The original design envisioned the Stratosphere exceeding the height of the CN Tower () to become the tallest freestanding structure in the world at that time. However, due to the FAA's concerns about possible interference with nearby McCarran International Airport, and any possible flights that come through Las Vegas, the Tower's proposed height shrank multiple times, bringing it to its current height of .〔(Facts About the Stratosphere Tower ), USA Today.〕〔(Bob Stupak, builder of Stratosphere and Vegas World, dies at 67 ) by Ed Koch, Mary Manning, ''Las Vegas Sun'', September 25, 2009.〕 On August 29, 1993, the Tower caught fire while still under construction. No one was injured, but the fire forced repairs and rebuilding that led to numerous delays in the construction of the Tower.〔(Tower Fire Rained Debris', Elizabeth Holland and Steve Sebelius, ''Las Vegas Sun'', August 30, 1993. )〕 In 1995, Grand Casinos was brought on as an equity partner for the still privately-funded project under construction. While construction was still progressing, the Stratosphere Corporation was formed as a public company with shares being offered to the public. The Stratosphere opened on April 30, 1996. Shortly after opening, the Stratosphere Corporation was forced to file bankruptcy. This caused construction on the second tower to stop, with only a few stories partially built, and it allowed Carl Icahn to gain control through one of his companies by buying a majority of the outstanding bonds. A major addition was completed in June 2001 for $1 billion that included finishing the 1000-room second hotel tower. In the early 2000s, the company attempted to get approval for a roller coaster that would run from several hundred feet up the tower and, in the last proposal, across Las Vegas Boulevard. Part of that last proposal included an entry monument on the ride over Las Vegas Boulevard welcoming people to the City of Las Vegas. The Las Vegas City Council did not approve the project due to objections from the neighbors over possible noise from the enclosed cars on the proposed ride. In January 2010, American Casino & Entertainment Properties announced a new thrill ride for the top of the tower: SkyJump, a controlled-descent, bungee jumping–like ride that will allow riders to plummet attached to a high-speed descent wire. It opened on April 20, 2010.〔(The Stratosphere Las Vegas Hotel & Casino To Add World’s Highest “Skyjump” To Their Collection Of Thrills )〕 Radio stations KOAS 105.7 (FM) and KVGS 107.9 (FM) have on-channel FM boosters broadcasting from an antenna at the top of the tower's structure. Licensed as KOAS-FM1 and KVGS-FM1, they are the only radio stations with transmitters at the tower. However, the signals being transmitted from this structure are relatively low-power and only cover the immediate Las Vegas area on a "fill in" or "booster" basis. Both of these stations have their main transmitter sites located elsewhere, and those transmitter sites are what give these stations more widespread regional coverage.〔https://licensing.fcc.gov/cdbs/CDBS_Attachment/getattachment.jsp?appn=101261190&qnum=5100©num=1&exhcnum=1〕〔https://licensing.fcc.gov/cdbs/CDBS_Attachment/getattachment.jsp?appn=101368034&qnum=5080©num=1&exhcnum=2〕 Beginning in 2010, the Stratosphere renovated several areas of the property. As part of a $20 million renovation plan, improvements were made to many hotel rooms, the casino and the main entrance area. Improvements and upgrades have also been made in the Top of The World Restaurant and Level 107 lounge. 〔http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2011/jan/13/stratosphere-undergoes-20-million-renovation/〕 〔http://www.reviewjournal.com/business/skyjump-renovations-seen-boost-stratosphere-parent〕 〔http://www.vegaschatter.com/story/2011/1/14/92236/5315/vegas-travel/The+Stratosphere+Has+Pretty+New+Rooms+with+a+View+of+the+Fontaine-Bust〕 〔http://www.deseretnews.com/article/765567867/Stratosphere-renovations-give-Vegas-icon-new-mojo.html?pg=all〕〔http://mylifemagazine.com/the-new-stratosphere〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Stratosphere Las Vegas」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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